While the OKC Thunder wait patiently for their 2025 NBA playoff journey to resume, the LA Clippers and Denver Nuggets continue to find themselves duking it out for the opportunity to square off against the top seeds in round two.
As of Friday morning, Oklahoma City's semifinal opponent still has yet to be determined, for Los Angeles' win on Thursday now forces a winner-take-all Game 7 slated to be held this coming weekend.
Though on the one hand, the suspense and anxiety created by this uncertainty two weeks into the postseason may be somewhat unexpected and, frankly, undesired by Thunder fans, on the other hand, having this first-round series go the distance could actually wind up being highly beneficial for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and company.
Thunder guaranteed to face an exhausted second-round opponent
By the time Game 1 of the Western Conference's second round starts up, OKC will have been off for nearly two weeks after besting the Memphis Grizzlies in sweep fashion.
Not only will such downtime have given this injury-plagued team much-needed rest, but, considering they have gone 10-5 throughout both the 2024-25 regular season and playoffs combined when coming off two or more days of rest, the odds of them continuing their hot streak only seem to improve.
As for both Denver and LA, regardless of who prevails during Saturday's primetime showdown, they will undoubtedly enter a semifinal series with tired and weathered legs.
Outside of the fact that their first-round matchup has officially extended to Game 7, this series has easily been the most competitive, back-and-forth affair of the 2025 quarterfinals, as there have been 50 lead changes and 27 ties throughout, while the home team has managed to win four of the six games played thus far.
On top of this, half of these outings have been decided by three or fewer points, meaning energy has regularly been expensed by both sides up until the sound of the final buzzer.
Now, as far as who the Thunder may rather square off against, based on head-to-head record, it would seem that their preference is Los Angeles, as they bested the Clippers 3-0 during the regular season while boasting an average point differential of +12.3 along the way.
Comparatively, the Nuggets split their season series 2-2 and saw Oklahoma City pull out with just a +6.0 per-game point differential.
However, considering the winner of Saturday's do-or-die finale will be limping into Oklahoma City (a place the Thunder have lost just six times all year) for two straight games just days later, one could easily make the case that neither a Kawhi Leonard nor Nikola Jokic-led team will be in the condition necessary to take down this historically-great ball club.