Model Projects Thunder Has Fifth-Best Title Chances

Despite stumbling into the All-Star break, the Thunder maintains the fifth-best chance of winning the NBA Finals this year, according to Five Thirty Eight’s prediction model.

The model gives OKC just a 3 percent chance of winning, but that trails only Houston (34 percent), Golden State (22 percent), Toronto (20 percent) and Cleveland (7 percent).

Five Thirty Eight predicts the Thunder to go 14-9 over its final 23 games to finish with an overall record of 47-35. That projects to be good enough for the 4 seed, going against fifth-place San Antonio in the first round of the playoffs.

The other first-round matchups in the West would be Houston(1)-Denver(8), Golden State(2)-Portland(7) and Minnesota(3)-Utah(6).

Oklahoma City is on the road for five of the next six games, beginning in Sacramento on Thursday.