As the OKC Thunder wait for Game 1 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals to kick off this coming Sunday, the ongoing Play-In Tournament will ultimately decide who their round-one matchup will wind up being.
Tuesday, the festivities started with an absolute bang, as the seventh-seeded Warriors and eighth-seeded Grizzlies took part in a down-to-the-wire showdown out at Chase Center.
Despite the fact that the night saw three lead changes and four ties in the final period alone, behind a classic clutch performance by the legendary Stephen Curry (37 points, 15 of which came in the fourth period), Golden State managed to pull ahead in the closing minutes and, in turn, lock up the seventh-seed with their 121-116 win.
With this turn of events, the Dubs will now have off from now until Sunday, where they'll head to Houston for a first-round showdown against the two-seeded Rockets.
Though Warriors fans are presumably brimming with glee about avoiding the top-ranked Thunder to kick off the 2025 NBA Playoffs, there's a case to be made that so, too, should the OKC faithful.
Thunder not having to play Warriors in first-round is a win on its own
To be clear, there should be little doubt about this Thunder team's potential to take home their first Larry O'Brien Trophy since 1979.
Considering they dominated the rest of the league throughout the regular season with their top-billed record of 68-14 and net rating (12.7), and earned home-court advantage throughout the playoffs as a result, confidence in their ability to win it all should be close to an all-time high.
However, even with this optimism, having a little help in the scheduling department should always be welcomed.
With how Tuesday night's events unfolded, the Thunder now find themselves officially avoiding the Warriors in the opening round of the playoffs, which, based on how their regular season went down, could be viewed as a major blessing.
In three games played against one another, Golden State ended up with a 2-1 record and a +14 total point differential while holding OKC to a miserable 43.5 percent shooting from the floor, 28.4 percent shooting from deep, and forcing them into a ridiculous 13.0 turnovers per game.
With this, they became one of only two teams to beat Oklahoma City multiple times in 2024-25.
Now, while some may look at their past matchups and argue that the outcomes were a bit misleading, as Oklahoma City was consistently playing at sub-full strength due to their widespread injury woes, a counter case could easily be made that these games were held before the Warriors leveled-up their talent pool via the Jimmy Butler trade.
Though there were concerns regarding the All-Star's impact on the team moving forward, as he's proven throughout his career and as reminded with his efforts against the Grizzlies (38 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals), Playoff Jimmy is a real thing.
All the more reason why OKC may have lucked out by avoiding this team right off the bat in the postseason!
Now, with the Warriors' win, the Thunder will have one of Memphis, Sacramento, or Dallas to deal with in the first round, which is a far more favorable situation considering they went 7-3 against all three of these clubs this year.
And even though the Mavericks are the other team alongside Golden State to have bested SGA and co. multiple times this year, with their mind-boggling trade season decisions and ongoing injury misfortunes, those teams were completely different from the one coach Jason Kidd currently has hobbling into the Play-In.
All things considered, it would seem that round one has become a whole lot less potentially troublesome with the Warriors now taken out of the equation.