OKC Thunder on the Brink of Unprecedented NBA Playoffs Run

The Oklahoma City Thunder should not be here, up 3-1 on the best-ever Golden State Warriors team, one win away from the NBA Finals. They shouldn’t even be in the Western Conference Finals. 

For all the pomp and power at the top of the West and inside the Cleveland Cavaliers locker room, this year’s march toward a championship quickly became a two-team conversation. The record-breaking, defending champion Warriors and close-behind San Antonio Spurs stood alone, together, towering over the field.

Every other so-called contender, including the Thunder, was just noise. That was the plan. Oklahoma City just doesn’t care for it.

In pushing the Warriors to the brink of elimination, with the Spurs already in their rearview mirror, the Thunder are moving beyond the “good job, good effort, maybe next year” bracket. This could be their year—their time to defy odds, foil forecasts, dethrone kings and complete the most unlikely playoff stand in NBA history.

Historically Difficult Obstacles

For the record, it isn’t as if the Thunder are coming out of nowhere. They tallied 55 wins during the regular season, finishing with the third-best net rating in the league, trailing only—you guessed it—the Spurs and Warriors.

Most years, Oklahoma City would have been considered a championship favorite. But Golden State (73 wins) and San Antonio (67 wins) were too ridiculously good.

Never before had two teams won at least 67 games in the same season. Just 10 different squads had ever cleared the 67-victory plateau prior to 2015-16. Eight of them went on to win a title, with the 1972-73 Boston Celtics and 2006-07 Dallas Mavericks being the lone exceptions.

Even when you consider the relative ease with which the Thunder cruised past Dallas during the first round, the Spurs and Warriors still made for the most daunting postseason path to date. As the New York Daily News’ Ari Gilberg wrote:

If it seems like the Thunder have had a difficult path this postseason, it’s because they have. In fact, if the Thunder finish off the Warriors (which is still a big “if”) in the Western Conference finals, they will have overcome the most difficult path to the NBA Finals in league history. …

The Thunder’s opponents’ .740 winning percentage trumps the previous mark held by the 1994-1995 Houston Rockets, which after the Western Conference finals was .736.

And this isn’t even about those percentages. It’s about how Golden State and San Antonio got them.

Led by two-time MVP Stephen Curry, the Warriors championed a small-ball nightmare. They pushed the pace and obliterated opponents with unchecked versatility, pairing an NBA-record 1,077 made three-pointers with unprecedented efficiency. According to NBAMath.com’s era-adjusted stats, Golden State deployed the third-best offense in league history. It complemented such firepower with a defense that ranked in the top five of points allowed per 100 possessions on the season.

Spearheaded by a frontcourt of LaMarcus Aldridge, Tim Duncan and two-time Defensive Player of the Year Kawhi Leonard, the Spurs found success with old-time constructs. They slowed down the game, dictating its ebbs and …

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