One statistic shows that the duo of Thunder Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams are on the path that historically led to the NBA championship.
The Oklahoma City Thunder is back in the NBA Finals for the first time since 2012. They have Shy Gilgauss Alexander and Jalen Williams to thank for this.
The OKC star has already compared Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant. They are also favorites for winning the Indiana Pacers championship.
And while some stats back up OKC’s big advantage in the finals, what SGA and JDUB are doing is that they’ve only done three times in the last 50 seasons.
Entering the final, Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams averaged 20 points per game, five rebounds and more than five assists during the playoffs.
This is something only achieved by three other duos in the last 50 years of NBA history. Michael Jordan and Scotty Pippen first did that in 1991.
Two other examples of this are Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton in 2021, followed by Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray in 2023.
The general denominator of all these is that the Bulls, Bucks and Nuggets won the championship that season. Great sign of OKC.
Thunder is enjoying the best NBA season of all time during the 2024-25 campaign. The team dominated the league by winning 68 games in the regular season.
The SGA and the company lost four playoff games during the Western Conference run. Three of them were in the same series against Denver.
Thunder and Pacers were the two best teams in the league in 2025. However, OKC has an MVP and a more stacked roster.
Indiana has shown they can’t be underestimated in the playoffs, but their incredible standards have made expectations high from Oklahoma City.