{"id":733003,"date":"2026-05-13T05:30:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T05:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/733003\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T05:30:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T05:30:21","slug":"thunder-returns-to-wcf-for-sixth-time-in-18-seasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/733003\/","title":{"rendered":"Thunder returns to WCF for sixth time in 18 seasons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thunder returns to Western Conference finals for sixth time in 18 seasons<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City Thunder is back in the Western Conference finals, marking its sixth appearance in 18 seasons and becoming the first defending champion to reach this stage since 2019.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHEADQUARTERS THIS AFTERNOON. ONLY FOUR TEAMS HAVE SWEPT IN THEIR FIRST TWO SERIES IN THE NBA PLAYOFFS, BUT AFTER LAST NIGHT, THE THUNDER MAKE IT FIVE. THE THUNDER TOOK DOWN THE LAKERS 115 TO 110, BRINGING THEM TO EIGHT AND ZERO IN THEIR PLAYOFF RUN, WINNING EIGHT PLAYOFF GAMES IS REALLY HARD. YOU KNOW, WINNING A PLAYOFF GAME IS REALLY HARD. IT REQUIRES UNBELIEVABLE EFFORT AND FOCUS AND EXECUTION AND CONNECTEDNESS. AND WE\u2019VE BEEN VERY, VERY GOOD. I THINK LIKE I SAID TONIGHT I THOUGHT WE HAD MORE LAPSES TONIGHT THAN WE HAD HAD. THIS SERIES WAS TOUGH ON OKC SHAY GILGEOUS IN PARTICULAR, LEAVING IT UP TO PLAYERS LIKE AJ MITCHELL TO STEP UP AND KEEP THE THUNDER IN EACH GAME. NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, WE\u2019RE ALWAYS READY TO GO. AND THEN JUST THE CONFIDENCE AND THE TRUST THAT WE GET FROM THE COACHING STAFF AND AND OUR TEAMMATES, YOU KNOW THAT THAT GIVES US A HUGE BOOST. AND THAT\u2019S THAT\u2019S VERY SPECIAL. MITCHELL FINISHED LAST NIGHT\u2019S GAME WITH 28 POINTS OF HIS OWN. THE THUNDER HAVE THEIR EYES ON WHAT\u2019S TO COME. GETTING SOME TIME OFF FROM GAMES AS THE MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES AND THE SAN ANTONIO SPURS BATTLE TO SEE WHO GETS THAT SPOT IN THE NEXT SERIES. AFTER SCORING 35 POINTS IN GAME FOUR. SGA SAYS THAT\u2019S ALL IN THE REARVIEW IN THE PLAYOFFS. NO, NO. TWO GAMES ARE THE SAME, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU CHANGE OPPONENTS. SO. THE CHALLENGES ARE ALL. COMING UP. I GUESS YOU CAN SAY, LIKE, EVERYTHING THAT WE\u2019VE DONE SO FAR IS BEHIND US. WE STILL HAVEN\u2019T REACHED OUR GOAL. WE HAVE TWO MORE SERIES TO WIN TO REACH OUR ULTIMATE GOAL. ALTHOUGH THE THUNDER AREN\u2019T QUITE SURE WHO THEY PLAY NEXT, THE WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS MARKS THE NEXT STOP ON THE WAY TO THAT ULTIMAT\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Thunder returns to Western Conference finals for sixth time in 18 seasons<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City Thunder is back in the Western Conference finals, marking its sixth appearance in 18 seasons and becoming the first defending champion to reach this stage since 2019.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"KOCO<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tUpdated: 10:38 PM CDT May 12, 2026\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\tEditorial Standards \u24d8<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Oklahoma City Thunder has advanced to the Western Conference finals for the sixth time in the last 18 seasons, becoming the first defending champion to reach this stage since 2019.The Thunder and Spurs were the two best teams in the regular season and have been outstanding in the playoffs. Tessa Dorrell was at Thunder headquarters this afternoon. Open the video player above to watch.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The Oklahoma City Thunder has advanced to the Western Conference finals for the sixth time in the last 18 seasons, becoming the first defending champion to reach this stage since 2019.<\/p>\n

The Thunder and Spurs were the two best teams in the regular season and have been outstanding in the playoffs. <\/p>\n

Tessa Dorrell was at Thunder headquarters this afternoon. Open the video player above to watch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thunder returns to Western Conference finals for sixth time in 18 seasons Oklahoma City Thunder is back in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":733004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3783],"tags":[36827,7,21075,3585,6,310,475,179,3966,3965,1065,2084,90850,534,14290,90851,312,38531,11245,7892],"class_list":["post-733003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-afternoon","tag-basketball","tag-champion","tag-good-team","tag-nba","tag-oklahoma","tag-oklahoma-city","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-oklahomacity","tag-oklahomacitythunder","tag-playoff","tag-season","tag-sixth-time","tag-spurs","tag-stage","tag-tessa-dorrell","tag-thunder","tag-video-player","tag-wcf","tag-western-conference-final"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116565627991848066","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/733004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}