A Powerful Enemy! Thunder Five Young!

A formidable enemy—the Thunder Five Young! This year's Thunder had originally been a Four Young lineup, and they made it to the Finals.

Facing the Heat Big Three, they won the first game. Unfortunately, their mentality was not mature enough afterward, and they also lacked Finals experience.

They lost to the Heat 1–4.

But... during the offseason, the Thunder paid a price to trade Cousins over from the Kings.

He was a future top-five, perhaps even top-three, power forward in the league.

As a sophomore, Cousins was already averaging 18 points, 10 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks per game.

He had become the undisputed core of the Kings, with unlimited shooting freedom, which allowed him to put up such astonishing numbers.

With the Thunder, he obviously would not have that many touches.

But strength came in numbers.

The Thunder Four Young became the Thunder Five Young.

Together, their fighting power would become incredibly terrifying.

Once a game entered crunch time, the Thunder would put out their Five Young lineup.

Westbrook, Harden, Durant, Ibaka, and Cousins.

When those five guys were all on the court at once, it was hard to imagine just how much power they could unleash together.

It was frightening.

Absolutely terrifying.

Thus, when the Knicks and Thunder matchup was put on the schedule, the fans were tremendously excited.

However...

an accident occurred the day before the game.

On the Thunder's side, Cousins had eaten something bad, while Harden suffered a slight back strain during practice.

Two members of the Thunder Five Young were instantly unable to play.

The Knicks were no different. During practice, Curry accidentally stepped on a teammate's foot and suffered a minor ankle sprain.

George had indulged himself too excessively the night before last. He looked somewhat dazed, and his condition was quite poor.

Even