The Oklahoma City beat the Denver Nuggets on Sunday to advance to the Conference Finals, where they will take on the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Thunder were easily the best team in the NBA all season and are the favoirtes to win the NBA Finals, and are led by MVP frontrunner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Oklahoma City hasn’t been to the NBA Finals since 2012, when Kevin Durant, James Harden and Russell Westbrook led the way into a matchup with Miami in a series that saw LeBron James win his first championship.

The New York Knicks haven't won an NBA championship since 1973. The Indiana Pacers won their most recent title that year — in the ABA. The Oklahoma City Thunder franchise has one title in its history, that coming in 1979 when the team called Seattle home. And the Minnesota Timberwolves have never even been to the NBA Finals.

In a recent mock draft on Bleacher Report, Jonathan Wasserman has the Thunder selecting Liam McNeeley, a former five-star UConn product. At 6-foot-7, 210 pounds, Wasserman compared McNeeley to Sacramento Kings forward Keegan Murray.

The Thunder have been a championship favorite all year. Now, the Knicks are emerging as potentially their closest foe.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was the best player on the floor in the Thunder’s Game 7 win on Sunday as a young squad passed their biggest playoff test yet.

For the first time in nearly a decade, the OKC Thunder is headed to the Western Conference finals. To get there, it took surviving the Denver Nuggets.