2025 WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: #1 Oklahoma City Thunder vs #6 Minnesota Timberwolves (OKC leads 1-0)

[lethalizer]

Just a heads up for RealGM users:

Jokic is gone. He's eliminated.

Seems obvious, but you never know, some people may still need to hear this.

Anyway, OKC in 6.

O rly?

The man has the most dedicated, and sometimes irrational, stans in the world and on RealGM ever since LeBron, so yeah, oh really.

[Pablo Escobar]

Hopefully the Wolves win. Okc are a bunch of floppers.

[thinktank]

OKC just doesn't have an answer for Playoff Randle. He's too quick, too strong, and too good.

Will he be officiated like a big or like a wing? If he is officiated like a big, they will slow him down easilly since they can do whatever they want, grab, push, pull, slap,... and he will not be allowed to be physical himself.
If he is officiated as a wing and is allowed to be physical, that could be an advantage for minnesota. We will see it after game 1.

I don’t think it matters. He likes contact (re: wings).

(Re bigs:) He gets guys moving and boom, one shoulder bump and you’re out of the way.

[Optms]

The TWolves were better than the Nuggets this season, both in regular season and postseason play.

Consider:

TWolves: 10th ORTG, 6th DRTG

Nuggets: 5th ORTG, 22nd DRTG

In the playoffs:

TWolves: 6th in ORTG, 3rd in DRTG

Nuggets: 11th in ORTG, 12th in DRTG

TWolves have more depth and can confidently play 8 deep. The Thunder will probably be forced to shorten their rotations this series.

Randle is playing at a high level. Gobert is playing well. McDaniels is playing well. There are no injury concerns.

You really don't want to put some context esp with playoff rankings?
Of course Denver's offense would struggle facing the FIRST AND 3RD BEST in RS DRTG in the playoffs, as in OKC AND Clippers are ALSO healthy and compared that with TWolves facing the hapless GSW team missing their BEST offensive player in Curry, leaving them with one legit shot creator, well of course Minnies defense would look good. IMO, TWolves should have ranked 2nd at least only having to focus on just defending Butler for 4 games.
YOu don't think your rankings would change if TWolves faced a healthier more balanced Clippers and OKC instead of the very flawed Lakers and the severely handicapped Warriors?

It's so funny to see most of the credit in that Lakers-Wolves series to go towards the Lakers not being good.

The overwhelming consensus in that initial series thread was that the Wolves should just go straight to cancun.

This x100

Lakers were a good team and now they are seen as fodder. Lakers had 2 top 10 players and arguably the best 3rd option in the league. Minnesota earned my respect. They are legit, and while it's up in the air whether they are better than OKC, they sure as hell are better than Denver.

[turnaroundJ]

connelly is a genius he created 2 conference finals teams with 1 trade

[durden_tyler]

You really don't want to put some context esp with playoff rankings?
Of course Denver's offense would struggle facing the FIRST AND 3RD BEST in RS DRTG in the playoffs, as in OKC AND Clippers are ALSO healthy and compared that with TWolves facing the hapless GSW team missing their BEST offensive player in Curry, leaving them with one legit shot creator, well of course Minnies defense would look good. IMO, TWolves should have ranked 2nd at least only having to focus on just defending Butler for 4 games.
YOu don't think your rankings would change if TWolves faced a healthier more balanced Clippers and OKC instead of the very flawed Lakers and the severely handicapped Warriors?

It's so funny to see most of the credit in that Lakers-Wolves series to go towards the Lakers not being good.

The overwhelming consensus in that initial series thread was that the Wolves should just go straight to cancun.

This x100

Lakers were a good team and now they are seen as fodder. Lakers had 2 top 10 players and arguably the best 3rd option in the league. Minnesota earned my respect. They are legit, and while it's up in the air whether they are better than OKC, they sure as hell are better than Denver.

Only the Lakers fans thought they were good. Not a scrub team (like the Grizzlies) but definitely not on the same level as the Clippers, Grizzlies and Rockets.

[Tukkerwolf]

It's so funny to see most of the credit in that Lakers-Wolves series to go towards the Lakers not being good.

The overwhelming consensus in that initial series thread was that the Wolves should just go straight to cancun.

This x100

Lakers were a good team and now they are seen as fodder. Lakers had 2 top 10 players and arguably the best 3rd option in the league. Minnesota earned my respect. They are legit, and while it's up in the air whether they are better than OKC, they sure as hell are better than Denver.

Only the Lakers fans thought they were good. Not a scrub team (like the Grizzlies) but definitely not on the same level as the Clippers, Grizzlies and Rockets.

Only Lakers fans and the majority of RealGM-posters here before the series and the majority of tv-pundits and journalists predicting the Lakers to advance...

[lethalizer]

I think this will be another defensive series for both teams.

OKC has the tools to slow down a Minnesota offense that has been up and down throughtout the postseason like the Thunder's have been.

Going with OKC in 6. Should be a great series.

[Mrakar]

OKC just doesn't have an answer for Playoff Randle. He's too quick, too strong, and too good.

Will he be officiated like a big or like a wing? If he is officiated like a big, they will slow him down easilly since they can do whatever they want, grab, push, pull, slap,... and he will not be allowed to be physical himself.
If he is officiated as a wing and is allowed to be physical, that could be an advantage for minnesota. We will see it after game 1.

I don’t think it matters. He likes contact (re: wings).

(Re bigs:) He gets guys moving and boom, one shoulder bump and you’re out of the way.

You think Jokic cant bump? He is much stronger then Randle but he is getting called for an offensive foul. That is why i said its big difference if he is ref'd like wing or big. Bigs are getting called for every foul and not getting anything on the other side vs smalls unless they flop.

[bbms]

Just a heads up for RealGM users:

Jokic is gone. He's eliminated.

Seems obvious, but you never know, some people may still need to hear this.

Anyway, OKC in 6.

O rly?

The man has the most dedicated, and sometimes irrational, stans in the world and on RealGM ever since LeBron, so yeah, oh really.

his haters are not too shabby and are pretty dedicated

[durden_tyler]

Finally made my decision who to back this series: Wolves. Preferably in Six, since it’s tough to win that final game on the road.

STARS

i believe Anthony will want to prove he’s the better player than the current MVP and he might be. Either by being very aggressive in scoring or involving his teammates early and taking over late— something that SGA is obviously capable of so we might see real elite performances from both of these guys.

Anthony has never been challenged defensively this postseason; the lowly Lakers were easy to gameplan against and the Wolves did not need Ant on the defensive end and the Warriors, were well, just too shorthanded and also no special schemes needed. i think Ant will volunteer to try to contain SGA in stretches this series and i think he will be successful.

SUPPORT GROUP

On to the role players; OKC’s depth is impressive, bunch of unknowns to the casuals but definitely could go 9-10 deep if needed (i know, Joe was crucial in my fantasy season) These are not just good to great off the bench scoring options but also good to great defensively (Wiggins and Wallace, and of course Caruso).

However, i do think Minnesota has a similarly underappreciated bench. Potential microwave scorers off the bench include Reid and DiVincenczo, both also not throwaways defensively. NAW might spill some secrets to his teammates about his cousin too, maybe that helps.

i understand if people put OKC’s supporting cast ahead of Minnesota, but it’s not that far off.

TURNOVERS

The Wolves play ugly basketball when they play down to the competition and/or playing with a big lead. Have they learned from this already? i think so, knowing that if they play lackadaisical and too loose, the Thunder will take advantage and have those deflating 8-to-nothing, 10-to-nothing runs.

We saw this in their wins against Denver. Close games at a point but suddenly the Thunder’s defense is turned up a notch and it’s easy steals and breakaway dunks all over for these miniruns within a short period. The Wolves can not afford this and must take care or the ball.

This is a tough decision, betting odds say it’s going to be a convincing series win for the Thunder. But the Wolves did win as slight underdogs against the Lakers (via Vegas odds anyway) so maybe they have that, errr, dog in them to make a series out of this.

Wolves in Six!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SpurNani]

Minnesota won multiple games against the Lakers and Curry less Dubs while only having to bring their C+ and B game.

They will get the doors blown off them tonight if they bring that same effort. Young OKC just went through the fire vs Denver and will have the momentum. I can see an avalanche blowout for OKC happening tonight before the Wolves start to wake up and adjust to playing a real actual team with a pulse that doesn’t having glaring deficiencies like LA&GS.

[AFM]

OKC KFC UFC… MINNY IN 5!!

[Dadouv47]

I legit fear the Wolves because of their ability to defend all positions and their inside defense is elite. OKC gonna need to hit their shots from outside if they want to go to the Finals. Hope less whining about referees during this series. It should be a fun one.

[Jta444]

Caruso is such an underrated championship piece. I never heard Lebron thank Caruso for what he contributed in that bubble 2020 ring. Maybe that’s why he left the Lakers.

That 2020 team is so stacked compared to the competition that year, and yet Lebron dare calls it the hardest championship of all time?

[bbms]

timberwolves have a great opportunity today, that's for sure. no idea why the wcf g1 is before the first ecf g1 but game on that's the cards dealt to us

[firedavidkahn]

OKC legit scares me. Everyone has to be on their A game for us.

Good news is that this is a terrific matchup for Gobert and that the Wolves pay best when they are underdogs

[Wolfgang630]

This feels like 6 games max. Minnesota makes a lot of boneheaded decisions. Their 3 point shooting can go ice cold. They’ll probably lose.

[MoneyTalks41890]

It’s a little chummy in here folks. Gonna need a little more fire closer to the tip.

But seriously I expect this series to be as good as the Denver series, with the associated ulcers for me.

[Impuniti]

Read on Twitter

good lord even the coach ass kisses the refs to get his guys treated better

It's called working the refs. Different styles to it and sometimes it can work.

It's also quite literally what Finch did in the last series. After game 1, he sent videos to the officials and then whined to everyone that it's too physical. Pathetic? Yes. But also very smart.