The Jenni & Berry Show: The Thunder's possible early playoff foes include star-laden veteran teams that won't go down easily.

The Thunder is in first place in the Western Conference and has a fighting chance of staying there, as the NBA season hits the homestretch. But is that all good news? The Thunder’s potential first-round playoff matchups include some star-laden, veteran teams that won’t go down easily.

Here’s a transcript (edited for clarity and length) of our conversation on The Jenni & Berry Show:

Berry Tramel: The Thunder is in first place in the Western Conference and has a fighting chance of staying there as the NBA season hits the home stretch. But is that all good news?

Jenni Carlson: The Thunder’s potential first-round playoff matchups include some star-laden veteran teams that won’t go down easily. The Thunder has pretty much established home-court (advantage) and might get one of those top two seeds. Now we can start thinking about first-round matchups. So who is the best matchup for the Thunder?

Berry: I’ve got to think the Thunder would like to match up with Sacramento. The two losses (to Sacramento) were way back before the first of the year, before the Thunder caught fire. Sacramento is not a well-seasoned playoff team.

They’ve done a nice job retooling that franchise, but they’re not very good on defense. I think the Thunder matches up pretty well with Sacramento. 

Jenni: Right now you’ve got Sacramento at seventh (in the Western Conference), Dallas at eight, the Lakers at nine and Golden State at 10. Houston’s in that 11 spot, I think they’re five games back of Golden State. Those are likely the teams that are gonna be in the mix for playoffs and play-in games.

Dallas, the Lakers and Golden State are three teams with some pretty big stars and (are) a pretty tough matchup for the Thunder. Sacramento, though it’s a team the Thunder has not fared great against this year, it’s still a young team.

I think Golden State’s a team that the Thunder could probably out-athlete at this point. Golden State is more veteran, older and is not gonna run as much.

The Lakers have been a nightmare for the Thunder. So I think I got to go with the Kings.

Berry: It’s a Rubik’s cube that you can’t solve at this point. The Thunder could finish second, they could finish third. I don’t think they’re going to fall to fourth, but if you’re first, second or third, that matches you up at six, seven, eight. So literally almost everybody comes into play. 

You might run into the Lakers if you’re the first seed or you might run into the Lakers if you’re the third seed. Same with the Warriors. Same with the Kings. Same with the Mavericks, Suns, whoever. All these teams are in play. 

We talked about the Kings’ strengths and weaknesses. They’ve got a great center and in Domantas Sabonis. We met him on the streets of Oklahoma City before he ever played a game. He stayed in the hotel across from our office. We had a good chat one day crossing the street. Sabonis is an all-star, but he’s not a center who is going to take you to town defensively. He’s not going to frustrate Chet Holmgren. He’s not going to get Holmgren in foul trouble like Anthony Davis and Nikola Jokic would; like somebody like Karl-Anthony Towns could.

I ‘d want the Thunder to avoid the Lakers. They’re 1-3 against the Lakers this year. LeBron’s playing crazy good for a 39-year-old. He’s playing crazy good for a 29-year-old. Anthony Davis is playing well. D’Angelo Russell seems to have found a fourth life in the NBA. So if I’m the Thunder, my mission is to avoid the Lakers.

I don’t know if that means going to third. I don’t mean, I don’t know if that means finishing first, but I would want to avoid the Lakers.

Jenni: Matching up with LeBron is tough regardless. The Thunder has a great on-ball defender in Lu Dort and he would get that matchup a lot, but LeBron, especially in the playoffs, takes it to another level. 

Back in the day, 1..0 version of the Thunder made the playoffs for the first time and they get the Lakers. And it was a great series that came down to a Pau Gasol tip-in at the buzzer to win in six games in Oklahoma City, ending that first playoff run in the first round for the Thunder. You sort of saw that the Lakers were, they were an aging team.

They weren’t going to be a championship-level contender for too many more years. I kind of get the same feeling with this Lakers team. Like they realize that they got to they got to strike while they can because this Thunder team’s coming.

So I like the idea of matching up against some of these younger teams. Sabonis is maybe not the matchup problem that some of these other centers would be for Chet Holmgren, but they get up and down the floor a ton.

Berry: The Lakers did this year what they did last year, piddled around all season, got themselves in the play-in game, emerged unscathed in the play-in and made the Western Conference Finals. So they’re a dangerous team in April and May.

Anthony Davis is the one I fear more than LeBron. Davis is so big and so skilled. We forget about him sometimes because he’s had injuries, he’s had some team issues, wanting to be traded, that kind of stuff. But I think he’s a difficult matchup for Chet Holmgren.

Now the Thunder and New Orleans played last year in New Orleans in the play-in game. The Thunder went down there and whacked New Orleans. We didn’t see it coming but did a nice job of getting that victory on the road in what was a little old playoff game before going to Minnesota and losing. 

But New Orleans is dangerous because if they’re healthy, they’re really good. And that means Zion Williamson mostly. Zion Williamson can’t be trusted to answer the bell. But that’s a really good team. They’ve got C.J. McCollum shooting, they’ve got Brandon Ingram’s all-around game, and they’ve got Herb Jones, one of the best defenders in the league. He will give SGA a lot of problems. So I wouldn’t be crazy about playing New Orleans just from an SGA standpoint.

We brought up one team just a little bit. The Thunder’s 3-1 against this team. Two of the victories are in overtime. So it’s been a really good series, but I think the Thunder would really like this matchup. And that’s Golden State. I think the Thunder would like to meet those old guys, and perhaps put the finishing touch on their dynastic stretch. At some point, they’re going to have to retool and they’re sort of hanging on barely.

Jenni: I don’t mind that matchup as much as maybe Dallas and Luca Doncic. They’d wear it out for us because of the complaining. Oh, the complaining. But to me, those single stars who can go for huge numbers, 50, 60 points, we’ve seen those guys this year that have done it in the league. So I think avoid Dallas if you can, avoid the Lakers if you can.

We haven’t talked about a couple of teams with some former Thunder stars, that being Kevin Durant in Phoenix and Russell Westbrook in LA. The Clippers aren’t a likely first-round opponent, but Durant and the Suns, now that’s a possibility.

Berry: Durant and Devin Booker would be a monumental defensive assignment. Durant’s still a wonderful player. Booker’s a wonderful player. That’s a team that can score, score. However, I don’t like their team. I don’t like their depth. I don’t like their chemistry. I just don’t like the whole vibe around Phoenix. I think that’s one of the better matchups.

It would be scary. Think about the psychological damage a Kevin Durant playoff victory over the Thunder would impact on this city and this state. It would be massive. So I don’t look forward to a series like that, but I do think the Thunder would survive it just because their team is so much better. 

They’ve got star power, I think, that supersedes Phoenix. Three is greater than two with (SGA), Santa Clara Williams and Chet Holmgren. Now they can’t let, you know, Nurkic get 32 rebounds, which he got the other night in Phoenix. The Thunder also won that game. Now, Booker didn’t play. I assume Booker and Durant will be ready for the whole shebang in the playoffs. So I’d try to avoid that one. I do think the Thunder would win it, but man, it would not be overly pleasant. It would be great to put Durant out of the playoffs, but nothing easy about it.

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