OKLAHOMA CITY — Anything can happen during the playoffs. So, despite a gaudy regular-season record, we can’t crown the Oklahoma City Thunder just yet. They’ve seen regular-season greatness turn into postseason disappointment. Until they do it — win the Western Conference and beyond, that is — nothing is guaranteed.
But as Sunday afternoon’s 127-103 win over the Denver Nuggets at Paycom Center can attest, the evidence is mounting that the Thunder have a gear that the rest of the West either isn’t capable of reaching or has yet to show it can reach. Because Oklahoma City is a bigger team on the interior than last season, matchups against big men such as Nikola Jokić no longer appear as daunting.
Because Jalen Williams is a year older, is a year more physically mature and has grown into an All-Star in his own right, the bulk of the playoff offense won’t fall solely into the arms of NBA MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. And because the Thunder defend the perimeter like a ravenous pack of wolves, there doesn’t appear to be an apex scorer in the Western Conference they won’t be able to make life difficult for.
In this sense, maybe we are all overthinking the Thunder and just how good they are. And this is not all our fault. With Luka Dončić matriculating to the Los Angeles Lakers, and with the Lakers’ resurgence since that fateful trade, it’s natural to analyze their chances at a championship. With Jokić having a historically great season, you would think the team with the best player in the world would at least have a puncher’s chance at coming out of the West.
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So, even with a 53-11 record and Oklahoma City applying regular-season beatings to the rest of the NBA every night, there is still an air of mystery around the Thunder’s championship-level viability.
The irony? That’s just fine with them.
Let’s do it again tomorrow ⏭️ pic.twitter.com/ZiqPFlp8tL
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) March 9, 2025
“Until the season is over, you’re not really where you want to be,” Oklahoma City forward Chet Holmgren said. “We have to continue to improve. We have to keep playing. We have to keep getting better.”
That perspective is an easy one to take. The Thunder were a No. 1 seed last season. They know what it’s like to dominate an 82-game schedule, enter the playoffs as a title favorite and sputter. The loss to the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference semifinals is still a fresh and open wound. So this season has been a bit more about business and appreciating each stop on the way to the top of the mountain.
It wasn’t long ago that the Thunder were young and callow, in a rebuilding situation and getting smacked around every night by the rest of the league. They have graduated from that and are in pursuit of something bigger. But as Gilgeous-Alexander warmed up for Sunday afternoon’s game, he couldn’t help but take in how far this team has come. There was a time recently when Oklahoma City having a nationally televised game, sitting atop the West, against the second-place team in the conference, would have been a pipe dream. But as Stringer Bell once told Avon Barksdale in “The Wire,” they don’t have to dream anymore.
“It’s something that comes with a lot of excitement,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “But the key was that we had to treat it like any other game. We had to go out and be calm and strike the balance between knowing how big a game it was and going out and executing what we had to do.”
The discussion surrounding the MVP topic between Gilgeous-Alexander and Jokić is huge, with the two seemingly neck and neck as the regular season heads into its final stages. In a game in which both candidates were on the floor at the same time, Gilgeous-Alexander was better, scoring 40 points while grabbing eight rebounds and handing out five assists.
As he almost always does, he got to his spots off the dribble anytime he wanted. He made a living from midrange, as he almost always does. He got to the rim, he got to the free-throw line with frequency, and he made a significant impact on defense. What’s made him so good this season is his ability to control the pace of a game to his liking on nearly every possession. He has entered the rare air where he can slow a game single-handedly, get his team into an offense and create a good shot for himself or a teammate on every trip.
Blocks brought to you by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander 😤 pic.twitter.com/gE8PCjRsep
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) March 9, 2025
It’s a skill the league’s greats possess, players such as Jokić, Dončić and LeBron James. Gilgeous-Alexander has developed that trait, and it makes the Thunder more dangerous in a playoff sense. By nature, postseason basketball is slower. The teams that can score in the half court during a rock fight are the teams that will keep advancing.
“He even missed some shots tonight that he normally makes,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “I think he did a good job of getting into the paint, and I thought he did a good job finishing plays off when he was able to get to the basket. I’m sure that he would tell you that he has room for improvement.”
The most impressive trait the Thunder showed Sunday was an ability to find a level the Nuggets could not match. The final score belied how close the game was for a half and how much Denver battled through 36 minutes. This was a game Oklahoma City led 86-83 after three quarters, and it went off the rails for the Nuggets in the final 12 minutes. Defensively, the Thunder wore down Denver and took advantage with a 41-20 fourth quarter. They pressured the Nuggets’ guards. They swarmed Jokić in the post and rebounded well despite a relative lack of size.
A rematch will happen Monday, and Daigneault said he expects Denver to play better. But on a big stage, the Thunder showed a nationally televised audience why they have been so dominant for five months and why that might pay off with a championship.
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(Photo of Isaiah Hartenstein, Nikola Jokić and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: Joshua Gateley / Getty Images)
