Every NBA team’s greatest playoff moment

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Oklahoma City Thunder: Mavs, Lakers, Spurs to Finals (2012 NBA Playoffs)

What Russell Westbrook was able to accomplish in the 2016-17 regular season is truly legendary. Analytics can pick apart his efficiency, but arguments about him stat-chasing are largely unfounded. The Oklahoma City Thunder guard single-handedly willed a sub-par supporting cast around him to the sixth seed in the Western Conference. Once upon a time, though, Westbrook wasn’t forced to deal with the same amount of pressure as Kevin Durant and James Harden were there with him.

Just four months (give or take) after the 2012 NBA Finals, Harden was traded to the Houston Rockets. However, he was integral component with Westbrook and Durant in the Thunder’s greatest playoff moment to date: the 2012 playoffs in their entirety.

Yes, Oklahoma City was eventually bounced in the Finals with relative ease by a hungry LeBron James and the Miami Heat as The King won his first career championship. However, the road that the Thunder had to take to get to the Finals against the Heat proved that they had arrived as many had hoped they would.

The Thunder began the playoffs against the defending champion Dallas Mavericks. Though the Mavericks had a different look, the Thunder still dispatched a veteran group by way of a sweep. Next up was Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers. That series was hard-fought from LA, but the Oklahoma City trio of stars was again too much. Just for good measure, the Thunder then had to take out the San Antonio Spurs, which they did in thrilling six-game series.

Looking back on the 2012 run from the Thunder, it’s hard not to wonder about what could’ve been. The Harden trade was defensible, but it’s still difficult to swallow the notion of that trio getting to develop further together, especially when you look at what they accomplished in those playoffs.

Note: The Seattle SuperSonics history is technically associated with the Thunder, but was not considered when looking for Oklahoma City’s greatest moment.

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