Heading into the 2025 NBA Playoffs, the Oklahoma City Thunder might just be the team to beat in the Western Conference.
They are led by one of the best players in the NBA right now in guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and the team finished the 2024-25 regular season with the NBA’s best record at 68-14. To put the Thunder’s historically dominant regular season into perspective, Oklahoma City is one of just seven teams in league history to win 68 games or more in a single season.
But even though the Thunder ran roughshod over their competition in the regular season, former NBA big man Dwight Howard thinks that the Lakers can beat the Thunder and even boldly claimed that Oklahoma City is “afraid” of the Lakers.
“The only team I see giving them trouble is Denver — and they can beat Denver,” Howard told Basketball Insiders while explaining who in the West could give the Lakers problems. “OKC is afraid of them, they can beat OKC. I see no problems with OKC.”
The Denver Nuggets have had Los Angeles’ number in recent years, as big man Nikola Jokic and company ended the Lakers’ season in each of the last two playoffs. Denver beat the Lakers in five games in the first round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs and swept the storied franchise in the 2023 Western Conference Finals.
Maybe Howard is letting his bias get in the way by asserting that the Thunder are scared of the Lakers. After all, he spent a good chunk of his playing career with Los Angeles and even helped the team win its 17th championship banner in the year 2020.
But in Howard’s defense, the Lakers just so happen to employ a star player that was hugely responsible for ending the Thunder’s stint in the 2024 NBA Playoffs. The Dallas Mavericks eliminated the Thunder in the second round, and Oklahoma City had no answer for guard Luka Doncic, as he averaged 24.7 points, 10.5 rebounds and 8.7 assists per game.
If the Lakers and Thunder do end up crossing paths in the 2025 NBA Playoffs, it won’t be until the Western Conference Finals because of how the playoff bracket is formatted.
The Lakers are the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference, meaning if they advance past the first round, they will take on the winner of the playoff series between the No. 2 and No. 7 seeds in the second round.
