As the NBA playoffs draw closer, an excitement not seen in years hangs in the air of Oklahoma City.
How not to be?
The Thunder currently hold the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has a legitimate chance to win the Most Valuable Player award and the team will make the playoffs for the first time since 2020 – where they played in a “bubble.” Not to mention the mainstream appeal the franchise is getting lately, particularly at Drake’s Oklahoma City concert, where Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren both entered to huge cheers.
As surprisingly great as Oklahoma City has been throughout the season, it has all the tools to make a deep run in the playoffs and potentially even make the Finals. It would be a shock for a team so young and perceived at the very beginning of its timeline to already reach this status, but its core has done little to prevent that possibility from being eliminated.
This race won’t be easy in a stacked Western Conference field, even among Play-In tournament teams. It could be the Dallas Mavericks, the Phoenix Suns, the Golden State Warriors or the most talked about matchup of the four: the Los Angeles Lakers.
Once again led by superstar duo LeBron James and Anthony Davis, the Lakers appear poised to win the Larry O’Brien Trophy once again, even if the season hasn’t gone as planned. James and Davis are as good as they’ve always been and D’Angelo Russell has been on a rampage in the second half of the season, but otherwise there hasn’t been a lot of consistency on this Los Angeles team .
Still, the two names at the top are enough to make Los Angeles a playoff threat. They won it all in 2020, and even with an aging James and a very different-looking team, the possibility has to be considered. This is not an ideal first round matchup for any team, especially one that lacks experience like the Thunder.
Gilgeous-Alexander made the playoffs twice, but never as a leader. This will be a huge test for the MVP candidate with newly added pressure, even though he hasn’t given any reason to believe he won’t play for Oklahoma City. The rest of the roster also lacks experience, outside of veterans like Gordon Hayward and Mike Muscala.
The Lakers also possess much greater size than the Thunder. Davis alone at center is a nightmare matchup for any team, as well as one that Holmgren struggled with at times during his rookie year. With 2.4 blocks per game, the 31-year-old remains one of the best interior defenders in the NBA and serves as an anchor for his team. Alongside James, Jaxson Hayes and Rui Hachimura, Los Angeles has a roster full of length and versatility that could pose problems for Oklahoma City.
Looking back on the series of seasons, the Lakers had a clear advantage. They won three of four games against the Thunder, being one of the few teams in the entire league to have such a win differential. It would be worrisome for Oklahoma City to go into a seven-game series against a team it has struggled against so much, but it’s a situation it needs to prepare for.
There can be no doubt that the Thunder are a strong championship contender with the great success they have enjoyed throughout the season. Talent should trump youth in most cases, especially when players like Gilgeous-Alexander, Holmgren and Jalen Wiliams are at the helm. However, he can’t roll in the first round at all, otherwise he might be a victim of Los Angeles or another Play-In team.
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