Thunder vs Spurs feels predestined for West finals, not just for this year's NBA Playoffs
· Yahoo Sports
We’re not even one round into the playoffs, but it’s hard not to zoom ahead to a Western Conference Finals matchup that seems all but predestined.
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The two teams were the cream of the conference in the regular season, and they’ve risen to the top in these playoffs.
Phoenix and Portland have been overmatched. Denver has flopped and Minnesota feels like a loser even if it wins given the Wolves’ injuries. The Rockets have imploded and the Lakers — even with a healthy Austin Reaves and Luka Doncic (and the latter seems like a big if) — are no match for the Thunder.
Everything is pointing toward Thunder-Spurs.
We might be saying that for the rest of the decade.
Let’s get to the rest of the Minutes.
Mark Daigneault’s place as playoff head coach
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault entered Monday night with a 25-11 record in the playoffs.
The NBA, in its playoff media guide, listed the all-time coaches by playoff winning percentage (minimum 40 games). I don’t know where the 40 games threshold came from, but Daigneault is only a few games away from qualifying.
As of now, Daigneault’s .694 winning percentage in the playoffs would rank first among the qualified coaches.
1. Phil Jackson: .688 (229-104)
2. Steve Kerr: .684 (104-48)
3. Joe Mazzulla: .660 (33-17)
4. John Kundla: .632 (60-35)
5. Billy Cunningham: .629 (66-39)
6. Larry Costello: .617 (37-23)
7. Larry Bird: .615 (32-20)
8. Pat Riley: .606 (171-111)
9. Gregg Popovich: .599 (170-114)
10. Chuck Daly: .595 (75-51)
A couple of notes: Spurs coach Mitch Johnson is off to a 3-1 start in the playoffs, giving him a .750 winning percentage. Former Cavaliers coach David Blatt went 14-6 in the playoffs, but his .700 winning percentage doesn’t qualify.
2026 NFL Draft by the numbers: New Big 12 schools show out
87: SEC players drafted. Alabama and Texas A&M had 10 each. OU had seven. The SEC produced 19 more draft picks than the Big Ten despite the SEC having two fewer schools. The SEC is deeper, but the Big Ten can claim supremacy having claimed each of the last three national championships. No school produced more draft picks than Ohio State (11).
40th: The Chiefs selected OU edge rusher R Mason Thomas with the 40th pick. Thomas was the first Sooner off the board. The Chiefs now have five Sooners on their roster: Thomas, Creed Humphrey, Wanya Morris, James Winchester and Ethan Downs.
38: Big 12 players drafted. Tied with the ACC. The 38 picks were the most in Big 12 history. On one hand, it’s not surprising. There are 16 teams in the league. More teams equals more picks. On the other hand, it’s still impressive given the departures of OU and Texas.
6: Big 12 players taken in the first round. And here’s what I found interesting: After Texas Tech edge rusher David Bailey went second overall to the Jets, the next five Big 12 first-rounders were all from new Big 12 schools. Arizona State receiver Jordyn Tyson went eighth to the Saints. Utah offensive lineman Spencer Fano went ninth to the Browns. Arizona State offensive lineman Max Iheanachor went 21st to the Steelers. UCF edge rusher Malachi Lawrence went 23rd to the Cowboys. Utah offensive lineman Caleb Lomu went 28th to the Patriots.
9: Texas Tech players drafted. The Red Raiders, talent-wise, have separated themselves from the rest of the conference.
0: OSU players drafted. Same goes for Colorado and West Virginia.
OU football spring spotlight: Dakoda Fields
Small-school players transfer to bigger schools for more shine and more money. Big-school players transfer to smaller schools to get more playing time.
Dakoda Fields doesn’t fit in either category. The 6-foot-1 corner from Compton, California, transferred from one blue blood in Oregon to another in Oklahoma.
“I wanted a fresh start,” Fields told The Oklahoman at spring football media day. “A lot of things didn’t go my way.”
Fields missed all of 2024 with a knee injury and he only played in three games last season before entering the portal.
Oregon coach Dan Lanning sounded frustrated when asked about Fields leaving the team midseason.
“He didn’t come to work today,” Lanning said before an early November game at Iowa. “We haven’t talked to Dakoda. I guess that’s the way it goes nowadays.”
Fields said he was drawn to OU because of Brent Venables.
“They have a grimy but disciplined mindset,” said Fields, echoing one of Venables’ favorite words. “They know how to get their players going.”
Fields, going from one defense-first head coach in Lanning to another in Venables, said OU’s system is “a lot more complex.”
Same goes for the food scene in Norman compared to Eugene, apparently.
“Eugene, there weren't too many places,” Fields said. “It was a lot of fast food and I would get tired of it most of the time. Here, there is a lot more variety.”
Q&A: LIV Golf president Chris Heck has OKC connection
Chris Heck, the president of LIV Golf, was in Oklahoma City last week for the unveiling of OKGC — an Oklahoma-branded LIV team captained by Talor Gooch.
Heck spent 10 years as an executive with the Philadelphia 76ers, and before that he worked in the NBA’s league office. After Hurricane Katrina, Heck was involved in the Hornets’ temporary relocation to Oklahoma City. He remains close with Thunder chairman Clay Bennett.
Q: Take us back to how you first got connected with Clay Bennett and basketball in Oklahoma City.
Heck: “In 2005 Hurricane Katrina hit. A couple days after I got a call from (then-NBA commissioner) David Stern. He decided that he was going to move the team to Oklahoma City. It was a bit of a shock to all of us up in New York, but he was like, ‘Get on a plane, you’re going there. You’re gonna meet a guy named Clay Bennett. He’s the one that convinced me to do this out of all the cities that wanted it. And don’t ask any questions. Report to Clay.’
“And so I did. I came down here and was completely welcomed by some of the most powerful and influential people that I’ve come across in my career. Clay and I went door-to-door and we asked for support and community involvement with the business leaders. Two months later we launched the first game of the season in the NBA, and here we are 20 years later and you’re world champions. What (Bennett) has done and what he showed me is that caring about your city or your community, it matters. It’s a part of the fabric of what you do in business. It’s a part of the fabric of how you should walk through life. I just have the most respect for this market and for the leaders that started the Oklahoma City Thunder than I’ve come across in 34 years of my professional career.
Q: What was your role with the NBA?
Heck: “I worked for a department called team marketing and business operations. We were almost like internal consultants on the business. My specific job coming down here was to raise money for sponsorships to kind of keep this thing going. Someone else was assigned ticket sales, someone else marketing and so forth.”
Q: When you saw how the Hornets were welcomed, did you think that this market could one day have its own NBA team?
Heck: “Everything that Clay said he would do, he would do tenfold. It was a great education to not just the NBA, but to all of major-league sports. If you get the right community and you get the right leaders, you can actually make something happen that no one thought would be imaginable. This is a major sports town and state, and no one can deny that.”
Q: Being here 20 years later, how have you seen the city grow?
Heck: I wish they had more hotels like they now have. Listen, there’s great things to do here, there’s of course great people, and I love how they’ve centered it around an NBA franchise. The support, whether it’s softball or college football, we know the power of sport in this state. We think we can extend that into golf.”
Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at [email protected]. Support Joe's work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Thunder vs Spurs in Western Conference Finals feels predestined