Oklahoma City Thunder: Road to the 2025 NBA Finals

The Oklahoma City Thunder just won the Western Conference Finals in five games over the Minnesota Timberwolves and will become the sixth different team from the West in as many years to play in the championship series.

This is the first time the Thunder have reached the Finals in 13 years, and the franchise has not won a title since 1979 when it was the Seattle SuperSonics.

With the 2025 NBA Finals beginning Thursday, June 5, in Oklahoma City, let’s take a look at how Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and company got here.

2024/25 Regular Season recap

It took fifth-year coach Mark Daigneault and the Thunder front office time to build the franchise back up after superstars Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden all departed in the years following their 2012 NBA Finals defeat to LeBron James and the Miami Heat.

This year has been the payoff. The Thunder were simply dominant in the regular season and set multiple NBA records in the process. Oklahoma City went 68-14, only the seventh team to record that many wins, and finished 16 games ahead of the second-placed Houston Rockets to win the Western Conference with ease. 

The franchise also set a league record with 54 double-digit wins. To put that number in perspective, the Thunder had two more double-digit victories than the Houston Rockets, the second-place team in the West, had total wins. In doing so, the Thunder also set the NBA record with a +12.9 point differential. They were fourth in the league in scoring at 120.5 points per game and third in scoring defense, allowing 107.6. 

And, as a possible indicator of things to come, Oklahoma City went 29-1 against the Eastern Conference this season, including 2-0 against both the Indiana Pacers and the New York Knicks, their possible NBA Finals opponents. And yes, OKC won each of those four contests by double digits.

The team was led by three-time All-Star Gilgeous-Alexander, who broke through to win his first MVP award after finishing runner-up last season. He led the league with 32.7 points per game and added 6.4 assists and five rebounds. He became the third Oklahoma City player to win the prestigious award, after Durant (2014) and Westbrook (2017). He averaged 39 points in two regular-season wins over the Pacers and 36 in two triumphs over the Knicks.

Third-year forward Jalen Williams (21.6 PPG) continues to emerge while Chet Holmgren’s (15 PPG, 8 RPG) return in February sparked the team to 18 wins in 22 games. 

The Thunder defend incredibly well beyond the three-point line and within the paint, and they create turnovers at a blistering pace.

Oklahoma City’s 2025 NBA Playoff run

OKC has dominated two series and had to scratch and claw its way in another to reach the NBA Finals.

The postseason began earnestly as Oklahoma City swept the Memphis Grizzlies, winning the opener by a whopping 51 points before cruising the rest of the way. 

If the Thunder are to win the NBA title, their grueling, seven-game defeat over three-time MVP Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets in the second round will be credited as what propelled them. This team that won with so much ease in the regular season lost the opener at home by two points. That is Oklahoma City’s only loss this postseason at the Paycom Center, where they are 8-1.

The Thunder responded emphatically in Game 2, winning by 43 points, but lost Game 3 in overtime at Denver. Two single-digit victories followed, but the team lost by 12 in Game 6 on the road, setting up a tense Game 7.

Or at least it was supposed to be. Gilgeous-Alexander scored 35 points and Oklahoma City blew out the Nuggets by 32, winning 125-93.

That set up a compelling Western Conference Finals series with fellow young superstar Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves, who were making their second consecutive trip to the Conference Finals. 

Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder made quick work of the T-Wolves, however, winning the series in five games. Three victories came by double-digits, including a 30-point drubbing in the clincher, giving OKC its seventh double-digit victory in the postseason.

The team, with an average age of 25.6 years, is the youngest to reach the NBA Finals in nearly 50 years, since the 1976/77 Portland Trail Blazers.

Top playoff performers for the Thunder

Several players have performed admirably in the postseason, including Williams (20.4 PPG), Holmgren (16.4 PPG, 6.6 RPG, 2 BPG), and Isaiah Hartenstein (9.2 PPG, 7.9 RPG).

But this has been the SGA show throughout. He led the team in scoring 14 out of 16 games, including all five Western Conference Finals contests, where he averaged 31.4 points and 8.2 assists and won the Magic Johnson Western Conference Finals MVP award.

SGA is an overwhelming favorite to win the NBA Finals MVP award at -600, and he is the main reason the Thunder are -750 to win the title regardless of who they face.

This article was written by a partner sports writer via Spotlight Sports Group. All odds displayed on this page were correct at the time of writing and are subject to withdrawal or change at any time.