In the past three years, the NBA's final championship has been a model of all-out efforts to build one man and one city, such as the Bucks and Antetokounmpo in '21, the Warriors and Curry in '22, and the Nuggets and Jokic last summer. Although more and more teams in the league choose to hold together, the team that has risen in a down-to-earth manner will not have a bad record, because strength is only one aspect, as well as the team's tacit understanding and health problems. This season can be called a turning point in the NBA era, because teams like James, Curry, and Durant have not even been able to enter the top six in the West for a long time. In the end, the Suns took the playoffs and went straight to the last train, the Lakers got the No. 7 seed through the play-offs, and the Warriors were out!
When the legendary supergiants entered the end of their careers, a new generation of supergiants also slowly rose, such as the Timberwolves led by Edwards and the Thunder led by Alexander. It's also a little dreamy to say, last season's Thunder record was only 40-42, ranking tenth in the West, and they couldn't even enter the playoffs, but this season they played 57-25 in the regular season, and after 11 years, they once again won the first place in the West in the regular season! Compared with the Thunder that had Durant and Wei Shao 11 years ago, this season's Thunder, in addition to Alexander, a super scorer, the rise of Jay and Holmgren has become the key. Looking at a few sets of data, this season the Thunder is third in the league in offensive efficiency and fourth in defensive efficiency, and there are only two teams in the league that are in the top five in the league in offense and defense: the Green Army and the Thunder.
In addition, the Thunder team's shooting rate of 49.9% is second in the league, three-point shooting rate is 38.9%, and the average is 8.5 steals + 6.6 blocks + 20.5 points in turnovers, all of which are the first in the league! Therefore, the Thunder is not afraid of the sky this season, but they are afraid of a team like the Lakers that is large enough and focuses on the interior finishing, Holmgren is in a state of being blown up every time he encounters thick eyebrows, and Jay + Dort on the front line, the size of James is a circle, and he can't stand it at all. The Lakers and Thunder have met four times this season, winning the first game by 23 points and losing the next three games, with a net loss of 28 points.
Although the Thunder met the Warriors 3-1 this season, every matchup was very difficult, because the Warriors ranked first in the league in rebounds per game, and they were too good at grabbing, and Jay and Holmgren were inexperienced in the face of old fritters like Green and often fell into foul crisis. But the Lakers got the No. 7 seed, and the Warriors were out of the tournament early after losing to the Kings! The Thunder won the first place in the West, and the two opponents they were most worried about avoided it! And the two teams, the Pelicans and the Kings, could not put pressure on the Thunder, and the Pelicans were bullied every time they met the Kings, and no one restrained Alexander; the Kings lacked Huerter and Monk, and the bench scoring contribution was insufficient! The Thunder, as the No. 1 in the West, had a home-court advantage before the Finals, so can the Clippers and Mavericks put pressure on them?
First of all, it is certain that whoever is out of the matchup between the Clippers and the Mavericks will be a pity. According to the analysis of the American media, the matchup between the Clippers and the Mavericks is the series most likely to be a series of tie-breaks in the first round of the playoffs, and the advantage of the Mavericks is the indiscriminate single-handedness of the Eastern European pair, including the way to punish the opposing center; However, these two teams met the Thunder this season, both 1-2, the Thunder's offensive and defensive conversion, the Clippers could not keep up, and the Mavericks lacked the points to limit Jayway, and the bench efficiency value was not as good as the Thunder.
According to the modeling and calculation of the American media "BR", the Thunder has become the second favorite team in the league after the Celtics! The probability of passing the first round is 72.6%, and the probability of passing the second round is 56.1%, including if it really reaches the stage of the Western Finals, the Thunder is also the team that is not afraid of the Nuggets, this season the Thunder faced the Nuggets 3-1, except for a 33-point defeat at the beginning of the season, the last three games were all in hand, and even at the end of December last year, the Thunder scored 26 points away from the Nuggets! The Nuggets have an advantage in positional battles, but the Thunder have been speeding up, and the Nuggets are competitive with the starting five, dragging down Jokic, and the Nuggets collapsed in an instant. And the probability of the Thunder winning the division championship is as high as 35.8%, which is also far ahead. The Nuggets only have a 17.4 percent chance of winning the division, which is not even as good as the Timberwolves' 24 percent.
In fact, the essence of the rise of the Thunder is really thanks to the Rockets who sent Paul over and supported Alexander for a year, that year, Alexander averaged 10.8 points per game in the rookie season and quickly increased to an average of 19 points per game. Again, although more and more supergiants choose to huddle, although there are more and more teams in the league taking shortcuts, as long as they grow up in a down-to-earth manner, the record will never be bad. The Thunder retain the current team framework and are destined to lift the championship trophy in the next 3-5 years.