Thunder have 5 players on the court. The way they see it, 18,000 helpers are in the stands
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — There is something different about Oklahoma City Thunder fans, and players aren't afraid to say that.
The crowd of 18,000 or so always arrives early. They stay late. They show up in the middle of the night at the airport to welcome the Thunder charter flight home and maybe get a wave or a fist bump from a player, even though a chain-link fence separates the team from the fans. It's like a college atmosphere at Thunder games at times.
It will be a raucous atmosphere on Thursday: Game 1 of the NBA Finals is coming to Oklahoma City, and the top-seeded Thunder — big favorites over the Indiana Pacers in this series — freely say that the fans have factored into the team's success.
'I think the fans put the wind at our players' backs,' Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. 'There's not a level of judgment. There's no level of skepticism.'
It is ... well, unusual. In a good way.
Daigneault tells the story of a game on Oct. 26, 2021, as one of the best illustrations of what the relationship is like between the city and its team. The Thunder were 0-3 to start that season, the three losses by 21, 33 and 12 points. Golden State visited Oklahoma City that night; the Thunder led by 11 at the half, before eventually losing by eight.
'They gave us a standing ovation at the end of the game,' Daigneault said. 'And it was a week into the season. We had not won a game. As great as they are right now, and they are unbelievable right now, that's the one that I always go back to because it really struck me. It certainly was unexpected.'
The Thunder have given fans plenty of reasons to cheer since. They're a league-best 43-7 at home this season; the last four teams to win at least 40 home games in a full season — Toronto in 2018-19, Golden State in 2021-22, Denver in 2022-23 and Boston last season — went on to win the NBA title.
And this year's club is winning home games by an average of 16.9 points per contest. That's on pace to be the second-biggest such differential in NBA history, behind Milwaukee's 18.1-point average home margin in 1970-71.
MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said keeping the home crowd happy is on his mind all the time, and he was thinking of it when the Thunder closed out Minnesota at home in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals last week.
'I didn't want to go back to Minnesota, travel-wise,' Gilgeous-Alexander said. 'And then I wanted the fans to be able to enjoy the moment with us. I wanted them to be able to see it unfold in front of their eyes. I wanted them to be to celebrating in our building, go home, get drunk, whatever they do. I wanted them to have fun with the moment. ... I just wanted to make sure I could give my energy and my effort to try to give these fans what they deserve.'
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