The Oklahoma City Thunder are an old-school juggernaut lording over a new, supposedly wide-open NBA

The story of these NBA playoffs has been the league’s newfound and designed parity, and for good reason. The margins in this postseason field have felt virtually nonexistent. Seeds have hardly mattered, creating a perception that this championship chase is actually wide-open. 

But in reality, it’s not. 

With their 118-103 victory over the Timberwolves on Thursday, the Oklahoma City Thunder, who now lead the Western Conference finals 2-0, continue to distance themselves from an otherwise evenly matched pack. The truth is, the parity of this particular race lies in the battle for second place between a bunch of good-but-not-great teams fighting to win the inches that separate them. 

Meanwhile, of the four teams still alive, Oklahoma City is miles ahead and well on its way, barring some sort of significant injury, to winning the title. The Timberwolves will tell themselves they’re still in this series, but they’re not. Whoever comes out of the East will lose, too. The Thunder are too much. 

Naysayers will use the fact that OKC needed seven games to get past Denver, or even that they actually might’ve had some trouble with Memphis if Ja Morant didn’t get hurt — a feeble attempt to paint a picture of a team still young enough to be vulnerable. That might’ve been true had Boston stayed healthy and not blown two 20-point leads to the Knicks, but the moment the Celtics went down, OKC became far and away the best team left. 

The Wolves are realizing this in real time. They can’t score on the Thunder, and they can’t stop them, either. OKC has the MVP in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander backed by one of the greatest defenses in history. It’s like if prime Aaron Rodgers was the quarterback of the 2001 Ravens. Just throw in the towel.

If you think about it, the Thunder have the makings of an old-school dynasty in a supposedly new NBA landscape, where teams are meant to be created relatively equal. They have the defense. The depth. The MVP. And they’re all young enough to keep this thing going for quite a while. 

It’s a little reminiscent of the 2015 Warriors, another team that sort of fast-forwarded through a couple years of playoff experience before suddenly turning into a juggernaut on the strength of an MVP point guard and an all-time defense. People weren’t comfortable with how quickly it all happened. They didn’t trust it. They said they had to see it to believe it. 

And like these Thunder having to go to seven games with the Nuggets, those Warriors were in real trouble in the second round when they went down 2-1 to Memphis. But once they got through that series, they were on their way to not just one championship, but multiple titles. 

So are the Thunder, who have used that nervy series against the Nuggets as a sort of tension release, and you can see them, feel them, putting the pedal to the floor as the first glimpse of the finish line starts to comes into view. They’ve won 78 games in the regular season and playoffs combined, and 60 of them have come by double digits — tied for the most ever with the 2016-17 Warriors.

The Thunder only needs six more wins. Don’t be surprised if they don’t lose again. 

The Timberwolves are a strong, physical defense and OKC is getting any shot it wants. What, the Pacers or the Knicks are going to defend SGA better? He averaged 36 in two wins against New York in the regular season. He put 45 on the Pacers the day after Christmas. 

Hell, the Thunder haven’t even started making their 3s yet. During the regular season, they were the sixth best 3-point shooting team in the league at just under 15 makes per game at a 37.4% clip, but those numbers are down to 12.1 and 32.5% in the playoffs. What happens when a few more of those start going in? 

Even if they don’t, this defense can win a title damn near on its own. The Thunder are the best team in the league at defending outside the 3-point line and inside the restricted area, the two holy lands of modern offense, and on top of that they create more turnovers than anyone else. 

If you do just one of those things you’re a really good defense. To be the best at them all is like a pitcher having the league’s best fastball, curveball and changeup. It’s just a guessing game at that point. Close your eyes and hope you accidentally connect. 

So far, the Wolves aren’t connecting on anything. They’ve shot 90 3-pointers in two games and made just 26. That’s a 28% clip. It might be OK if the Wolves were making a bunch of 2s, but they can’t do that either. OKC is just swarming to every potential scoring spot. When Rudy Gobert is on the floor, both of OKC’s bigs can basically park themselves at the rim. Anthony Edwards, who managed just 13 shots in Game 1, was able to get into the paint more on Thursday, but the 2-point math isn’t going to add up for him when he’s 4 for 17 from 3 — not even when OKC is missing its own 3s. 

That’s how big the Thunder’s margin is here. For Minnesota to even be competitive for a full 48 minutes, they have to get unusually hot from 3, on supremely contested shots, and get big games from all their guys while OKC stays cold. And that’s just to keep it close. 

It’s not going to happen. And it’s not a knock on the Wolves. They’re one of a whole bunch of really good teams across a wildly competitive NBA landscape. It’s just that the Thunder are a great team, and the significant difference between a bunch of good teams and one great team is really starting to show up.