The Oklahoma City Thunder did just about what every NBA fan expected: sweep the Phoenix Suns on Monday night.
Certainly not a shocking result, given the talent disparity between the two teams. Of course, that’s not why we're here today.
While Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and company cruised to the second round for the third straight season, the way they did it suggests something greater could be on the horizon.
The Thunder are well on their way to becoming the best team of the 2020s.
Thunder brought out the round one brooms for the third straight season
Two years ago, OKC took the NBA by storm after winning a best-in-the-West 57 games.
After sweeping the eighth-seeded New Orleans Pelicans, the Thunder would lose in six to the Dallas Mavericks. But that round one sweep seemingly kick-started a trend the next two Thunder squads would follow: sweep the first round.
OKC's win over the Suns on Monday marked just the fifth time a team had swept its first-round opponent in three straight seasons. The other teams on the list include the 1988 Los Angeles Lakers (6x), the 1993 Chicago Bulls (4x), the 1997 Chicago Bulls (3x), and the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers (3x).
Not surprisingly, well maybe a tad in Cleveland’s case, all four of those teams went on to win the Finals in the final season of their streak.
Thunder have strung together 27-straight dominant playoff games
Though the “ESPN stat” jokes can already be heard, the historical significance of this next number shouldn’t be poo-pooed.
The Thunder have won 20 of their last 27 playoff games with a plus-261 point margin. That combination of consecutive wins and margin of victory in the postseason places them among one of five teams in NBA history to accomplish such a feat.
The other teams on that list include the dynastic Golden State Warriors (2017-2018), the Showtime Lakers (1984-1986), LeBron James’ Cavs (2016-2017), and the first three-peat Bulls (1991-1992).
It should be noted that the list is adjusted to include only one stretch from each team during that specific decade. For instance, Golden State has 20 sets of 27 games between 2015 and 2019, but only its stretch from April 19, 2017, to May 14, 2018, where they had a +318 point differential, is included.
I wonder if those teams won any championships.
Will the Thunder be the first repeat champion since Golden State?
Back when small ball was the thing, and Draymond Green was working on his karate moves, the Golden State Warriors were as safe a bet for a Finals appearance, if not a championship, as any team the league had seen since Michael Jordan’s Bulls.
During that golden dynasty, the Warriors won three titles between 2015 and 2019, going back-to-back in 2018.
Combined with the revolutionary play of Steph Curry and Green, that third title in 2018 solidified Golden State as the best team of the 2010s. Not only did the Warriors change the game, but it was leading to winning, and lots of it.
But since the Bay Area hosted consecutive parades in June of 2017 and 2018, no team has been able to climb Everest in back-to-back seasons. In fact, no team since the 2019 Warriors has appeared in the Finals after winning it the year before.
Now, the Thunder will have to survive two more rounds and get past either Denver or San Antonio just to even make it to the Finals again. And then there is the whole “Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics” thing. But if they can repeat, they will be the first to do so in eight years, and just the sixth team ever.
Historical anecdotes -- especially in a league with innumerable ways of highlighting its participants' achievements -- aren't enough to make a team an all-time great or even all-decade worthy.
But when we revisit the NBA champions log on Wikipedia and see teams such as the Celtics, Lakers, Bulls, and Warriors consistently highlighted in yellow across decades, we get a pretty good sense of who was running the show back then.
Consecutive championships would make the Thunder one of those six teams highlighted in two-straight spots, obviously, but it would also be a reminder to pause and think about the 2020s. Just like 1959 to 1966 or 1991 to 1993, 2025 to 2026 could be the touch point we, as basketball fans, go back to and say that was the team of the '20s.
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