While the Oklahoma City Thunder have picked up a lot of haters since their NBA Championship win, they remain the most dominant team in the league. For now. The San Antonio Spurs have been nipping at their heels all season, setting up a playoffs showdown that will be inevitable and glorious.
Last season belonged to the Thunder. They became both Western Conference champions and NBA champions. On top of that, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander became the NBA scoring champion, the NBA Most Valuable Player, the Western Conference Finals MVP, and the NBA Finals MVP.
All of that success comes with a lot of haters, apparently. OKC has kind of become the league's villains this season. SGA cannot escape the "foul-baiting" accusations, and Lu Dort has become recognized as a cheap-shot artist. Nikola Jokic almost lost it on Dort over one of those incidents.
That's where the Spurs come in. Led by Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio has found a real rhythm this year and is playing incredible basketball. The Thunder remain the top team in the league and the West, but the Spurs are only two games back from them. A face-off in the postseason is likely.
The Spurs and Thunder NBA playoff series could be incredible
Over the course of the 2025-2026 regular season, the Spurs and the Thunder faced off a total of five times. There were four matches on the original schedule, then a fifth was added as a result of the NBA Cup Tournament. As it turned out, this in-season series told fans a lot about the Spurs.
The key to winning in the playoffs is being able to beat a team four times in a best-of-seven series. Taking out the reigning champs is no small feat, particularly when they're still firing on all cylinders. Beating them four times in seven games is a difficult task, to say the least.
San Antonio beat OKC four out of five times this season. Had this been a best-of-seven series at any point in the playoffs, the Spurs would have knocked the Thunder out. If nothing else, this proves San Antonio has what it takes to make a likely Western Conference Finals against OKC interesting.
Naturally, this doesn't guarantee anything. OKC is the champion, and the Spurs have little to no playoff experience. Frankly, both teams have to make the WCF in the first place, and other worthy contenders like the Nuggets and Wolves won't make it easy on either of them.