Each week during the 2023-24 NBA season, we will take a deeper dive into some of the league’s biggest storylines in an attempt to determine whether the trends are based more in fact or fiction moving forward.
[Last week: Is Nuggets-Celtics the NBA Finals we deserve?]
This week's topic: The Thunder don't need playoff scars
There was once a recipe to the NBA title, one the Chicago Bulls followed from the 1980s into a dynasty.
They drafted Michael Jordan in 1984, made their first playoff appearance with him a year later, lost a pair of first-round series to the three-time champion Boston Celtics, reached the second round in 1988, where they lost the first of three straight series to the two-time champion Detroit Pistons, including back-to-back conference finals, and broke through in 1991, defeating the five-time champion Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals.