What Does it Mean if the Thunder Lose the NBA Finals?
In what seemed like a magical year, a year where the championship seemed almost a given, the odds-on favorite to win the title, the Oklahoma City Thunder, now find themselves down two games to one to the Indiana Pacers in the NBA Finals. There is still plenty of time left to play in the series. However, it’s no secret that the Thunder would rather not be in this position. So, if the Pacers are able to close out the series, thus making the Thunder fail to stamp their name in the NBA history books, what does this mean for the Thunder? The answer: it would be one of the biggest letdowns in NBA history.
The team with the best record in the NBA, the Oklahoma City Thunder, became just the seventh team in NBA history to win 68 games or more. Of those previous six teams, four of them went on to win the NBA championship, the only teams who didn’t being the 72-73 Celtics and the 2015-16 Warriors. Much like these teams, if Oklahoma City were to lose this series, they would likely be remembered for failing to win the championship as opposed to being remembered for their historic season. Besides their 68-win campaign, though, the Thunder are also regarded as arguably the best defensive team in NBA history, with countless claims to their name.
For instance, the Thunder averaged 18.2 opponent turnovers per game this postseason, the most by any team in a single postseason since the 1996 Bulls. The Thunder also were 2.5 points per 100 possessions better than any other team in defensive rating this season, the second-largest gap between the top two defensive ratings in the last 25 seasons. They also have 380 deflections this postseason, 77 more than any other team, while also being only 11 steals away from having the most steals in an NBA postseason. Needless to say, they are very good defensively.
Besides being the best defensive team in the league, the Thunder are also the deepest team in the league as well with a plethora of players each capable of popping off for 20 or more points. This effort is led by the year’s MVP winner, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who averaged just 30 points on the season. It is this deep roster that allowed them to sweep the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round, that allowed them to knock off the best player in the world, Nikola Jokic, and the Denver Nuggets, and that allowed them to almost embarrass the Minnesota Timberwolves and their star Anthony Edwards. Not to mention, in all of these series, the Thunder regularly were blowing out their opponents as well, 20-point wins almost becoming expected as opposed to rare.
It is for all these reasons that the Thunder must win this series. They have the league MVP, they have the deepest team in the NBA, they have the best defensive team arguably in history, they won 68 games, and they have plowed through every team they have faced so far, delivering blowouts like they were going out of style. If they were to lose this series to the Pacers, with all of these titles to their name, it would be one of the worst losses in NBA Finals history. For a team on the verge of cementing itself as one of the NBA’s all-time great teams, losing in the Finals would end all of those talks, leading them to be remembered for their failure to win as opposed to their successes all year.
