Lessons are always hardest when learned by losing. Tonight the Oklahoma City Thunder learned a lesson. Don't struggle down the stretch. OKC was fighting for the sixth seed in the West at the end of the season. In their final 11 games, the fighting Clay Bennett's lost 5 games by eight points or less. That caused them to be the eighth seed and face the defending NBA champion Lakers in round 1.
However, this isn't an all negative post. We mustn't forget that a young Thunder squad who wasn't supposed to win 30 games all year came within 0.5 seconds of forcing a game 7 against the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs. In addition to that, the team went 50-32. That would be good enough for the fifth seed in the East, at the very least.
I could say the future is bright for this team, but that would be an understatement. With the team buying into Scott Brooks defense, Sam Presti doing a phenomenal in the front office and the fans in OKC as hyped as they are, this team may no doubt become a contender in the West, as early as next season.
Sure, it's hard to have a moral victory of "We almost" and "We were this close" but with another year comes more experience and with more experience comes more wisdom. This team has nothing to hang their heads about. It could always be worse. The Thunder could have been just like the Dallas Mavericks. 2 seed losing to the 6 seed Spurs and being bounced from the playoffs in the first round 3 of the last 4 years. The Thunder have the ingredients to make noise each year. We just have to let the oven preheat before baking.
