WHICH NBA TEAMS WERE THE BIGGEST WINNERS IN THE REGULAR SEASON FINALE — APRIL 15, 2024 — Greetings, basketball fans. Welcome back to our NBA coverage here at Total Apex Sports. The 2024 NBA season concluded on Sunday, and the play-in tournament will commence on Tuesday.
Did your favorite team(s) finish the season as you expected?
Here is a look at the biggest winners from the final weekend of the 2023-24 regular season.
Fourth and Third Biggest Winners: Los Angeles Lakers Clippers And Dallas Mavericks
The Los Clippers and Dallas Mavericks finished with the fourth and fifth-best records in a competitive Western Conference race. As a result of their respective finishes, these teams will collide in the postseason for the third time in five seasons.
In 2020, the Clippers outlasted the Mavericks in six games. Doncic averaged an astounding 31.0 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 8.7 assists per contest while shooting 50 percent from the field and 36.4 percent from long range.
The following year, these teams squared off again in the first round, with the series going the full seven games. Once again, Doncic was nothing short of sensational, compiling averages of 35.7 points, 10.3 assists, and 7.9 rebounds. The Mavericks emerged victorious that time en route to the team’s first conference finals appearance in ten seasons.
The Clippers took two of the three regular-season matchups between these two ball clubs and hope to continue that success when they face each other in the playoffs. The winner of this series will face the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder.
While the Thunder have certainly shown improvement over the past two seasons, they don’t strike fear in the hearts of opponents the way the Nuggets do.
Second Biggest Winners: New York Knicks
For most of the past several weeks, it appeared that New York would finish in the fourth or fifth spot in the conference playoff race. And if they lost to the Chicago Bulls in the season finale, that would have placed them in the No. 3 spot.
Although the Indiana Pacers – the No. 6 seed – would have been a favorable first-round opponent, the Knicks went all in on winning the season finale. Jalen Brunson punctuated the 2023-24 campaign with his 11th 40-point outing and Donte DiVincenzo played 52 of the possible 53 minutes in this overtime affair.
With their 120-119 win over Chicago, New York posted its first 50-win campaign in over a decade and positioned themselves well for a deep playoff run as they will have home-court advantage through the first two rounds of the playoffs. They will face the winner of the Sixers-Heat play-in matchup.
If they survive that series, they could face a Milwaukee Bucks team that has beaten them three times this season in the second round of the playoffs. But before we go too far, New York cannot afford to overlook its first-round opponent by any means.
Biggest Winners: Oklahoma City Thunder
The biggest winner of the regular season finale must be the Oklahoma City Thunder. Tied for the best record in the conference going into the last game of the season, OKC dismantled the short-handed Dallas Mavericks to the tune of 135-86, notching their 57th win of the season. For the second straight season, the Thunder improved their record by 16 games.
Not only has OKC not been to the playoffs since 2020, but it has also not finished as the conference’s top seed since 2012-2013. This is something that was NOT expected to be a reality when the season began.
On the other side of the narrative, the Thunder do not have a ton of postseason experience. In fact, OKC’s starting five has combined for a total of 627 minutes of playoff basketball. But that fact does not discourage head coach Mark Daigneault one bit.
Daigneault said, via The Guardian:
We’re zero and zero when we wake up tomorrow morning for the playoffs. So, what we have accomplished to this point doesn’t impact that. But I do think we’ve built great habits. We’ve done it together. Again, I have a lot of confidence, but not because of our age … but because of how the guys have performed and the things they’ve built together.
In addition to finishing with the same 57-25 record as the defending champions, they also tied the Nuggets for the best home record in the association at 33-8. So, although they have one of the youngest rosters in the league, the Thunder have ensured that the road to the Finals comes through their building.
This would include a potential conference finals matchup against a Nuggets squad they defeated three times in four meetings this season.
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