Clinched
It’s been a long season and as the schedule shows that there are just a few games left, the “cream” that has risen to the top of the standings in each NBA division, continue to hover near the top, win some, lose some with playoff seeding the only thing left to be determined. The OKC Thunder have exceeded the 50-game win mark, already more than the surprising 40-game previous season record of 2023. With their MVP candidate, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, sidelined with a quad contusion injury for the last two games and with Jalen (Dub) Williams also nursing an injury, it has fallen on the remaining squad to pick up the slack as they continue with this long and final road schedule. With a playoff spot already secured, these remaining games are allowing players who have had limited opportunity to have game time experience, prepare themselves for the playoffs. The Thunder, being deep with “bench” players are going to need all to be ready to contribute in order to make a deep push into the playoffs, with the prize being a spot in the NBA finals that looms on the horizon. Throughout the season, even as the team showed signs of being so much further down the road from the start of the rebuild, this young team has yet to get the respect deserving of their earned place in the standing. Even with one the best win/loss record in the league, the naysayers continue to doubt the capability of the Thunder to make a decent run after the regular season gives way to the playoffs. They’re too small, too inexperienced, too young, all these sports analytical “talking heads” will say. Former football players and sports talk show hosts, including one that has no history as a baskeball player are all of a sudden “experts” and qualified to criticize, judge and predict how our OKC Thunder will do in the games ahead. Every win counts for sure but at this late stage, so many other teams are either out of the playoffs or battling for a spot in the play-in tournament. In a seemingly scripted daily show, they spend more time talking about teams near the bottom of the standings, only because they have a history of winning in seasons gone by. But a look into games earlier this season will show that the Thunder has beaten each and every top-tier team repeatedly, with and without their best players involved. Lakers, Warriors, Suns, Nugget and Celtics have all tasted defeat at the hands of this young, small-market team of energetic, talented and hungry OKC team. So, let the regular season come to an end and the real competition begin. And let history be made and the naysayers be silenced forever when Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, (rookie), Jaylin Williams, Josh Giddey, Lu Dort and the rest of the team, all connected as a unselfish, ball-moving, 3-point shooting squad, show what they’re made of. NBA finals in their future? Sky”s the limit for this team.