LAST MEN STANDING: Thunder, Wolves, Knicks, Pacers intensify hunt for NBA crown

For the first time in National Basketball Association (NBA) history, a seventh franchise in a seven-year span will be raising the Larry O’Brien trophy.

The race to the NBA title heats up with the No. 1 Oklahoma City Thunder and the No. 6 Minnesota Timberwolves disputing the Western Conference title while the No. 3 New York Knicks and the No. 4 Indiana Pacers will be slugging it out for the Eastern Conference crown.

The survivors in both playoff duels will collide in a best-of-seven series for the NBA title.

Game 1 of the Thunder-Wolves best-of-seven series is set on Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. (Manila time) while the series opener of the Knicks-Pacers showdown will be on Thursday at 8 a.m. (Manila time).

The Knicks haven’t won an NBA title since 1973 while the last time the Pacers emerged victorious was also in 1973 — not in the NBA — but in the defunct American Basketball Association.

On the other hand, the Oklahoma City Thunder franchise has one title in its history that happened in 1979 when the team was still known as the Seattle Supersonics while the Timberwolves have never even been to the NBA Finals since joining the league in 1989.

Since Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors lifted the trophies in 2017 and 2018, no NBA team has won back-to-back titles with the Toronto Raptors winning in 2019, the Los Angeles Lakers during the pandemic season in 2020, the Milwaukee Bucks in 2021, the Warriors again in 2022, the Denver Nuggets in 2023, and the Boston Celtics last season.

It’s the longest such run of different champions in NBA history although the Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League and the National Football League have all had longer ones, and not too long ago, either.

And things have been highly unpredictable since. No matter what the Finals matchup is this year, the NBA will be seeing 11 conference-champion franchises in the span of seven seasons.

“We’ve still got eight more wins to achieve our ultimate goal,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch said. “We’ve still got two more series. We’re only halfway there.”

The season is over for 26 of the NBA’s 30 clubs.

But the fun stuff is just starting.

The Western Conference finals will feature the young core of Thunder and Wolves while the Eastern Conference finals will have an old-school rivalry in the Knicks against the Pacers. The Wolves lost the West finals last year; the Pacers lost the East finals a year ago.

“You’ve got to have big dreams,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said.

“You don’t know how often you’re going to be in this position.”

The Boston Celtics were a huge favorite to win their second straight title but they didn’t get past the East semifinals in part because they couldn’t hold onto big leads and in part because Jayson Tatum ruptured his right Achilles tendon in that series with the Knicks.

“Upset or not, whatever it is, we beat a great team,” Knicks guard Jalen Brunson said.

“They obviously lost a huge piece… but they’re still a great team.”

Damian Lillard tore an Achilles tendon in Round 1, ending Milwaukee’s hopes. Cleveland, the top seed in the East, bowed out in Round 2 to Indiana after a slew of Cavs were dealing with health issues.

Stephen Curry strained his hamstring; that was all it took to doom Golden State’s chances in Round 2 against Minnesota.

“He’s our sun,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr said.

“This is a solar system. He’s our sun.”

And now, the NBA solar system is about to see a new star holding the trophy.

There is nobody left in these playoffs who has been an NBA Finals Most Valuable Player – not even close.

In fact, there are only seven players left -- Pascal Siakam, Aaron Nesmith and Thomas Bryant of the Pacers; P.J. Tucker, Cam Payne and Mikal Bridges of the Knicks; and Alex Caruso of the Thunder -- have appeared in a Finals game. And most of those appearances didn’t add up too much with Siakam becoming the only player in these playoffs with more than 100 Finals points.