Just three years after they finished with one of the worst records in the Western Conference, the Oklahoma City Thunder are now best in the West.
The Thunder beat the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday, 124-94, to win their conference finals in five games and advance to the team’s first NBA Finals since 2012.
Oklahoma City will face Indiana or New York; the Pacers hold a 3-1 series lead. No matter its Finals opponent, Oklahoma City will host Games 1 and 2 by virtue of its top playoff seed, on June 5 and June 8. It would also host Games 5 and 7, if necessary, on June 16 and June 22.
Oklahoma City led by as many as 39 points to turn an otherwise tense deciding game Wednesday into a blowout, led by 34 points from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who last week was named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player.
Even by the standards of the NBA, where franchises’ fortunes and windows to win championships can change quickly, Oklahoma City’s rebuild that has returned it in the Finals has taken place with stunning speed. In 2021, it won 22 games during a Covid-shortened season, the fourth-worst record in the NBA and the franchise’s fewest victories since it moved from Seattle to Oklahoma in 2008. The next year it won 24 games — 40 fewer than Phoenix on its way to the West’s No. 1 playoff seed.
Every year since then, Oklahoma City has gradually taken another step forward, with 40 wins in 2023 followed by 57 last season, the most in the conference, only to lose in the playoffs’ second round. This season, Oklahoma City’s upward trajectory continued with 68 wins, tied for fourth most in NBA history. Of the six other teams who won at least that many times in a single season, four went on to win the NBA Finals. Oklahoma City will have the opportunity to join that select club.
Oklahoma City hasn’t won an NBA championship since it relocated in 2008. In 2012, the Thunder made the Finals behind a roster with three future Most Valuable Players but lost to the Miami Heat.
The current Thunder feature one MVP in Gilgeous-Alexander and a roster, unique for its depth and versatility, that was built intentionally during its lean years. In addition to Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City received a haul of draft picks from the Los Angeles Clippers in 2019 in exchange for superstar Paul George, a trade that served as a pivot point for Oklahoma City’s franchise.
One day after the trade, the Thunder made a far more under-the-radar roster decision by signing an undrafted Arizona State wing named Lu Dort, who has since become a perennial all-defense candidate while underpinning what has become the NBA’s best defense during both the regular season and the postseason.
Three years after Oklahoma City acquired Gilgeous-Alexander and a mountain of draft picks, one of those selections from the Clippers became Jalen Williams, who this year earned All-Star honors while becoming the Thunder’s second-leading scorer. And the losing in 2022 helped secure the second overall draft pick Oklahoma City used to draft Chet Holmgren, its third-leading scorer, who scored 22 points Wednesday.
Oklahoma City opened the 2025 postseason with a sweep of the Memphis Grizzlies before it outlasted Denver in seven games in the conference semifinals. Facing Minnesota with a berth to the Finals on the line, Oklahoma City took a 3-1 series lead before it routed the Timberwolves on Wednesday.
