Are the Thunder the best regular season team ever?
The Oklahoma City Thunder move to a 28-1 record against the eastern conference with a 28-point win over the Chicago Bulls. Dave DuFour and Es Baraheni react to the Lakers win over the Rockets, the Celtics’ dominant March, and the Pacers status as sneaky contenders. Then, the Athletic’s Anthony Slater stops by to discuss the historic season for the Thunder, Lu Dort vs. Draymond Green for DPOY, and the Warriors playoff chances.
Host: Dave DuFour
With: Es Baraheni & Anthony Slater
Executive Producer: Andrew Schlecht
Audio Producer: Grayson Moody
Timecodes:
00:00 – Intro
00:55 – Lakers beat Rockets
03:58 – Grizzlies bound for the play-in
05:23 – Al Horford shows Celtics’ flexibility
06:55 – Luke Kornet & double big line ups
07:48 – Pacers great in 2025
10:18 – Thunder’s record breaking record against Eastern Conference
14:13 – When the Thunder lose it’s normally close
14:58 – Thunder love to temper expectations
16:23 – Dealing with injuries perfectly
18:06 – Lu Dort or Draymond for DPOY?
21:42 – Warriors playoff chances
Thumbnail – via Getty Images Sport
#nba #thunder #warriors #celtics #pacers
44 Comments
I think Luka has a trying on defense as a “screw you” to Nico and Dallas lol
How can draymond on a sub50 win team compete with Dort for DPOY? Best defender on a historic defense. All narrative pushing by draymond and the big market media eats it up
Luka is actually a solid defender when he’s trying.
Lmao is the title an April Fools joke? Very good regular season team sure, but they ain’t the 72 Lakers, 96 Bulls, or 16 or 17 Warriors
Dort gets punished for being on a good team?
So Dort shouldn't win because he's on a great defensive team, and Dyson shouldn't win because he's on an average defensive team?
I can't even see a competitive series for the Thunder in the west. Cleveland and Boston. Those are the only two teams that can hang.
No, they aren’t. Disrespect. The West has been weird this year- the Thunder don’t even have teams literally built to beat them like the Warriors did.
Lu has crushed superstar players for years without the rest of this defense. To argue that he's doing it this year because the rest of the defense is great is such a weird argument against him.
Dort for DPOY!
Dort has been this defender since he was in the bubble fresh off a 2 way. Never got all defense. And now the rest of the defense can help him and he's punished for DPOY. Watch the games
Do yall not remember Dort from last years playoffs before the acquisitions 🤔
no… but who cares…. let's worry about the playoffs
Had Chet not gotten hurt, there's a good chance that they'd be on track for 73+ wins right now.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂please stop😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Hey now why r we saying Dort is only good becuz he’s on a good defensive team????
Dort has been this good for a while, even before he had all this help. Dort all the credit and more! He’s the best defender on the best defensive team since the 90s bulls and you’re going to take away Dorts value becuz of it? No, go watch the games, Dort consistently shuts down the best scorers in the nba night after night! Give Dort his flowers he deserves dpoy!!!!!
If they were healthy they might have been…
Well they don't have mj pippen rodman curry klay green phil or kerr so i would say no they are not
We DO have a clear cut DPotY. Its Evan Mobley who was right on Wemby's tail already. No one else is there with him.
Yall seriously need to stop trying to steal his awards. If you do it again it will be the 3rd tike in 4 years.
Dort should absolutely be in the DPOY conversation!!
A show that actually talked about little about how ridiculous the Thunder season has been. We appreciate that!
Okc is 28 and 1 vs eastern conference teams ,
No way Draymond is DPOY this year
Only team that can beat okc is okc, if they play offense like this in the play offs, they almost sweep everyone.
Draymond just kept Giannis scoreless an entire game. DPOY!
we haven't had our roster completely all season, its been fun to watch. Def a top regular season by this team. Best thunder team ever
I really thought this whole video was about the title lol
The dpoy is subjective to the beholder. It’s usually a shot blocker. Ask the back court players and it’s dort. He holds stars 50% of scoring. The amount of effort a guard/forward defender has to exert compared to a big protecting the paint is 4-1 making the job much more difficult. It all boils down to opinion. Same with mvp, they are issues made for the media. Ask Luka, who he would rather have, mobly, Greene or Dort? Anyone but Dort. Ask joker and it’s Dort. Shot blocking bigs are not rare. Ball chasing, screen busting, willing to put out the effort guard defenders are rare as gold. That should be included. If the league was smart, they wouldn’t give another reason for the thunder to have. Give them the mvp and the dpoy and hope that it goes to their head. Don’t give it and you risk them playing with a chip on their shoulders and going 5 games a series which would crush the ratings. Only the thunder can beat the thunder. Best overall team.
Around 17:30 this podcast proved this is the best regular season team
Lol ..every team they hype okc just destroyed..w 75pct of the lineup..different animal
Lakers have one of the thought schedule left…they cant afford not to win, they have to secure that fourth place and try to get to the third
Mostly taking into account that they are a worse team ( much worse) in the road soh that homecourt advantage is important for them
Luka hustling is a testiment to Niko criticizing him about being fat, lazy, and drunk, and not giving him a chance to change.
Penalizing a player like Lu because of Sam putting together a great roster? Look at his +- when hes on and off the court then we will talk. Dort for DPOTY and SGA for MVP are getting so much hate. How can you not have a DPOTY on your team with the best defense in the last 25 years?🤦🏾♂️
Yes, they are. What's incredible to me is that Shai is playing as many minutes as Curry did in 2016. I had assumed that Shai was eating up more minutes and contributing to a slightly higher net rating, but nope. 34 MPG for each of them.
I say OKC play like it's the playoffs while resting super stars and stars.
This young thunder team is rolling but I don't think SGA will be MVP and I don't think we'll get dpoy NBA will do anything they can to keep the thunder out of the finals because they are a small market team
This headline is insulting
I see this headline and all I can think is "Don't take the bait"! Don't take the bait…Trolling for likes….That's what the internet is all about trolling for likes….Just on question…Do the Thunder have the best regular season record of all time? Hmmm….well there's your answer genius…
The fact they have already won more games in a season than KD and Russ is wild especially considering over half the team hasn’t even hit their prime yet 😮
Ever is a huge overstement.
1996 Bulls still the best team. I remember the few teams who won against them celebrating like winning a championship.
This team is hella stacked for sure.
Why is everyone so reluctant to give Dort the DOPY? Best defender on the best defensive team and statistically one of the best ever. Guards opposing teams best player every night. Also Slater left the Thunder back in KD era to go glaze the Warriors. Seems like he's setting up the crawlback to the Thunder now that they're top again. Opportunist in line with that KD snake 🐍
Ever? No, in the last decade? Yes.