The Oklahoma City Thunder tied their NBA Finals series against the Indiana Pacers on Friday night and broke a longstanding Warriors record in the process.
With their 111-104 win in Game 4 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the Thunder set a new NBA single-season scoring record with 12,205 points between the 2024-25 regular season and postseason. The 2028-19 Warriors previously held the record with 12,161 points.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander did plenty of the Thunder’s scoring on Friday with 35 points on 12-of-24 shooting with 10 made free throws on 10 attempts. The 2024-25 NBA MVP led Oklahoma City in regular-season scoring with 32.7 points per game and is averaging 30.4 points per game this postseason.
Gilgeous-Alexander also became the latest player to record a 15-point fourth quarter in the Finals, joining Steph Curry and LeBron James as the last three players to do so.
The Thunder also have another high-octane scorer in Jalen Williams, who certainly helped them reach the record, and Gilgeous-Alexander ranks No. 2 in the NBA with 669 total free-throw attempts in the regular season.
The 2018-19 Warriors lost that season’s Finals to the Toronto Raptors, but the prolific scoring team’s path to the championship series was one to remember, with countless other records set by the Splash Bros.
Curry and Klay Thompson set or tied seven regular-season NBA scoring records: Most 3-pointers made in game (Thompson, 14); most games with 10-plus 3-pointers in a season (Curry, six); most 3-pointers made in a half (Thompson, 10); most 3-pointers made without missing (Thompson, 10); most consecutive games with at least five 3-pointers (Curry, seven); most games with 11-plus 3-pointers (Curry, 13); and most two-pointers made in the first four games of the season (Curry, 22).
Curry also set the record that postseason for most 3-pointers made in the NBA playoffs with 470, and the Warriors set eight other playoff scoring records and tied another that year (Kevin Durant tied Charles Barkley for the most points scored in a first half in a playoff game with 38).
The Thunder now reign supreme in perhaps the most consequential scoring record of all, but none of that really matters unless they hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy for the second time in franchise history.
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