Being good on the midway level of the NBA season ensures completely nothing. Take final yr for instance, when solely three of the highest 11 groups at halftime of the season would go on to win a playoff collection and one other three of these groups missed the postseason totally.

Yes, lots can — and can — change between now and April.

That stated, there are some surprises as this season hits halftime, none larger than the success tales being crafted in Minnesota and Oklahoma City. They’ve principally been atop the Western Conference since round Thanksgiving, with win totals on tempo to smash the preseason expectations put forth by oddsmakers.

Many of the anticipated contenders certainly seem like contenders: Boston has the perfect file within the NBA, defending champion Denver has been predictably wonderful, Milwaukee and Philadelphia are close to the highest of the East and the Los Angeles Clippers have a greater file than anyone during the last six weeks or so. No surprises there. But the Timberwolves and the Thunder have clearly raised some eyebrows.

“They take the problem, and so they like to protect, notably in opposition to these heavyweight groups,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch said of his club. “A lot of our young guys are still proving that they can be just as good in a lot of ways and win that battle. We talk about winning that battle with the guy in front of you all the time and they take pride in that.”

It’s fairly secure to imagine that both Finch or Oklahoma City’s Mark Daigneault might be spending All-Star weekend in Indianapolis as coach of the Western Conference. That activity goes to the coach with the perfect file two weeks earlier than the All-Star Game (which makes this yr’s cutoff date Feb. 4) and final yr’s coaches are ineligible — which suggests Denver’s Michael Malone is assured of getting that weekend off. So is Boston’s Joe Mazzulla, which means it’s virtually sure that both Philadelphia’s Nick Nurse or Milwaukee’s Adrian Griffin might be heading to Indy to teach the East.

The Thunder have been constructing for his or her future for years, stockpiling draft picks like squirrels do with acorns coming into the winter months. Thing is, the long run may actually be beginning now: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is a bona fide star, Chet Holmgren is a reliable menace to Victor Wembanyama’s rookie of the yr candidacy and Oklahoma City has a beginning lineup the place everyone is 25 or youthful. There are 15 lively gamers within the league with extra factors than the whole Thunder beginning lineup does mixed. LeBron James is about 24,000 factors forward of OKC’s first 5.

But right here they’re, and so they seem like an issue.

“I believe there may be an unusual maturity about them,” Daigneault said. “And as I’ve said before, a lot of it is who they are as people, and I think a lot of them had that walking through the door. And then it gains momentum when there are like-minded people together and they bounce off each other in that way.”

The Wolves had 66-1 odds to win an NBA title coming into the season. The Thunder, 100-1. The odds have moved significantly since; FanDuel Sportsbook had Minnesota at 21-1 on Monday, Oklahoma City at 18-1. They each have shorter odds now than the Los Angeles Lakers (29-1), Dallas (32-1), Miami (36-1) and Golden State (50-1). That wasn’t the case when this season started. The Warriors have struggled many of the season and the Lakers have actually struggled since profitable the in-season event.

If OKC and Minnesota (together with groups like Indiana and Houston) are on the good-surprise record, the Lakers and Warriors are on the other aspect of the ledger.

Count the Lakers and Warriors out at your personal peril. But overlooking what the Thunder and Wolves have achieved to date can be equally perilous.

It was brutally chilly in Oklahoma City this previous weekend. The Thunder performed Orlando at house on Saturday, air temperature of round 10 levels at recreation time, the wind making it really feel prefer it was about 10 beneath.

Put it this manner: no one drove to the Thunder recreation that night time with their home windows down.

When they do, that’s when Sam Presti might be pleased. The Thunder common supervisor laid out his imaginative and prescient earlier than the season began and he identified that if followers are driving to video games with the Oklahoma wind of their hair, which means the climate is nice, which most likely means spring has sprung. Barring a collapse, the Thunder might be enjoying in late April, perhaps May, perhaps even June.

“It’s an extended course of,” Presti said as camp was beginning a few months ago. “It requires a lot of discipline, and there’s no promises.”

Correct. Nothing has been clinched but. But it’s halftime of the NBA season, and the Wolves and Thunder needs to be feeling nearly as good as anybody within the league proper now.

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Tim Reynolds is a nationwide basketball author for The Associated Press. Write to him at treynolds(at)ap.org

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