Oklahoma City Thunder first NBA play-off finalists

(Patria) - Oklahoma City Thunder basketball players are the first finalists of the North American NBA league play-offs. In the fifth game of the Western Conference Finals, Thunder defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves with a score of 124:94, securing their place in the NBA Finals with an overall 4:1 win record.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander shone in the game at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City with 34 points, eight assists, and seven rebounds. His team has thus qualified for the NBA Finals for the first time since 2012, when they also eliminated the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Thunder will host the first game of the NBA Finals on June 5th against the winner of the Eastern Conference. The Indiana Pacers currently lead 3:1 against the New York Knicks.

Chet Holmgren added 22 points, and Jalen Williams scored 19 for the Thunder, who, with an average age of 25.6 years, represent the youngest team in the NBA Finals since Portland in 1977.

Julius Randle led Minnesota with 24 points, while Anthony Edwards added 19. The Timberwolves have never played in the NBA Finals.

Oklahoma City has never won an NBA title, although the franchise under the name Seattle SuperSonics did so in 1979, before moving to Oklahoma in 2008. Thunder last played in the Finals in 2012, when they lost to Miami.

Thunder had the best record in the league during the regular season – 68 wins and only 14 losses.
On their way to the finals, Oklahoma first eliminated the Memphis Grizzlies 4:0, and then won against the Denver Nuggets 4:3 in the semi-finals. Minnesota eliminated Luka Dončić's LA Lakers in the first round with a 4:1 score, and then Golden State with the same result.