Thunder break NBA record for total points in a season, including playoffs
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A record for Oklahoma City: No team in NBA history has scored more points in a season than the Thunder.
It's a nuanced record, taking into account both regular season and playoff games. And technically, the Thunder would have broken the record on Wednesday if their appearance in the NBA Cup championship game — which is considered an exhibition — counted in any league totals.
But now, no matter how one counts, it belongs to the Thunder. They came into Game 4 of the NBA Finals against the Indiana Pacers needing 68 points for the record and got it on a free throw by NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with 6:09 left in the third quarter on Friday night.
That gave the Thunder 12,162 for the season, breaking the mark of 12,161 scored by the Golden State Warriors in 104 games during the 2018-19 season. Friday's game was the 102nd official contest for the Thunder this season. (They scored 81 points in the NBA Cup championship game loss to Milwaukee in December, a point total and outcome that doesn't factor into any season stats.)
The total-points record is the latest entry on a history-making season for the Thunder, who set a franchise record with 68 regular-season wins and — if they win the NBA title — would become the fourth team in league history to post at least 84 victories in a full season. Only Golden State (88 wins in 2015-16), Chicago (87 in 1995-96) and the Bulls again (84 in 1996-97) have reached 84 wins in a season.
'I think there's just a lot of integrity to the team,' Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said when asked how the team doesn't seem fazed by its numbers. 'I think that starts with the makeup that these guys have. Great psychological makeup, competitive makeup, personal makeup. Then over time we've had to really kind of forge into this version of ourselves, in visible spaces.'
The total-points mark is obviously fueled by longevity of the season. The Thunder were only fourth in points per game during the regular season behind Cleveland, Memphis and Denver, and when adding in playoffs Oklahoma City's scoring average this season was only 27th in NBA history.
That said, no matter how the finals end, it has been a season that will be in the Thunder record books for a long time. In addition to the scoring, the Thunder are currently second all-time in average point differential per game (12.2 entering Friday) behind only the 1970-71 Milwaukee Bucks.
It helps illustrate how big a turnaround the Thunder have enjoyed after going 22-50 in the 2020-21 season, then 24-58 a year later and 40-42 the year after that.
'We haven't relied on anything outside the outcomes,' Daigneault said. 'The noise, we haven't relied on that when we weren't winning. We haven't relied on that while we were building. We haven't relied on that while we were rising. We're not relying on that now that we're in a different position.'
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