For the third straight year, the Oklahoma City Thunder were eliminated from the first round of the playoffs. In 2017, it was excused, as the clearly overmatched Thunder lost in the first round to the Houston Rockets. But these last two years? It has been a bad look for Oklahoma City.
First, the Thunder fell in six games to the lower-seeded Jazz last spring. Just last week, Oklahoma City was defeated in five games by the Portland Trail Blazers, a series many picked OKC to win.
Thunder general manager Sam Presti did not mince words when asked about the series against the Blazers, saying they simply got their behinds whooped, according to Royce Young of ESPN.
For an Oklahoma City team that had been used to deep playoff runs prior to Kevin Durant departing during the summer of 2016, the lack of postseason success over the last three years has to sting.
This year may have been especially smarting, as the Thunder looked to be a top-three team in the Western Conference for much of the year until a post-All-Star break slide knocked them down to sixth in the standings.
Still, with Russell Westbrook and Paul George leading the charge, many felt Oklahoma City would be able to dispatch Portland and had a real chance of meeting the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Finals.
Instead, the Thunder went out with merely a whimper. You have to wonder if there will be some sweeping changes in Oklahoma City this summer.