Oklahoma City Thunder’s challenge: Confirm in playoffs which is the best NBA team
The team led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander shone in the regular season and will try to ratify its superiority in search of the Larry O’Brien trophy.
It is Saturday, May 18, 2024. 2.1 seconds are subtracted in the stopwatch and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander It does the only thing that should not: commit a fault. Despite wearing the white uniform of Oklahoma City Thunderhis panorama darkens. He knows yes PJ Washington At least two of the three free throws, Dallas Mavericks will win the sixth west semifinal match and the season will end for the team that had been number 1 of his conference. An abrupt and unexpected outcome at the hands of Luka Doncic and company. A campaign that had exceeded expectations and generated premature illusion collapsed.
Mark Daigneault’s team did not need many touch -ups. I had to learn from experience and try again.
Almost a year later, Thunder got the best balance not only from the West but of the entire NBA with 68 wins and just 14 losses; He see the diaphanous sky again as the celestial of one of his shirts and looks for the fire of the other, the orange, for this time to reach glory.
There is a certainty: Oklahoma City was the best team of the regular season from beginning to end. And a question: can this time ratify your domain in the playoffs?
A fierce defense, the best attack by the League and Shai, one of the two top candidates to take the MVP award, are three more than solid arguments to maintain that the Thunder should reach at least the finals of the NBA.
But how much will the failed experience of the previous season weigh? Will it serve to learn from mistakes or will it be an anchor that prevents you from taking off?
The answers are on the head of Daigneault and in the hands of the players.
An impeccable campaign of Thunder
We are on the night of Wednesday, April 9, 2025 and despite the fact that Gilgeous-Alexander, Isaiah Hartenstein and Luguentz Dort watch the game from the outside, Oklahoma City beats Phoenix Suns, reaches 66 wins in the season and the first place is secured in the general table, which implies the advantage of the local.
The victories in the last two days close a dream campaign: 68 wins and 14 losses. The best of the franchise, including the time in which Seattle Supersonics was (between 1967 and 2008).
The brightest star is Shai, but in the constellation several illuminate in fundamental moments: Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren, Aaron Wiggins, Hartenstein, Isaiah Joe, Dort, Cason Wallace and Alex Caruso.
The Thunder is the seventh team in the history of the NBA that won at least 68 victories. Four of the other six enshrined champions. Strikingly, one of the two who did not do it was Golden State Warriors, with the best record of all time: 73 wins and 9 losses in the 2015/2016 season. The other? Boston Celtics in the 1971/1972 campaign with the same balance as Oklahoma City in the current one: 68-14.
Another impressive Thunder brand was the 12.9 points of average difference with its rivals, the broader record of the history of competition. The five teams that follow him in that table were champions.
The 54 victories for 10 or more points of difference, another record brand, and the 11 triumphs rather than in the previous season put Oklahoma City in a position of superlative expectation. And in an unavoidable commitment: any final photo that does not show its players with the Larry O’Brien trophy in the hands will be at least a disappointment.
The null experience in the end and the extreme youth of the squad are factors to consider. Only one team in history won the NBA title with an average age less than this of Thunder (25.3 years) since the existence of the possession clock: Portland Trail Blazers (24,99) in 1976/1977.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the best player of the season
Oklahoma City was not only the best set of the 2024/2025 season but also had the best player: Gilgeous-Alexander.
Shai competed head to Nikola Jokic to determine who deserves the MVP award.
The Serbian marked an era and is the most prominent of the last five years. He won the award in three of the last four campaigns. And in the current one ended among the three best at points (29.6), rebounds (12.7) and assists (10,2). Huge.
Indisputable, except that in front is Shai. The Canadian was the top scorer of the season (32,7); the player with more games with 20, 30, 40 and 50 points; He turned 20 or more points into 72 consecutive games, the fourth longest streak in a season in the NBA history.
Further? More: SGA is the fifth player who leads the league at points and is part of a team with at least 80% victories. The others?: Stephen Curry in 2015/2016, Shaquille O’Neal in 1999/2000, Michael Jordan in 1991/1992, 1995/1996 and 1996/199, Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) in 1970/1971. Everyone won the MVP award, except Jordan the third of the time, when Karl Malone gave the award.
Gilgeous-Alxander has been preparing for this moment since he arrived at the League. His progress was constant. Its importance in Thunder grew year after year. One of the keys is the work that Shai does between seasons. In Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, along with his lifelong friends, SGA trains tirelessly to polish his game to the extreme. In 2021, the guard trained at Kentucky University had anticipated that he had big goals: “I don’t play to be just a good player, I want to be one of the best bases in the history of basketball.”
Steve Nash, MVP of the regular NBA season in 2005 and 2006, considered that Gilgeous-Alxander can overcome it as the best Canadian basketball player in history.
The MVP is not something that dazzles Shai. On May 8, 2024 he was asked if the next day he would be aware of the award ceremony, since he was one of the firm candidates. The Canadian didn’t even know when the ceremony was. He finished second in the vote, behind Jokic.
This season they consulted on recognition repeatedly. SGA was clear: if the prize comes, welcome, but the main objective is one: being a champion.
Is having the MVP guarantee of success? By no means. In fact, in the last nine campaigns the team that had the player who won the award for the best of the season could not keep the title. Even less hopeful is to know that none of the last five sets with the MVP on their squad managed to overcome the conference semifinals.
On Sunday, April 20, 2025 in the afternoon, in a grocery store Paycom Center, with all fans with the celestial shirts such as skin, Oklahoma City Thunder will give, at the beginning of the series against Memphis Grizzlies, the first step of a path through which he intends to get to where he could never before under this denomination and to which the Supersonics only managed to access in 1979. The stage is prepared. It’s time to go to play.
