The Oklahoma City Thunder are your 2025 NBA champions.
Well, not officially.
Officially, they are just the 2025 Western Conference champs after eliminating the Minnesota Timberwolves in a five-game conference finals.
But you know where this is headed.
The Thunder were the best team during the NBA’s regular season.
They won the Western Conference in dominating fashion. Game 5 was a demolition – a 124-94 Thunder victory that left no doubt.
They can play the opponent’s best style and play it better. Go big, go small, go deep into your bench, win with offense, including the 3-pointer, win with defense and win with stars, the Thunder can do it better than any team in the league.
Sorry Indiana. Sorry New York. It’s just not your year.
Oklahoma City is in the Finals for the first time since 2012 and is in terrific position to win the franchise’s first title since 1979 when it resided in Seattle and was called the SuperSonics.
“They’re highly professional, consistently professional. They’re high character people. They come from high character circles, they’re unbelievably competitive,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “They put the work in behind it consistently through the ups and downs, and most of all, they’re team-first. They embody everything it means to be a team and so they deserve this.
‘They deserve the opportunity that we have now. I couldn’t be happier for them. They invest so much in their own games, but they also invest so much in each other and in the team and I just think it’s a really uncommon thing in professional basketball that they’ve built.”
While sweeping proclamations can be imprudent endeavors, there is no reason to believe the Thunder won’t be NBA champions within the next few weeks.
Everyone can see it.
The Thunder don’t want to hear that, and they shouldn’t. Before Game 5, Daigneault talked about staying in the present. That is the right thing to say and the right thing to do. What’s in front of you in that second is the most important thing. Reaching a goal is a series of accomplishments that requires meticulous focus.
They’ve been headed for this moment for seasons and the grand plan – building another contender through the draft, trades and free agency – has come to fruition.
Before this season, this group had not won more than one series, and despite the No. 1 seed last season, they lost in the second round. They bypassed some growing pains in this season’s playoffs, learning lessons in real time and figuring out how to finish off games and close out series.
For a squad that had never won a conference finals closeout game, the Thunder answered any lingering questions about resolve.
‘When we’re put up against adversity that you don’t really have during the regular season and it’s like do-or-die moments, I think that’s where we kind of grew up as a team,’ Jalen Williams said. ‘I think that last series was big for us. That was our first Game 7, and getting over the hump of the second round, that was big for us.’
Their top-ranked defense slowed Nikola Jokic in the conference semifinals and put the brakes on Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle in the conference finals. Daigneault and his coaching staff develop and gameplan, and they have the defenders to execute it whether it’s taking away Jokic’s passing lanes or double-teaming Edwards.
If there was any doubt about Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s MVP – and there shouldn’t have been any – he erased any uncertainty. It was an MVP performance, and in Game 5, he had 34 points, eight assists and seven rebounds – it was his seventh game with at least 30 points in his past eight. He had a playoff career-high 40 in Game 4 and averaged 31.4 points and shot 45.7% for the series and earned the Western Conference finals MVP.
‘I wanted two things,’ Gilgeous-Alexander said. ‘I didn’t want to go back to Minnesota travel-wise, and then I wanted the fans to be able to enjoy the moment with us. I wanted them to be able to see it unfold in front of their eyes. I wanted them to be able to celebrate tonight in our building, go home, get drunk, whatever they do. I wanted them to have fun with the moment and yeah, it was good. I just wanted to make sure that above all I could give my energy and my effort to try to give these fans what they deserve.’
The Thunder are far from a one-man show. Jalen Williams made his first All-NBA team this season, and Chet Holmgren is headed for an All-Star appearance with his ability to score, rebound and protect the rim. Williams had 19 points, eight rebounds, five assists, one block and one steal, and Holmgren had 22 points, seven rebounds and three blocks. Lu Dort played outstanding defense, and center Isaiah Hartenstein was a shrewd offseason signing that has added to Oklahoma City’s versatility.
Alex Caruso, Cason Wallace, Aaron Wiggins, Isaiah Joe, Kenrich Williams and Jaylin Williams give Daigneault more options.
They are improving by the game and by the series, looking more and more unbeatable in a series with each victory.
‘Now we are a step closer to our goal and we’re happy about that,’ Gilgeous-Alexander said. ‘But it’s still four more games to go win, four really hard games to go win and we have to be the best version of ourselves for four nights to reach the ultimate goal. And we understand that. We know that, and that’s what we’re focused on.’
It is a team that has 2025 NBA champions written all over it.
(This story was updated with additional information.)
Follow NBA columnist Jeff Zillgitt on social media @JeffZillgitt
