NBA: Can Any of the Western Conference's Three Form Teams Stop OKC?
Fri, Apr 24, 2026
by
CapperTek
Picture Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on a Tuesday morning in Oklahoma City. Sixty-three games into the season, 59 wins banked, the league's best record sitting in his back pocket, and the march to a second straight Larry O'Brien well underway. But elsewhere out West, others are starting to gather steam.
The Spurs are surging. Luka Dončić is dropping 60-point bombs in Miami. Nikola Jokić is doing things that make statisticians question their own spreadsheets. But SGA, averaging over 31 points a night on 55% shooting while operating as the single most reliable player in basketball, is simply unbothered. He's been here before. He knows what the regular season means and, more importantly, what it doesn't.
Just like the reigning MVP, online betting sites are also unmoved. One can bet on NBA at Bovada, and the popular bookmaker currently lists OKC as the clear +135 favorites to repeat as champions. When it comes to the Conference, they're even more fancied, with the same betting outlet listing them as an odds-on -120 shot to reign over the West coast once again.
So, the question is this: Can any of the form teams out west take the fight to the defending champions? Let's take a look at the contenders.
San Antonio Is OKC's Worst Nightmare
The San Antonio Spurs are 4-1 against Oklahoma City this season. Read that again. The team with the NBA's best record — the reigning champions — has been beaten four times in five attempts by a San Antonio franchise that was a lottery team eighteen months ago.
What those five games revealed is clear for all to see. Stephon Castle disrupts Shai's rhythm at the point of attack — he's long enough to contest SGA's pull-up mid-range, quick enough to fight through screens, and mean enough in a way that mirrors the old Spurs DNA that made this franchise famous. When Castle pins SGA left, the sensational Victor Wembanyama is waiting at the rim like a closing argument.
OKC's paint attack — the very thing that makes their half-court offense so difficult to scheme against — runs straight into seven feet, three inches of French wingspan and basketball IQ that arrives fully formed in a 22-year-old body. In the December 23rd dismantling, Wemby came off the bench and still had 19 points, 11 rebounds in 26 minutes, and the Thunder looked genuinely confused about what to do with him.
56-18. 24-2 since February 1st. Eight straight wins, including a 127-95 demolition of Milwaukee that was cruel in its efficiency. Eighteen of their last 26 victories came by double digits. Their defensive rating over this stretch ranks third in the league. Mitch Johnson — the man who carries Gregg Popovich's playbook in his head these days — has built something that humiliates opponents. At +300, they're the most credible threat in the conference right now.
LA's Luka Is Playing on a Different Planet
On March 19th in Miami, the Lakers trailed the Heat by 15 with fifteen seconds left in the third quarter. Luka Dončić stood near half-court, surveyed the Kaseya Center, and decided he was personally going to fix this. He finished with 60 points. Los Angeles won 134-126. And the Western Conference's most compelling wildcard suddenly became real.
What the Slovenian sensation has done since that night is statistically unprecedented in Laker history — 12 consecutive 30-point games, the longest such streak since Kobe Bryant in 2002-03, averaging over 40 points a game during the run with individual explosions of 41, 43, and 51. He became the first player in franchise history to record 2,000 points, 500 assists, and 100 steals in a single season.
His season average — 33.7 points, 8.2 assists — doesn't fully capture what watching him feels like right now. LeBron James is still delivering 30-point nights at the ripe old age of 41, while Auston Reaves is quietly chipping away with 19-plus, but Luka is the reason the Lakers have gone 11-1 in their last 12.
The bookmakers put the Lakers at +1400 for one reason: Defenses win championships, and Los Angeles simply doesn't have one. They have been repeatedly mauled by Nikola Jokic (more on him shortly) in the playoffs in recent years, and they still don't have anyone who can stand up to him. But can you ever truly write the magic of this franchise off under the bright lights?
Denver's Pedigree Doesn't Expire
35.8 points. 12 rebounds. 11 assists. 73.9 percent shooting. Over six games. When you first read Nikola Jokić's recent statistical line, your initial reaction isn't admiration — it's suspicion. Those numbers look like a typo. The first player in NBA history to average a 35-point triple-double over six games while shooting above 60 from the field isn't simply breaking records; he's operating in a stratosphere the NBA has never before seen. The Joker transcends analysis; he always has. The difference now is that Jamal Murray is healthy.
Murray's return — 31 points, 14 assists in Denver's fifth straight win over Utah — reactivated something the rest of the conference should fear more than any other development in the last six weeks. The Jokić-Murray two-man game, the specific mechanism that dismantled the league in 2023, is fully operational again. David Adelman has tightened late-game execution. The Nuggets have won eight of their last ten. At 48-28, fourth in the West, they carry 29 triple-doubles and a championship banner that neither the Spurs nor the Lakers can match.
Playoff DNA is real. It surfaces in situations that eliminate less experienced teams — down three in the fourth quarter on the road, a timeout called, and the coaching staff drawing something up that the opponent hasn't prepared for. Denver has been there. Jokić versus OKC's top-ranked defense is the tactical chess match of the decade waiting to happen — a force of nature against the most disciplined scheme in basketball. At +650, the Nuggets are respected by the market. The only question mark — the one that changes everything — is the word "healthy" preceding Jamal Murray's name.