The Oklahoma City Thunder probably know what the word “redemption” means, but let’s go to the dictionary anyway:
redemption (n.) – the action of regaining or gaining possession of something in exchange for payment, or clearing a debt.
The payments made by the Thunder — as they enter the Western Conference semifinals on Saturday against the San Antonio Spurs — refer to a 2016 season in which first-year head coach Billy Donovan has unavoidably had to learn on the job. Donovan has faced a steep learning curve as it is; not having Monty Williams at his side — due to the awful tragedy which engulfed Williams and his family — has made it even more difficult for the two-time national champion at the University of Florida to make a seamless transition to the pro game.
The payments made by the Thunder refer to a 2016 season in which Serge Ibaka is not as consistent a defensive presence as he was in past seasons. They refer to a 2016 season in which OKC has conspicuously struggled in fourth quarters, very much including a March game in which the Spurs slithered past them in San Antonio.
In many fourth quarters this season, the Thunder’s offense has forged no discernible improvements relative to the Scott Brooks era. Yet, OKC’s breakdowns have hardly been limited to the offensive end of the floor. In a March 12 loss in San Antonio, Russell Westbrook committed this memorable mistake:
As the Spurs moved the ball to LaMarcus Aldridge near the left elbow — Serge Ibaka had Aldridge locked down — you can see Westbrook leave Danny Green in the corner. Aldridge subsequently whipped the ball to Green, who didn’t miss a corner three, and the Spurs didn’t look back after snapping a 76-all tie.
From Donovan’s learning curve to the absence of Monty Williams to the repeated onslaught of fourth-quarter nightmares, Oklahoma City has paid many taxes and fees this season.
That’s not the end of OKC’s payments, of course.
The 2014 Western Conference Finals turned on the injury to Serge Ibaka, who — if healthy — might have made the Thunder the superior team. Injuries to Russell Westbrook marred both the 2013 and 2015 seasons, with Durant also being sidelined for much of the 2015 campaign.
Year after year since the 2012 Finals loss to the Miami Heat, the Thunder have been plagued by bad luck. The death of part-owner Aubrey McClendon belongs in a separate category altogether, far removed from — and much more more severe than — anything which happens on a basketball court. Yet, that event in a certain way epitomizes how the post-Finals existence of the Thunder — this franchise given two of the most luminous talents on the planet — has been a series of wrong turns.
Heading into the playoffs, nothing suggested that the Thunder had a real shot at winning the NBA title — the Golden State Warriors, with a healthy Steph Curry, were going to be too strong for them.
As the Thunder-Spurs series begins, of course, the tectonic plates of fate could be shaping a different landscape.
It could very well be that the Warriors will beat the Portland Trail Blazers (or the Clippers, but the Blazers are the more likely choice before Game 6 begins in that series on Friday night) in the West semifinals without need of Curry’s services. It could very well be that by the time the West Finals arrive, Curry will be right, and a Golden State of being will return to the reigning NBA champions. The winner of Thunder-Spurs will be relegated to second place.
Ah, but what if Curry remains a damaged player at best, and a jacket-and-jeans-wearing bystander at worst, in the playoffs? That changes everything.
If the Thunder — who beat the Spurs in the 2012 playoffs and might have done so again in 2014 if not for the injury bug — can produce one fortnight of their best basketball, especially in fourth quarters, they could suddenly enter the West Finals as the team with the inside track to the NBA title.
That idea seemed preposterous two weeks ago, and even more ludicrous at various points during a bumpy regular season.
Now? It doesn’t seem all that outrageous at all.
What makes the Thunder such a fascinating team is this very notion of fourth-quarter struggles. It’s not as though this team rarely plays well in general; its repeated stumbling block represents 25 percent of a given night’s work:
Why the Thunder aren't contenders in one graphic. That's nauseating. pic.twitter.com/XQ6njDyiL7
— Josh Eberley 🇨🇦 (@JoshEberley) April 3, 2016
It’s true that few people think Billy Donovan can hang with Gregg Popovich in a best-of-seven series. It’s true that a minority of people think the Thunder are going to be as discplined as Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Kawhi Leonard, and the rest of the Spurs.
Yet, OKC wore this basic label in 2012, and Scott Brooks coached his team to four consecutive wins over Pop after staring at a 2-0 deficit.
The Thunder did lose to the Spurs in the 2014 playoffs, but it’s not as though the Spurs represent OKC’s central nemesis. The Thunder have lost to a different team in each of their past five playoff trips. The Spurs are better viewed as a roadblock: If they weren’t so damn good, Oklahoma City would only need to focus on beating Golden State.
As it is, the Thunder must go through the Spurs before they can entertain the idea of facing the wounded Warriors, with a version of Steph which might be 50 percent of his normal self… if he even plays at all.
However, the fact that Steph’s health is very much a question mark in these playoffs unavoidably casts Thunder-Spurs in a different light. What might have seemed to be the equivalent of an Olympic bronze medal game is now very much a conference semifinal which feels like a conference final. The winner of this series could very well be considered the favorite to win the NBA title if Steph’s knee doesn’t cooperate with the rest of his body in the month of May.
Accordingly, the Oklahoma City Thunder — living in the shadows for so much of this season — can step out of the storm and into sunshine if they can beat the Spurs. They wouldn’t merely delay their execution at the hands of the Warriors; they really could find the path to the Western Conference championship, which has been the inside track to the Larry O’Brien Trophy ever since Golden State stormed the castle in the first month and a half of the regular season.
All the payments. All the misfortune. All the sacrifices made to the basketball gods. They could all meet with sweet redemption for the Oklahoma City Thunder if these next two weeks bring out the best in Billy Donovan’s bunch.
