Thunder Clinches Playoff Berth: A Strong Championship Contender?

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00:00But, J.Y., when you look at the Thunder right now, clinching a playoff berth last night,

00:04a 12-game advantage for the top seed in the Western Conference, a minus-145 favorite to

00:11win the Western Conference crown, the Thunder in a great position.

00:15And as we predicted, this remains a Finals preview.

00:19Boston was the short favorite entering last night's game at plus-180, OKC a 2-to-1 price,

00:25now the exact same number, J.Y., co-favorites to win that Larry O'Brien trophy at the end

00:30of this season, plus-185, ultimately, at the end of the day, after March is done, through

00:38April and May, in early June, will it be the Celtics and the Thunder in the NBA Finals?

00:46It's hard to say that won't happen, but there was a game a couple of nights ago where a

00:51team put up 140 points and may have the runner-up to the MVP award in Nikola Jokic.

00:59That's going to have to say a lot about it, even though they just got smoked by Minnesota

01:03last night.

01:04So, to me, it's going to come down to, can you handle the pressure?

01:08Can you handle it being in that spot for the first time?

01:12Can you handle slaying the dragon?

01:15That is what Oklahoma City is going to have to do.

01:18But, listen, Ben, they got the offensive firepower.

01:22They may have one of the best, maybe not the best player in the world, I think it's Nikola

01:25Jokic, they have the MVP right now, they're playing great basketball, and their schedule

01:30is light.

01:3122nd hardest the rest of the way, which, curious, what I want to see, Ben, is does Mark Diagonal

01:36start to pull back a little bit?

01:39Or with two games in the loss column behind Cleveland, do they keep pushing, Ben, to see

01:44if you get a triple by Cleveland and try to secure the overall number one seed in the

01:50entire league?