Thunder: Trounced a 67 win team and took a 73 win team to 7....

[DMC]

OKC should be proud. They didn't shrink. They are who they are and did what they did all season. They have flaws obviously but they were in every single game, even the last 3, with legit shots to win.

And as passive as that sounds, "legit shots to win" don't mean if you never win. Eventually they aren't legit shots for your team, though they might be for other teams. The Thunder are a "cusp" team. They have too much talent in too few players. They need a less talented PG and better outside shooters.

[midnightpulp]

lol equating getting upset with playing a horrible team...weren't the Pistons tied with you going into the 4th qtr of Game 7 of the Finals the following year? Lakers shat the bed for sure, but hindsight tells us that wasn't a scrub team that upset them. I wish we could've been so lucky to get the 8th-seeded Knicks or the 2007 Cavaliers in the Finals. We did, however, give you sloppy seconds on that ty Nets team.

You got the '09 Magic, who were lead by the biggest mental midget of his era (Howard), and who were also without Jameer Nelson (yeah, they brought him back in limited minutes after he missed the entire playoffs). He was an all-star that season, and killed the Lakers all year.

The Knicks were bad. But no one was beating the Spurs that season. They went 46-7 (including playoffs) after a 6-8 start.

[Sean Cagney]

Don't forget the team in 2004 who had 4 HOF's and got their kicked in severely by Detroit in those finals man.. That one was good. Spurs were never supposed to win it all this year spite the 67 wins, GSW were always the faves to win it all no if and or buts about it. Spurs did blow it though and that is no lie, they so called choked and I agree with that part there at least. They had some calls go against them for sure, but you don't lose a game 2 or 5 at home when you go 41-1 all year.... LA in 2004 though is up there as well as the 67 win first round exit Mavs who were heavily favored to win it all.

[DD]

You got the '09 Magic, who were lead by the biggest mental midget of his era (Howard), and who were also without Jameer Nelson (yeah, they brought him back in limited minutes after he missed the entire playoffs). He was an all-star that season, and killed the Lakers all year.

The Knicks were bad. But no one was beating the Spurs that season. They went 46-7 (including playoffs) after a 6-8 start.

Actually trying to bring Nelson back ultimately assisted their undoing. Skip to my Lou was filling in nicely against the Celtics and in their huge upset over Cleveland...plus, Nelson is the idiot who let Fisher get off an uncontested 3 to force OT in Game 4, and ultimately win us the series. Don't forget Game 2 either, where Courtney Lee missed the gimmie inbounds layup ftw. They were no prized opponent, but that team beat a much-better version of the Cavs than their 2007 predecessors. 2007 Cleveland Cavaliers are simply the worst Finals team in our lifetimes

[midnightpulp]

Actually trying to bring Nelson back ultimately assisted their undoing. Skip to my Lou was filling in nicely against the Celtics and in their huge upset over Cleveland...plus, Nelson is the idiot who let Fisher get off an uncontested 3 to force OT in Game 4, and ultimately win us the series. Don't forget Game 2 either, where Courtney Lee missed the gimmie inbounds layup ftw. They were no prized opponent, but that team beat a much-better version of the Cavs than their 2007 predecessors. 2007 Cleveland Cavaliers are simply the worst Finals team in our lifetimes

I think anyone from the East in '07 would've been terrible. Detroit was past their prime. Miami declined massively. Other than that, no team in that conference had much of a pulse. The real Finals was obviously Spurs vs. the Suns.

[oh crap]

OKC should be proud.

nope. not tonight. not anymore. not good enough. overachieving or not, losing 3 straight to choke away a conference finals is nothing to feel good about. they had game 6 in the bag, hold on for a few minutes and close it out at home. instead they're going to be a stepping stone to GS repeating. hardly anything to be proud about. ain't no trophies for moral victories.

[DD]

The real Finals was obviously Spurs vs. the Suns.

Absolutely

[Sean Cagney]

They would have destroyed the Cavs though.

TBH most of the West would have beaten them IMO as far as the playoff teams go. That Cavs team outside of Lebron was not very good. I am still shocked they beat Detroit and denied Detroit and SA part 2. I wonder how many games that would have gone to this day.

[Caltex2]

Good catch. I usually give him a pass for 2007--he was a kid and that was just an atrocious team, probably the worst Finals participant I've seen in my lifetime.

You weren't old enough to remember the Nets teams of the same decade?

[Obstructed_View]

The Thunder played great, and have nothing to be ashamed of from this season.

That said, at a loser Suns fan trying to piggyback on it to slam the Spurs because he's still mad about Nash's flop into the scorer's table.

[Caltex2]

The Thunder blew a chance to become the first team to beat two 67+ win teams in the same playoffs, including the first to ever beat a 70+ win team. And what a shame because based on how they were playing at the time, they were the better team but I guess not if they didn't have the killer instinct. Just like Phi Slama Jama, they left the door creaking open until the other more clutch team found a way in.

[Killakobe81]

LOL when Laker fan tries to act like that series wasn't an enormous upset. Since OKC couldn't close the deal the 04 Finals still probably stands as the greatest upset in league history.

On paper? Sure it was lots of hype on the "04 Lakers"
But the moment Colorado went down so did our le chances ...
That a whole season was on Kobe not just the Finals by the Finals we were done ...
Not even sure how we made Finals with:
Kobe jetting back and forth to face rape charges ...
Losing his endorsements
The fued with Shaq going public
Phil and GP beefingbover triangle
Gp pissed at shaq's pnr defense
Malone hitting on Vanessa ...

What a ing dysfunctional team if you were paying attention, no way that team should have made the finals.

[baseline bum]

lol equating getting upset with playing a horrible team...weren't the Pistons tied with you going into the 4th qtr of Game 7 of the Finals the following year? Lakers shat the bed for sure, but hindsight tells us that wasn't a scrub team that upset them. I wish we could've been so lucky to get the 8th-seeded Knicks or the 2007 Cavaliers in the Finals. We did, however, give you sloppy seconds on that ty Nets team.

The Nets and Sixers were juggernauts?

[Mnky]

Gotta give them credit where credit is due...this forum is trash. Doesnt even give champions credit...but makes every excuse for the Spurs aka the biggest playoff chokers in NBA history after this years performance.

Westbrook and Durant definitely deserve credit for getting 3 games and knocking off the spurs at their Home. The same argument could be said for lma and Kawhi tho, who has an older and less productive team to carry tbh. Credit where credit is due.

[jag]

Oh look, da_suns_fan defending losers again. You gonna throw a parade for them too?

[baseline bum]

On paper? Sure it was lots of hype on the "04 Lakers"
But the moment Colorado went down so did our le chances ...
That a whole season was on Kobe not just the Finals by the Finals we were done ...
Not even sure how we made Finals with:
Kobe jetting back and forth to face rape charges ...
Losing his endorsements
The fued with Shaq going public
Phil and GP beefingbover triangle
Gp pissed at shaq's pnr defense
Malone hitting on Vanessa ...

What a ing dysfunctional team if you were paying attention, no way that team should have made the finals.

It's revisionist history to not act like that was an enormous upset.

[midnightpulp]

It's revisionist history to not act like that was an enormous upset.

Are you surprised? Lakerfans never own losses.

- Get swept by the Spurs in '99.

"Uh, uh, Kobe wasn't in his prime yet and we didn't have Phil!"

- Lose to the Spurs in '03

"Shaq and Kobe were feuding. Shaq was also overweight!"

- Blow 3-1 lead to the Suns

"They were the much better team anyway. No one even expected us to compete!"

- Lose '08 Finals, which involved blowing a 24 point second half lead on their home floor and culminated in a 40 point beatdown in the closeout game.

"We didn't have Bynum. Also, that Celtics team was obviously much better." (never mind the fact pretty much everyone had the Lakers winning that series. I mean, the Atlanta Hawks put up more of a fight than the Lakers against that team )

But when the Lakers win, it's always against the other team's peak, like the '01 series, when we were shuffling out corpses on the perimeter. Or the pre-Manu '02 squad. We did choke against them in '04, though. Or that geriatric 50 win Boston team they beat in '10 to get "revenge."

[djohn2oo8]

People are defending OKC as in they didnt blow this series and their best shot at a le...

[midnightpulp]

People are defending OKC as in they didnt blow this series....

It's sickening.

"Golden State just woke up and proved how good they really were!"

Bull . Game 6, score was 97-92 in OKC's favor with 4:48 left in the game. How did OKC close out? Scored 4 in' total points, with Westbrook and Durant going 0-5 and committing 6 turnovers. That is a "choke." The Thunder as a whole also shot 3-23 from 3 in the game. No NBA three-point defense is that good. Simply put: Assholes puckered.

[Killakobe81]

It's revisionist history to not act like that was an enormous upset.

Pleae read the first line of what I wrote ... I never said it wasnt an upset.
Based on hype it was huge one ... I remember there were T-shirts calling the Lakers the "matrix Re-loaded" (so gla dI did not buy one)
No one is failing to own anything ...
We lost with home court advantage as well
My point was if you know hoops and you actually followed the Lakers that team was a complete mess.

1. .4 Porobably saves us from losing in the 2nd round ...
2. GP got benched because Phil blamed GP for Tony torching us the first two games ...

That team was one of the worst chemistry teams of any legit contender I have ever seen up close.

Let's say

1. Westbrook was going to Rick Bucher and saying that Durant was lazy and needed to get his ass in the weight room, mid season ...Durant counters with I will pplay defense only if I get fed with some analogy that a dog wont guard the house if he is not fed.
2. Durant has a pressor in training camp and says he was "there early this year to be there for his team-mates and names everyone EXCEPT Westbrook. When asked if he had made a mistake he repeats the same names again. (this happened in Hawaii to start the season in 2003-2004)
3. Westbrook gets accused of rape says Durant has bought his way out of a similar cir stances and the police let that slip ...
4. Wesbrook gets dropped by Mountain Dew and Jordan Brand (kobe kept his shoe deal bought lost Sprite/Mcdonald's)
5. Ibaka or Adams suffers a knee injury in the WCF
6. Westbrook accuses Steven Adams of hitting on his wife ... something about hunting for female monkeys and he was a big game hunter back in NZ

None of this excuses the losss. None of this means it wasnt still an upset. I am just saying if you watched the Pistons play defense and if you followed the drama around the lakers I Knew we would not win a le and was surprised we made it that far. I cannot help if you bought the hype, bum. do you remember the Matrix shirts I am talking about they were all over L.A. that summer ...I even thought about getting one before Colorado.

[Killakobe81]

Side note: I remeber calling my mom that year (i was already out of state) she is huge Kobe fan ...
And telling her Kobe just cost us the le.
I absolutely thought we would ring before colorado.
No doubt in my mind.
Thought that was ours.
By June I knew we would not beat Detroit but that summer?
I also bought the hype ...before Colorado.

[Killakobe81]

It's sickening.

"Golden State just woke up and proved how good they really were!"

Bull . Game 6, score was 97-92 in OKC's favor with 4:48 left in the game. How did OKC close out? Scored 4 in' total points, with Westbrook and Durant going 0-5 and committing 6 turnovers. That is a "choke." The Thunder as a whole also shot 3-23 from 3 in the game. No NBA three-point defense is that good. Simply put: Assholes puckered.

I agree MId. and the love I showed Russ through 5 games deserves an equal amount of shaming. when people say they have 2 of the 5 best players in the world you have a 5 point lead at home with a le on the line that is a choke. Just like Manu and KL choked Ft's in game 6 in 2013 ...
Or the Lakers in 1984 when Worthy threw the ball and Henderson stole it ...
Or Bird stealing from Isiah ...
Or the blazers choking to the Lakers in 2000 WCf
OR clips losing a 3-1 Lead to the rox

All those teams had a chance to closeout a team they had on the ropes and failed.

[Killakobe81]

Even thread has abandoned Russ officially labeling him a "loser".
I wont go that far but he did choke and I was disappointed in his play.

[Kawhitstorm]

The "We Believe" Warriors trounced a 67 win team & took down the MVP.

[Kawhitstorm]

I am just saying if you watched the Pistons play defense and if you followed the drama around the lakers I Knew we would not win a le and was surprised we made it that far.

They would have probably lost to the Wolves in the WCF if Cassell wasn't injured but the Wolves were the best team in the league when healthy.

But as far a the Finals: