Oklahoma City became the first team to 60 wins this season and finished another week without a loss, stretching its grip on the top of the Western Conference standings with victories over Detroit, the Lakers and Utah. The Thunder can lock up home-court advantage throughout the playoffs with two more wins, even if the Spurs sweep their final week.
That run matters because Oklahoma City is no longer just winning, it is doing it without giving the rest of the conference much room to breathe. The Thunder beat the Pistons, Lakers and Jazz in the same week and now sit in position to make the postseason chase feel like a race for second place, not first.
San Antonio remains the other team reshaping the picture. The Spurs have gone 11-5 this season with Victor Wembanyama out of the lineup, and the lineup combinations without him have been outscored by only 17 points all year. That is a stark contrast with last season, when the Spurs were 13-23 without Wembanyama and were outscored by 328 points with him off the floor.
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The numbers help explain why San Antonio has stayed in the conversation even as the pressure climbs around the western conference standings. The source framing this week’s power-rankings review also notes that the Nuggets have been on a roll lately and that the Spurs are close to being the top seed in the entire conference, which gives the late-season stretch a sharper edge than the standings alone might suggest. Oklahoma City has the best answer so far. San Antonio has found a way to keep hanging around. The next question is whether either team can keep that shape when the games tighten and the margin for error disappears.