The Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder exited Recreation 1 of the 2025 Western Convention semifinals with loads of causes to really feel sad. While you blow a 14-point, second-half lead, quit a 19-6 run over the ultimate 4 and a half minutes of the fourth quarter, intentionally give your opponent two probabilities to chop into your lead with the clock turned off within the remaining 15 seconds, miss a pair of clutch free throws, quit a game-winning 3-pointer and lose the home-court benefit you spent six months combating to earn, there’s rather a lot to not like; it’s not precisely a enjoyable trip on the ballpark.
And but, there was Thunder MVP finalist Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, taking the rostrum after the surprising loss and making the affirmative option to look on the intense aspect of life. From Tim MacMahon of ESPN:
“It ought to be enjoyable,” Gilgeous-Alexander mentioned after the Thunder’s first loss this postseason. “We’ll discover out what we’re product of, what we’re actually product of. No one anticipated it to be easy crusing this entire journey. No journey in life is, and we all know that. At present’s a bump within the street — surprising. Nobody expects to lose, particularly that method, but it surely’s the sport of life. So it is about the way you reply to getting knocked down.”
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Oklahoma Metropolis didn’t get knocked down a lot in the course of the common season — a traditionally wonderful marketing campaign that noticed the Thunder develop into simply the seventh NBA group ever to win at the least 68 video games, flip in the perfect era-adjusted internet ranking for the reason that 1996 Bulls and roll up the very best common margin of victory of all time. The one dalliances Gilgeous-Alexander and Co. had with adversity throughout their first-round sequence in opposition to the Grizzlies got here when Memphis constructed a 28-point lead within the first half of Recreation 3 … solely to see star level guard Ja Morant go down with a hip damage, setting the stage for OKC to drag off one of many largest comebacks in NBA playoff historical past, earlier than ending off a sweep.
“We’ve to embrace the battle of the playoffs, embrace the adversity of the playoffs,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault advised reporters. “The playoffs are a mountain to climb, so it’s not gonna be simple for anyone. We sort of coasted by way of the primary spherical. It was difficult within the video games, however we had management of the sequence the entire time. However nobody simply walks their method by way of a sequence at this level within the season.”
On the uncommon events they did get knocked down, although, the Thunder have tended to get off the mat with a flourish. Oklahoma Metropolis misplaced consecutive video games simply twice all season: to the Mavericks and Spurs in November, when it was with out injured massive males Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein; and to the Rockets and Lakers in April, after OKC had already sewn up the West’s No. 1 seed. Outdoors of these two units, the Thunder have responded to a loss by profitable, and profitable massive — by a median of 17.5 factors, with a handful of 20-plus-point blowouts.
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That forceful a bounce-back shall be robust to come back by in opposition to a Nuggets group led by Nikola Jokić, who patiently pulverized the Holmgren-Hartenstein entrance line — and each different defender Daigneault threw at him — to the tune of 42 factors, 22 rebounds and 6 assists in a command efficiency.
“He’s the perfect participant on this planet,” Nuggets guard (and beloved former Thunder famous person) Russell Westbrook advised reporters after the win. “Plain and easy.”
That’s the crown Gilgeous-Alexander desires to put on, the title he’s labored the final two seasons to imagine, the rarefied air he yearns to breathe. What he produced in Recreation 1 — 33 factors on 12-for-26 capturing, 10 rebounds, eight assists, two steals, a block and only one turnover in 40 minutes, with 11 factors within the fourth, together with a pair of clutch free throws and a driving dunk within the remaining 15 seconds — could be adequate to beat most groups on most nights.
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However Recreation 1 — with the Thunder capturing simply 38% from the ground within the second half and mustering only one made subject purpose within the remaining three minutes; with the league’s finest free-throw-shooting group leaving eight factors on the line, headlined by Holmgren’s missed pair with 9.5 ticks left — wasn’t most nights. And even coming off a grueling seven-game slugfest in opposition to the Clippers, with only one sport between rounds, Jokić, Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon and the championship-forged Nuggets aren’t most groups.
Knocking them off would require the perfect Oklahoma Metropolis has to supply — a better stage of two-way, 48-minute lock-in than has usually been required throughout this magical run. The Nuggets anticipate to see it on Wednesday in Recreation 2.
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“We’ve to not be glad,” Nuggets ahead Peyton Watson advised reporters. “We all know how harmful they’re as a group.”
If the Thunder didn’t know the way harmful the Nuggets are, they do now. What they do with that data may go a good distance towards figuring out whether or not we wind up viewing Recreation 1 as a pace bump or a roadblock.
“We didn’t anticipate our entire run to be sunshine and rainbows,” Gilgeous-Alexander mentioned. Recreation 1 was an awfully grey cloud. All that’s left, then, is to discover a silver lining.
