NBA Playoffs 2025: Can Anyone In The West Take Down The Oklahoma City Thunder?

The Oklahoma City Thunder have dominated the 2024-25 season, entering the playoffs with the best record in the NBA. But despite their historic run, these three Western Conference teams are built to challenge and potentially upset the Thunder in the 2025 NBA Playoffs.

All season, the Oklahoma City Thunder have staked their claim as the undisputed top team in the Western Conference. At 68-14, they finished 16 games clear of the second-seeded Houston Rockets and look like one of the most dominant regular season groups the league has seen in a while. Barring unforeseen developments such as injury, it seems quite the lofty task for anyone out West to dethrone the Thunder in the NBA Playoffs.

But there are plenty of suitors playing good basketball and rounding into peak form as the postseason nears. So, the Sportscasting crew banded together and picked three teams with a chance to do so. Let’s get to it.

Houston Rockets

The Houston Rockets have already stolen two games from the Oklahoma City Thunder this season, including a resounding win last week. Houston scraps its way to wins like few teams can, dominating on the offensive glass and swarming on the defensive end. It can match Oklahoma City strength for strength, comfortable living in chaotic, defense-centric games.

The Rockets busted out the double-big lineup in their latest matchup with Oklahoma City, playing Alperen Şengün and Steven Adams together to counter Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein. They rebounded an enormous 40.4 percent of their misses in that win, compared to 21.7 percent for the Thunder.

Houston has been highly effective with Adams and Şengün on the floor together, sporting a staggering plus-35.2 net rating in 144 minutes. This is one of the few teams — and, possibly, the only team — that can match Oklahoma City’s lineup versatility. The Rockets’ double-big lineups fully unlock this, but they’re comfortable playing with no centers as well against the Thunder’s small-ball units.

To win a playoff series versus the Thunder, the Rockets will likely need some fortunate shooting variance to swing their way. That will be the case for nearly every team against Oklahoma City, though. They have the personnel to make Shai Gilgeous-Alexander uncomfortable and force others to crack their defense.

Some teams just won’t have answers for many of the Thunder’s punches. But theoretically, Houston should have something up its sleeve no matter what the Thunder toss out. That gives this group a fighting chance to upset the best in the West. -Ben Pfeifer

Los Angeles Lakers

After the Los Angeles Lakers split a competitive two-game series versus the Oklahoma City Thunder over the past few days, there’s been much discussion about how well Los Angeles could threaten the top dog in the Western Conference.

Of course, it’s hard to take away too much from games that mean everything for the Lakers, which are fighting for playoff seeding, and mean nothing for the Thunder, which have locked up home-court advantage throughout the Western Conference playoffs.

Still, let’s walk through the argument.

The Thunder force teams to take a lot of threes. Cleaning The Glass says they’re 28th in opponent three-point frequency and dead last in corner three frequency. That’s a direct result of their chaos-driven, ultra-aggressive defensive style, which has helped them to a historic defensive season.

Since acquiring Luka Doncic, the Lakers, meanwhile, have generated the third most “open” 3-point attempts in the league and take the third-most threes overall.

The Lakers’ ball-handling trio of Doncic, LeBron James and Austin Reaves provides myriad problems for defenses with their ability to drive, create paint touches and generate open looks from the perimeter.  It just so happened the Lakers made most of those looks versus the Thunder – shooting 55 percent in their first game and 45 percent in their second game beyond the arc.

They’ve also thrived playing small since adding Doncic. Across 85 minutes, the Lakers own a net rating of plus-16 when their small-ball lineup of Doncic-Reaves-James-Rui Hachimura-Dorian Finney-Smith is on the floor. Sometimes, they’ll swap Hachimura for Jarred Vanderbilt to offer even more defensive punch. Those lineups won their minutes in both games against the Thunder and forced the Oklahoma City to downsize as well.

That battle between the Lakers’ small-ball units and the Thunder double-big lineups will likely be the swing factor in any series featuring these teams. That being said, though, it’ll still be quite the challenge for the Lakers to pull off an upset, even if they have a potential blueprint on how to do so. -Es Baraheni

Los Angeles Clippers

Against all odds, the Los Angeles Clippers are in the thick of things as the postseason nears, tied for fourth in the Western Conference at 48-32. Since March 5, they’re 16-3, first in offensive rating and net rating, and third in defensive rating. In that span, Kawhi Leonard has played 15 games, averaging 24.9 points (61.9 percent true shooting), 7.1 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.1 steals.

Not only are the Clippers clicking at the right time and their best player has returned to his old dominant self, but this team is uniquely equipped to deal with the head honcho in the West, the historically great Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Clippers are similar to the Houston Rockets in that they employ rangy point-of-attack defenders (Kris Dunn, Derrick Jones Jr. and Amir Coffey), who can muck up the Thunder’s drive-heavy scheme, and a mammoth center (Ivica Zubac) to test Oklahoma City’s physicality on the boards.

What separates them from the Rockets is they actually have the offense to keep up with the Thunder. The Rockets own major question marks surrounding their on-ball creation and spacing, leading to serious limitations in the half-court offensively.

The Clippers seem to have vanquished these demons. With Leonard, Norman Powell, James Harden and Bogdan Bogdanovic, they tout enough cooks in the kitchen to generate efficient offense. And the acquisition of Bogdanovic has also done wonders for their spacing. They’re second in 3-point percentage since he made his Clippers’ debut on Feb. 12.

Along with being the top-ranked offense, they also boast the NBA’s best half-court offense since March 5 – a clear testament to their blend of on-ball creation and spacing.

In theory, the Clippers are the perfect counter to Oklahoma City. They have the personnel to bog down the Thunder’s third-ranked offense, the offensive firepower to stretch the limits of their titanic defense and the size to poke at their biggest weakness (rebounding/physicality).

This is the mother of all “ifs,” but if the Clippers can stay healthy, the Thunder better hope they don’t have to see them in the playoffs this spring. -Mat Issa