OKC poses yet another obstacle for Phoenix Suns. Kevin Durant helps explain why

The Oklahoma City Thunder is where the Phoenix Suns wanted to be in the Western Conference standings at this point in the season.

The Suns were in seventh and Thunder were first entering Monday, after sweeping its two-game series against Phoenix the previous day.

The Thunder's young, emergent trio in MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Sunday game-highs 35 points, nine assists), second-year versatile rising star Jalen Williams (22 points, four rebounds, three steals, two assists) and top rookie center Chet Holmgren (14 points, team-high nine rebounds, one steal, one block) are the big reason why.

They outmatched Kevin Durant (20 points), Bradley Beal (team-high 31), and Jusuf Nurkic's Suns record-setting night cleaning the glass of 31 rebounds with 14 points, who had to compensate for the absent Devin Booker (right ankle sprain).

The Thunder appear to be yet another major obstacle to the Suns' chances of emerging from the West and making the NBA finals, along with the likes of the defending champion Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Clippers and Minnesota Timberwolves, among others.

Durant explained during the Suns' practice last Wednesday how his former team has rebuilt into an unexpected title contender.

"Every franchise wants to build around great players," Durant said. "Players that can win you basketball games every single night, and they have that in Shai and Jalen and Chet. That's your foundation they can build upon, and they got everybody around them that's gonna complement and make their lives easy as well."

Durant added credit to Oklahoma City's longtime general manager Sam Presti, and alluded to the team's former elite trio of former MVPs Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden.

After Presti drafted Durant and Westbrook to the Seattle Supersonics in 2007 and 2008 before they moved to OKC, and Harden in 2009. All were top-four picks who led them to the top of the West and the 2012 finals.

"Sam Presti's seen that formula before already," Durant said. "So when you go through trial and error, and you get another three guys who are talented and can do some great things in this league, you know the mistake that you made before, you know the strengths that you had before. You just enhance those things and get better from those things, and move forward."

Alexander didn't see the parallel between him, Williams, Holmgren and the OKC trio of Durant, Harden and Westbrook, which made it to the NBA finals in 2012 but fell short of winning a championship.

“I think there's three of them, and there's three of us that are obviously a talented group of guys, but I don't really think our games compare to theirs," Alexander said. " Those guys are obviously three amazing basketball players and have done amazing things for this game, and have changed the game forever.

"Me, Chet, and Dub (Jalen Williams), three kids just trying to get better, and trying to chase the things that they’ve achieved, and trying to ultimately win an NBA championship.”

After Sunday’s game, Vogel evaluated of how dangerous the two-way threat Williams is on offense.

“Shotmaking, first and foremost, in all ways," Vogel said. "He can iso. He can rise up. He can get to the basket off the bounce. You can play him in pick and roll. You can play him on pindowns. He’s a great backside attacker when Shai gets a double-team.”

Vogel added that Holmgren's offensive skill set is a "difficult" matchup for anyone, including the 290-pound Nurkic, who praised the lithe-framed fellow 7-footer Holmgren and compared him to Durant.

“He’s a young kid who has a great year," Nurkic said. "He doesn’t really have a chance physically, he’s too light in a certain way. And no disrespect, it just feels almost like he’s a more KD than a five.”

Thunder's top trio rising past Suns' Big 3?

Phoenix is on a two-game skid, 8½ games out of first place in the West, five games out from the fourth-place Los Angeles Clippers. The Suns are scrapping to get in the top four postseason home-court advantage spots, or at least away from the seven through 10 seedings that would put them in the single-elimination play-in tournament.

The Thunder have been one of the West's top two behind Minnesota mostly since Nov. 19. Phoenix hasn't cracked the top four since Dec. 4, wavering between the 11th and fifth spots after Christmas, and in a similar predicament before the holiday.

“We got time, but we can’t keep saying we got time," Beal said about the Suns' cohesion behind its Big 3, which has played just 25 games together because of injuries. "We got 20 games left. It is a good amount of games to get us going and get us going right before the playoffs.

"I think that will be really good for us, but we do got to get rolling."

Time is money, and it's not on the Suns' side in the highly competitive West. Losses in their league-toughest remaining schedule can now cause a quick slide down the standings for a team with championship expectations, based on Suns owner Mat Ishbia's colossal roster investment.

Alexander, Williams, and Holmgren are doing what the Suns' Big 3 of Durant, Booker, and Beal were projected to do this year.

Oklahoma City has missed the past three postseasons and accumulated a massive cache of future first-round selections through the end of this decade from the trades of former franchise stars Paul George, Russell Westbrook, and Chris Paul.

The George trade in 2019 returned Alexander as he entered his third season, five first-round draft picks, and two first-round pick swaps.

Last season, Alexander was an All-NBA first-team selection, and Willams made the All-Rookie First Team. Holmgren has bounced back from his broken ankle that had him out last season and has ascended to the Rookie of the Year conversation alongside San Antonio's Victor Wenbanyama.

Three weeks into the season before the Suns lost to the Thunder on Nov.12, Vogel told the media that the Thunder needs to be taken seriously as one of the West's best.

Since then, he’s been proven right about Oklahoma City, and Phoenix has a lot more to prove before mid-April.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Suns' Durant views Thunder's star trio 'formula' like his OKC days