OKC Thunder One Win Away from Reaching the 'End Goal'

As premature as it might've sounded just a couple of years ago, the Oklahoma City Thunder is one win away from capturing its first championship in franchise history.

Even further than the 2012 squad could go with Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant and James Harden at the forefront, Oklahoma City will head into Indianapolis for Game 6 against the Indiana Pacers. The Thunder's corps is equally as young as its former Finals squad, but has developed into an even stronger group with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams.

The current group of Oklahoma City will tell it themselves — it's hard for them to even imagine being on this stage at this point in their individual careers. General manager Sam Presti has built the team's trajectory by taking the steps, rather not rushing the process.

Nevertheless, the Thunder is in this position and is determined to break through preconceived expectations. All the work put in over the seasons is potentially coming to fruition.

"If you sit and talk about doing something for a long time, and you don't actually do everything every single day that it takes to work towards that, you're never going to get there," Holmgren said. "There really is no focusing on the end goal while you're in it. You know what the end goal is, but at the end of the day, you got to focus on what you have to do every single day to get better every day, to put yourself in a position to try and reach that."

It's been a relatively short journey compared to the norm for not just Holmgren, but Oklahoma City as a whole. NBA Finals winners usually take at least a few years of playoff tribulations before reaching the mountaintop, but the Thunder simply went from barely missing the playoffs to back-to-back No. 1 seeds in the Western Conference.

Some might say Oklahoma City isn't as experienced as it needs to be, or that it needs to go through more adversity. So far, at least, that hasn't seemed to play a factor in the success the franchise has found.

Game 6 is the test.

"I feel like I've seen my fair share of adversity. I'm going to continue to see that. I have to continue to work hard through it all," Holmgren said. "As a team, no matter what we see, we kind of come together over it good or bad. We're going to continue to do that no matter what happens."