Oklahoma City reached the Western Conference finals with an 8-0 postseason record, sweeping the Los Angeles Lakers to finish a first two rounds that have turned the Thunder into the team everyone else is chasing. The Western Conference finals against the San Antonio Spurs were scheduled to begin Monday at 8:30 p.m. ET on NBC/Peacock, with Oklahoma City entering on six days of rest and Jalen Williams expected back in uniform for the opener.
The Thunder are only the eighth team to sweep through the first two rounds since the first round became best-of-seven in 2003, and their margin has been even more striking than their record. New York outscored its opponents by 19.4 points per game through the first two rounds, while the Thunder, Knicks and Spurs are the 12th, 13th and 14th teams since 1984 to outscore opponents by more than 13 points per game over that span.
That kind of dominance is usually a good sign. It is not a guarantee. Seven of the previous 11 teams to clear that 13-point threshold in the first two rounds lost in the conference finals, with the 2019 Milwaukee Bucks the most recent example. Oklahoma City has the cleanest path of the three teams, and New York remains the favorite in the East. San Antonio, by contrast, needed five games to get past Portland in the first round and six more to beat Minnesota in the conference semifinals before reaching the conference finals for the first time in nine years.
The matchup inside the matchup is likely to be in the paint. Oklahoma City beat San Antonio by 16 points in the paint, 56-40, in one regular-season win, then by four points in the paint in a two-point loss. The Spurs outscored the Thunder by 9.8 points in the paint per 100 possessions in Victor Wembanyama's 126 minutes on the floor, a small slice of the season that may matter a lot more once the series starts. Both teams protect the rim well, which makes every clean look at the basket harder to find.
That is why the opening game feels bigger than a normal Game 1. The Thunder have looked relentless, the Spurs have already shown they can survive a tougher route, and the first real test of the series is whether San Antonio can slow the pace and hold its ground where Oklahoma City has been most punishing. If the Spurs cannot win the paint battle, the series may not stay close for long.
