Thunder Struck: Oklahoma City Set to Defend Title

As I mentioned before in past stories, this is the sixth season that the NBA actually allows 20 teams (two-thirds of the Association) to the postseason. Here's how it goes: the top six teams in each conference are automatically playoff bound. As for the teams ranked #7-#10, those teams will participate in the Play-In Tournament for the final two playoff spots. This is a remnant from the COVID-affected 2020 Playoffs, though the Play-In portion is modified.

So in order to qualify for postseason play, all a team has to do is finish no lower then 10th in their respective conference. Ten teams have qualified for postseason play, but no one had clinched official playoff spots yet. That changed on Tuesday, March 17. On that day, the Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Orlando Magic, and with that victory, the Thunder became the first team to officially qualify for this year's NBA Playoffs.

We all know the year the Thunder had last year. For the fifth time in franchise history (and the second since moving from Seattle to Oklahoma City in 2008), the Thunder reached the NBA Finals, and they won a seven game thriller over the Indiana Pacers. The Thunder have apparently topped last year with a very explosive start: they actually won 24 of their first 25 games! There was talk of them possibly surpassing the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors' 73 win season, but they did fall off a bit. Even so, they are still holding the best record in the NBA, in spite of their problems against the San Antonio Spurs.

Can you actually imagine someone actually trading an NBA MVP and Finals MVP? That's what the Los Angeles Clippers did in 2019. Once upon a time, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was part of the Clippers franchise, but they wanted Paul George so damn badly, so the Clippers dealt SGA, Danilo Galinari, and five first-round draft picks to OKC, all for Paul George. They felt that the tandem of Paul George and Kawhi Leonard would work wonders for the Clippers. Spoiler alert: it didn't. Meanwhile, that SGA guy managed to make something of himself. All he did last year was lead the league in scoring, win NBA MVP, win a championship and become Finals MVP. Small potatoes.

As for this year, SGA's putting up an average of 31.9 points per game, which is second in the NBA behind the Lakers' Luka Doncic. SGA's also putting up 4.5 rebounds per game, and 6.6 assists per game (the latter leading the team). SGA does have plenty of help on his side; Jalen Williams is putting up 17.5 points per game, and Chet Holmgren is nearly averaging a double-double (17.3 PPG & 9.1 RPG).

The Thunder are going on strong; they're closing in on clinching the Northwest Division already, and it definitely looks like they'll finish with the NBA's top record overall in spite of how close the Spurs are to them in the standings. It also helps that OKC doesn't really have a lot of competition out West. People talk about the Lakers and Timberwolves being strong threats, but from what I've seen, it's the Thunder and Spurs, and then there's everyone else.

The Thunder definitely look like they have a strong chance to repeat as NBA Champions this year. They look absolutely unstoppable this season, and they are operating on levels above the ones they reached when they did win last year. It seems like their only actual obstacle is the Spurs, but if they do meet in this year's Western Conference Finals, and OKC solves that problem, well, I think the sky's the limit.