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OKC Poised as Top Contender for 2025 NBA Championship
SportsGrid
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4/18/2025
Category
🥇
Sports
Transcript
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00:00
We start with the end goal, DRS, getting to the NBA Finals and winning an NBA championship.
00:06
How do you see it playing out over this long two-month stretch that is the NBA postseason?
00:11
I've had the same opinion for a few months now.
00:14
Western Conference, much tougher than the Eastern Conference.
00:17
The Eastern Conference certainly top-loaded between two teams.
00:19
Those are the two teams you can choose.
00:21
You do have some options in the Western Conference, but if we're just looking at overall talent level,
00:25
the way they played the regular season, home-court advantage being heavily weighted in my opinion,
00:31
I do think the best team in the Western Conference is OKC, which means they will be in the Finals.
00:36
So now if we take a look at the East, we understand it's going to be about two teams.
00:40
It's the Boston Celtics, who were an amazing team, won the NBA championship last year,
00:43
and it's about Cleveland, who had a great regular season, the talent to break through,
00:48
but not getting as much respect because they're just not the Celtics, but have home-court advantage.
00:53
So I do think both of those teams have the ability to make it to the NBA Finals,
00:58
and then once again, home-court advantage being paramount with a good basketball team,
01:03
which would be OKC, cutting down the nets as the NBA champion over the Cleveland Cavaliers, Ben.
01:10
I love it, DRS. I really do.
01:12
You and I have examined these NBA championship odds for the last three, four months,
01:17
and really what we saw by about the time we got to the new year in January, DRS,
01:23
post-Christmas where a lot of attention starts to be paid to the NBA, is what we are seeing now.
01:30
Now that number on Cleveland as the one seed in the Eastern Conference has grown shorter and shorter,
01:35
but they're still not booked as the favorites to win a title, either in the NBA overall or in the Eastern Conference.
01:42
But we've really seen these lines of demarcation.
01:46
Oklahoma City and Boston, for a good majority of the year,
01:49
it was the Celtics slightly in front of OKC, who have largely been in pole position in the Western Conference
01:55
the entirety of this NBA campaign.
01:58
But as both Oklahoma City and Cleveland continued to stack up wins on a historic rate,
02:05
they started to see those numbers grow shorter,
02:07
and the expectations for the reigning champs to be exactly back where they are continue to be there.
02:12
In the final month or so of the regular season, OKC moved in front ever so slightly of the Celtics,
02:19
and that number on the Cavaliers growing shorter and shorter under a $5 price.
02:24
DRS, like you, I think Oklahoma City is the best team in the NBA.
02:29
I do believe the Thunder, who will have home floor advantage in any potential NBA championship series
02:35
against the Cavs or the Celtics, are going to win a Larry O'Brien trophy this year.
02:40
A young and talented core that has all been together.
02:44
Shea Gildress Alexander, Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren, under a very talented head coach in Mark Dagnall.
02:50
With the addition of Isaiah Hartenstein this year as well,
02:53
I think they took their playoff lumps last year, losing in the conference semis to Luka Doncic and Dallas.
02:59
They have learned from that experience and by far, in a way, are the best team in the Western Conference.
03:04
I think Oklahoma City is going to win an NBA championship.
03:07
The only difference I have is OKC doing it against the Boston Celtics.
03:12
So I do believe at the end of the day, we'll win the Eastern Conference crown.
03:17
But I will just say this, Donnie.
03:18
Regardless of how you feel, if you believe it's the Thunder over the Cavs,
03:22
the Thunder over the Celtics, or swap those two Eastern Conference teams over OKC,
03:28
that's how I would approach those NBA championship odds.
03:31
Because all of those prices are so short compared to everybody else in the playoffs.
03:36
But I think those short numbers are correct.
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