oklahoma city thunder

Chet Holmgren had 30 points and 14 rebounds, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander added 20 points and 11 assists, and the Oklahoma City Thunder clinched the NBA’s best regular-season record with a 128-110 victory over the Clippers on Wednesday night.

Jalen Williams scored 18 points for the NBA champion Thunder (64-16), who will have home-court advantage throughout the postseason in their title defense after holding off San Antonio (61-19), which is on an 18-2 run since February. Oklahoma City has won seven straight and 19 of 20 to earn the West’s No. 1 seed for the third straight season.

Kawhi Leonard scored 20 points and Brook Lopez added 16 for the eighth-place Clippers, who had won seven of nine. The Clippers are 35-18 since shortly before Christmas, but still must win one of its final two games to extend this once-moribund franchise’s streak to 15 consecutive winning seasons.

The Clippers head to Portland on Friday for a crucial game. The winner almost certainly will finish eighth in the Western Conference, while the losers will slip to ninth, where they’ll need two wins in the play-in tournament to make the playoffs.

While Gilgeous-Alexander scored at least 20 points in his record 141st consecutive game despite sitting out the fourth quarter, Leonard scored at least 20 in his 56th straight game. Leonard also remained on track to play in at least 65 games this season — his second-most in seven years with the Clippers, and enough to qualify for All-NBA consideration.

Holmgren scored 24 points in the first half and propelled the Thunder to an early 25-point lead. Oklahoma City hit 58.1% of its shots and thoroughly stifled the Clippers’ offense, allowing no fast-break field goals.

Darius Garland sat out for the Clippers to manage his toe injury. He hasn’t played in back-to-back games since Los Angeles acquired him from Cleveland in a trade for James Harden.

Up next for the Clippers: At Portland on Friday.

OKLAHOMA CITY — In the aftermath of their worst loss of the season, few Lakers players or coaches had spoken to Luka Doncic after he limped off the court in the third quarter Thursday against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Austin Reaves didn’t know the extent of Doncic’s hamstring injury, but he knew how the Lakers superstar would approach the latest hurdle in this winding season.

“He’s a competitor,” Reaves said of Doncic, “so he’ll do all he can do to put himself in a position to come back when he can.”

Doncic will undergo an MRI on Friday on the left hamstring injury he suffered in a 43-point loss to the Thunder. He already missed four games before the All-Star break with the same injury, but the Lakers withheld expectations on his status for the final five regular-season games.

After Sunday’s game in Dallas, the Lakers face the Thunder at home Tuesday, play consecutive games at Golden State on Thursday and against Phoenix at home Friday and finish the regular season Sunday against Utah.

Doncic’s injury left the Lakers backcourt extra shorthanded Thursday as Marcus Smart missed his sixth consecutive game Thursday. The veteran guard could return against Dallas, coach JJ Redick said. He has been day-to-day since injuring his right ankle against Orlando on March 21.

If Smart is unable to return in Doncic’s absence, the Lakers could shift even more ball-handling responsibility to Reaves and LeBron James while relying on Bronny James as an additional guard off the bench. The 21-year-old James has played in five consecutive games, tying his longest stretch of his second pro season.

The Lakers (50-27) are already guaranteed a top-six seed in the Western Conference, but are still jostling for seeding. They have a one-game lead for the No. 3 seed over No. 4 Denver, which is on a seven-game winning streak.

Approaching the end of the regular season, the Lakers looked at Thursday’s game against the defending NBA champions as a test, forward Jake LaRavia said. They were 15-2 in March with 13 wins in their last 14 games. The Lakers were playing like an evolved form of the team that lost by 29 to the Thunder in Oklahoma City in November.

But like that first rout, Thursday’s featured a flurry of Lakers turnovers, suffocating Oklahoma City ball pressure and an efficient masterclass from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

“This close to the end of the season, we would’ve wanted it not to go that way,” said LaRavia, who had six points and a team-high eight rebounds Thursday. “It was pretty much the same story, I feel like, the first time we played here this year.”

The Lakers built much of their March success on successful revenge performances. They bounced back after previous losses to the New York Knicks, Houston Rockets and the Orlando Magic. They lost by seven to the Nuggets on March 5 then responded with nine consecutive wins, their longest winning streak of the season, including an overtime thriller against Denver that clinched the head-to-head tiebreaker that could factor into the tight standings.

Redick praised his team’s “playoff mentality” during the run. It was also when the team was largely its healthiest.

Doncic had played all but one game since the All-Star break. Reaves, who missed six weeks with a calf injury this season, has started in 22 consecutive games. When James returned from an elbow injury, the star trio found a clear hierarchy that lifted the team to new heights.

Doncic, who became just the 10th player in NBA history to score 600 points in a single month, is the “head of the snake,” said James, who is averaging just 12.3 shots in the last 12 games but is shooting 54.4% from the field. Doncic’s brilliant March unified the team behind his most valuable player push, his thrilling shot-making and even his smiling dunk against Washington.

With the team exuding the type of joy that often characterizes Doncic’s game, James believes the Lakers can maintain their momentum despite Doncic’s uncertain status and a deflating loss.

“Nothing is rattled,” James said. “It’s one game, it’s part of the NBA season, it’s the defending champions. We get it. We understand.”