22 reasons to fear OKC - Historic dominance, SGA's MVP game, more - ESPN

Draymond Green doesn't fear the Oklahoma City Thunder.

«There's a certain seriousness that it takes to win in this league, and there's a certain fear you have to instill in teams in order to win,» the Golden State Warriors forward and four-time champion said on his podcast earlier this season. «I just don't know if they're instilling that fear in teams.»

Green isn't alone in that view. ESPN's Tim MacMahon reported this past week that «a lot of people around the Western Conference — and I talked to coaches on other teams that will be in the playoff mix — [feel] there is not this great fear of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

»They haven't done it. And until a team does it, there's going to be a whole bunch of doubt."

Of course, the same could have been said of the 2024 champion Boston Celtics, as doubters questioned whether Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown could win it. In 2023, Nikola Jokic wasn't deemed good enough to lead the Nuggets to the promised land.

And going back to 2015, Green's own Warriors teams faced criticism that an offense built around 3-pointers could raise the Larry O'Brien Trophy. The Thunder have been every bit as impressive as those championship teams, even before proving doubters wrong with a potential title run.

Opponents might not fear the Thunder. Here are 22 reasons they should.

1. The Thunder have outscored opponents by 12.7 points per game this season, which is on pace to break an NBA record that has stood for over 50 years. The current mark is 12.3 points per game by the 1971-72 Lakers, who famously won 33 games in a row.

2. While that margin of victory is a regular-season record, history suggests that level of dominance should translate to the playoffs. The previous top five teams in point