Seventy wins is professional basketball’s hallowed ground.
The Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers have combined to win 35 championships, yet neither organization has touched 70 wins in a season. Entire decades have passed without any team mounting a serious challenge. All told, 1,373 teams have played a full 82-game season since 1967, when the NBA adopted its current schedule length. During that time, only two teams — the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls and the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors — reached 70 wins. That’s a 0.15 percent success rate.
Memo to Michael Jordan and Stephen Curry: Your ultraexclusive club could be adding a third member next spring. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder have launched their title defense with remarkable dominance, racing out to a league-best 17-1 record. Last year’s Thunder won 68 games and set an NBA record with a plus-12.9 point differential. This year’s group is better: Entering Wednesday’s Western Conference finals rematch against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Oklahoma City is on pace for 77 wins and boasts a plus-16.9 point differential.
The Thunder’s only loss Nov. 5 required a combination of adverse circumstances: Oklahoma City was on the road, playing on the second night of a back-to-back, and without four key players in Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren, Lu Dort and Alex Caruso. Still, the Portland Trail Blazers needed a 22-point comeback to escape with a last-second victory.
Since that lone blemish, Oklahoma City has reeled off nine consecutive double-digit victories, pasting Curry’s Warriors and Luka Doncic’s Lakers, throttling a pack of bottom-dwellers and getting revenge against the Trail Blazers. Oklahoma City piled up a whopping 49 points in the first quarter of a recent win over the New Orleans Pelicans, and Gilgeous-Alexander already has rested for the entire fourth quarter in 11 games because victory was in hand.
With Jordan’s 72-win Bulls and Curry’s 73-win Warriors looming as the only models, let’s examine what makes the Thunder so great and its chances of making history.
Star power
Great players drive great teams.
Jordan was a man on a mission in 1995-96, still smarting from a rare loss in the 1995 playoffs after his rushed return from a stint playing minor league baseball. That year, a 32-year-old Jordan captured his eighth scoring title and fourth MVP award en route to his fourth championship and fourth Finals MVP award. While he posted bigger numbers earlier in his career, Jordan scored at will, intimidated opponents and controlled the action with his force of personality.
Twenty years later, Curry put together the best season by a guard of the post-Jordan era. Flush with confidence after winning his first title in 2015, a 27-year-old Curry secured his first scoring title, made a record 402 three-pointers and posted his first 50/40/90 shooting season. That was enough to earn Curry his second MVP award, this time by a unanimous vote.
Like Curry a decade ago, Gilgeous-Alexander is 27 and fresh off his first championship and MVP season. While the Canadian guard hasn’t captured the world’s imagination like Jordan and Curry, he should be a strong contender for MVP honors and the scoring title again. His production this season is remarkably similar to his predecessors, and he has kept Oklahoma City’s offense operating at a top-five level without his sidekick Williams, who has been sidelined following wrist surgery.
Balanced dominance
Conventional wisdom dictates that aspiring championship contenders must rank in the top 10 for both offensive and defensive efficiency. Of course, the bar to enter the 70-win club is even higher.
According to basketball-reference.com’s formula, the 1995-96 Bulls ranked first on both offense and defense; the 2015-16 Warriors ranked first on offense and tied for fifth on defense. This season, Oklahoma City has delivered a comparable degree of balance, ranking tied for third on offense and first on defense.
Maintaining top-five marks in both categories is no easy task, but Oklahoma City accomplished the feat last season. This year, the Thunder’s relentless team defense has essentially lapped the field.
Consider: The Bulls had the best offense in 1995-96, but they faced competition for that title from Karl Malone’s Utah Jazz.
Along the same lines, Curry’s Warriors revolutionized the sport by fully embracing the three-point shot, but their top-ranked offense was still challenged by Kevin Durant’s Thunder in 2015-16.
Oklahoma City’s defense has been in its own galaxy this year, outpacing the No. 2 Dallas Mavericks by 7.1 points in defensive efficiency. Remarkably, the gap between the Thunder at No. 1 and the Mavericks at No. 2 is the same as the gap between the No. 2 Mavericks and the No. 21 Trail Blazers.
If the Thunder maintains this level of dominance all season, it should be viewed as the best defense of the 21st century.
Depth of talent
The 1995-96 Bulls and the 2015-16 Warriors were defined by their superstar cores, but both received key bench contributions as well. While Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman were Hall of Famers, 1995-96 sixth man of the year Toni Kukoc and sharpshooter Steve Kerr propped up Chicago’s second unit. Similarly, Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green are headed to Springfield, but do-everything backups Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston kept the wheels turning for the 2015-16 Warriors.
Oklahoma City’s extraordinary depth has been crucial to its ability to rack up blowout wins. Many of the Thunder’s second- and third-unit players could start for opposing teams.
Last season, seven Thunder players averaged double figures in scoring. Six players are hitting that mark this season, with Williams, an all-star wing, yet to make his season debut. Oklahoma City has gotten improved play from backup guards Ajay Mitchell and Isaiah Joe, which has enabled Coach Mark Daigneault to limit Gilgeous-Alexander’s minutes. In fact, Gilgeous-Alexander’s 33.1 minutes per game represent his lowest average since his rookie season.
The Thunder’s formula to keep up its pace will rely on a fresh Gilgeous-Alexander, a healthy Williams and continued contributions from a long list of disciplined and cohesive role players.
Proof of concept
Seventy wins is a such a high bar that it requires stepping stones.
Jordan and Pippen got a taste of what was possible in 1991-92, when the Bulls ripped off 67 wins and won their second consecutive championship by storming through the playoffs with a 15-7 record. Before their 73-win campaign, the Warriors won 67 games in 2014-15 and answered questions about their relative inexperience with a 16-5 showing in the playoffs en route to Curry’s first title.
Oklahoma City also laid serious groundwork for this year’s chase by winning 68 games — the most in the NBA since the 2015-16 Warriors — and going 16-7 in the playoffs to win the title. Simply put, Oklahoma City got close enough last year that its players know what it will take to reach 70 wins.
Roster stability
Continuity is also essential: The 1995-96 Bulls returned Jordan, Pippen, Kukoc, Kerr, Ron Harper, Luc Longley and Bill Wennington from the previous season. Rodman was their only major addition, and guard B.J. Armstrong was their biggest loss.
The 2015-16 Warriors enjoyed a similar blueprint: Curry, Thompson, Green, Iguodala, Livingston, Harrison Barnes and Andrew Bogut returned from the 2014-15 championship team. Golden State’s biggest departure was David Lee, who proved to be addition by subtraction thanks to Green’s emergence.
Like the Bulls and Warriors before them, the Thunder benefits from an incredibly stable roster. Oklahoma City returns the top 10 players from its 2025 championship roster this season: Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams, Holmgren, Dort, Isaiah Hartenstein, Caruso, Cason Wallace, Mitchell, Joe and Aaron Wiggins. Thanks to a roster filled with young players on team-friendly contracts, Oklahoma City was able to survive the offseason without any major defections.
Home-court advantage
The 1995-96 Bulls and 2015-16 Warriors capitalized on their intense local popularity and rabid home crowds to fuel their 70-win campaigns. Chicago and Golden State each lost just twice at home during their historic seasons.
Oklahoma City posted the NBA’s best home record at 35-6 last season, but that mark left some room for improvement this time. Paycom Center proved to be an especially difficult venue for opponents during the 2025 playoffs: Oklahoma City went 11-2 at home, with its only losses coming on last-second shots.
This season, the Thunder has won its first eight games at home, including a double-overtime thriller against the Houston Rockets on opening night.
Third-quarter excellence
The fourth quarter is easily the most dissected portion of NBA games. Rightfully so, because it’s the domain of clutch shots, valiant comebacks and heartbreaking collapses.
But truly great teams don’t procrastinate: The 2015-16 Warriors made a habit of building insurmountable leads so their stars could spend the final period icing their knees on the bench. Their third-quarter runs were the stuff of legend, blowing open close games with cascades of three-pointers. Golden State ranked first in 2015-16 by outscoring its opponents by an average of 3.1 points in the third quarter.
Oklahoma City has been ruthless coming out of halftime this season. When the Thunder’s switch flips, it gets dark early for opponents. This is another carryover trend from last season; Oklahoma City ranked first by outscoring opponents by 3.6 points per third quarter in 2024-25. This year’s edge in third quarters is a stunning 7.3 points.
The competitive landscape
Chasing 70 wins is a six-month marathon. There is little margin for error: The Bulls lost back-to-back games just once in 1995-96, and the 2015-16 Warriors never lost consecutive games during the regular season. After the Warriors opened with a 24-0 record, their progress toward unseating the Bulls was the dominant story across the NBA’s media landscape. The daily attention brought added pressure, and Golden State’s key figures embraced their pursuit of the best record in NBA history. Ultimately, that decision took a toll: Golden State went 15-9 in the playoffs and blew a 3-1 series lead against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Finals.
Will that experience scare off the Thunder? Under longtime president Sam Presti, the Thunder has favored quiet professionalism, continual improvement and a strict game-to-game approach. Historic chases attract the type of national attention that Oklahoma City has rarely sought. If this season plays out like last season, when Oklahoma City won the Western Conference by 16 games, the Thunder could always throttle down late in the season to rest its stars for the playoffs.
Then again, the Thunder should benefit from a bottom-heavy competitive landscape. In 1995-96, only three teams finished with fewer than 25 wins. In 2015-16, only four teams did. This season, eight teams entered Wednesday on such a sluggish pace. With the highly regarded 2026 draft class enticing teams to tank for lottery positioning, the Thunder could benefit from an unusually soft end-of-season schedule. And while Oklahoma City plays in the tougher Western Conference, the field looks shallower than expected because the Memphis Grizzlies, Los Angeles Clippers and Mavericks are underperforming preseason expectations.
Oklahoma City’s schedule will get more difficult than it has been to start the season, but its longest road trip is a five-gamer in March that includes multiple matchups against lightweights. Once Williams returns, all of the pieces for a run at 70 wins should be in place.
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