It’s been 13 years since the Oklahoma City Thunder last reached the NBA Finals.
That team—led by a young trio of eventual NBA MVPs in Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden—captivated the league but ultimately fell to the Miami Heat and never made it back. Now, general manager Sam Presti has rebuilt the team around a new young core that has returned to the Finals—and this time, they might just finish the job.
Oklahoma City closed out its Western Conference Finals series with a 124-94 Game 5 blowout win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, this year’s NBA MVP, was at the heart of it all once again, pouring in 34 points on 14-of-25 shooting, along with seven rebounds and eight assists.
Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams added 22 and 19 points, respectively, as the Thunder overwhelmed the Wolves from the opening tip.
Oklahoma City jumped out to a 17-point lead after the first quarter and never looked back. Even with Gilgeous-Alexander sitting early in the second period, Holmgren and Williams kept the pressure on, extending the lead to 26 before halftime. By then, the game—and the series—was all but decided. The Thunder led by 30 at the break and cruised the rest of the way, improving to 8–1 at home in the playoffs and punching their ticket to the NBA Finals.
This group now has a shot at winning the franchise’s first championship as Oklahoma City, where they’ll face the winner of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Indiana Pacers and the New York Knicks.
As for Minnesota, this loss stings—but it doesn’t erase their progress. At just 23, Anthony Edwards has cemented his place among the league’s brightest stars and has now appeared in back-to-back Western Conference Finals—a rare feat given the depth of talent in the West. Edwards struggled in Game 5, finishing with 19 points on 7-of-18 shooting against the Thunder’s elite perimeter defenders, Lu Dort and Alex Caruso. Figuring out how to remain effective against defenders of that caliber is the next step in his evolution.
Oklahoma City, meanwhile, is well ahead of schedule and just four wins away from making history. With an average age of 24.2 years, they have the fourth youngest roster in the NBA this season and they also own the sixth lowest payroll in the entire league. If anything, this is only just the beginning for this group.
The Thunder fanbase has waited more than a decade to get back on this stage—and now, it feels like nothing can get in the way of their date with destiny.
