NBA / NHL Finals Previews
NBA: Oklahoma City Thunder VS (Indiana Pacers OR New York Knicks) On Wednesday, the Oklahoma City Thunder clinched it's way into the 2025 NBA Finals. The Thunder are one of the youngest teams in the field and have taken leaps every single season since the rebuild. Finally, they have a chance to play for what every teams hopes to be playing for at the end of the season. This season, the Thunder only lost 14 games in the regular season. That gave OKC the number one seed in the Western Conference. Why were the Thunder able to win so many games? They had Shai Gilgeous-Alexander who actually won the MVP award just a couple of weeks ago now. He had a terrific season and won the award over guys like Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo. Oklahoma City also has a really good supporting cast with Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams and Isaiah Hartenstein. With more than just that, it will definitely be the favorite against whichever team advances between Indiana and New York. In the series of Indiana and New York, the series shifts back to Indiana were the Pacers have been really good. Tyrese Haliburton is the main guy for the Pacers all season long. Not only does Haliburton have a great team around him, but he also is one of the top playmakers in the NBA who averaged 9.2 assists a game in the regular season. With him, they have Siakam, Turner and Nemhard. This is a really deep team that could give the Thunder some problems if it ends up coming out on top of this series with the Knicks. Indiana can score a lot and will be able to physically contend with OKC, like it did against the Cavaliers in the second round. For New York, it's the opposite of those teams. Relying on it's main guys to do the bulk of the damage, the Knicks are right back in this series after they won Game Five at home. It's going to be hard on Saturday night in Indiana. But, they do have the CPOY award winner this season along with a really strong starting lineup. The only question that everyone seems to be talking about is their depth -- could be a problem as the season gets longer and longer. We think that the Oklahoma City Thunder will win the Larry O'Brien Trophy. NHL: Edmonton Oilers VS Florida Panthers Well fans, this is what it's come down to. The rematch between the Edmonton Oilers and the Florida Panthers. Last year, Florida took a 3-0 series lead against Edmonton in the finals and barely won in seven games. If we see seven games again this year, it's hard to think that Connor McDavid is going to fall short again. Since Stuart Skinner got benched for Calvin Pickard, something has turned in the Oilers locker room, especially the goaltending. Pickard came in and won all six games. Then, he got hurt and Skinner was put right back in. All he's done is win since that's happened and it may have saved him a job in the NHL for future seasons. Edmonton plays some of the best hockey possible with a terrifically large amount of skill in the dressing room. Corey Perry has sort of taken on a Zack Hyman role from last season -- has been able to score seven goals in the playoffs so far, mostly all from in front of the net. Edmonton does a really good job at getting players open in that area right in front of the goalie. For Florida, it's probably been the team that's looked the best in the playoffs so far. Even though in took seven games for the Panthers to put away the Toronto Maple Leafs, round one and the Eastern Conference Finals sure went by fast. Florida won both of those series' in five games and now has a chance to go back-to-back. There are a couple of pieces missing from last years team, but the majority of the core is back. They also added some really good players including Brad Marchand. Marchand brings a whole different style of play into this team and his chippiness helps out Florida a lot in these important games. It's probably going to be another really fun series in the Stanley Cup Finals this year and we definitely don't see either team winning three games in a row, especially twice in the same series. We think that the Florida Panthers will win the Stanley Cup Trophy.
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