The Thunder entered its 18th year of existence having already played a playoff series against all but two of its 14 Western Conference foes: Phoenix and Sacramento. Cross off the former. The No. 1 seed Thunder will face the No. 8 seed Suns at 2:30 p.m.

Sunday in Game 1 of a first-round series. After losing to Portland in its first play-in game, Phoenix bounced back by beating Golden State 111-96 in Friday night’s elimination game. These two franchises — the Thunder and Suns — haven’t met in the playoffs since 1997, when the No. 2 seed SuperSonics beat the No. 7 seed Suns in a five-game first-round series.

Sooner great Wayman Tisdale was on that Suns team. Steve Nash was a rookie. Jason Kidd had been acquired midseason from the Mavericks.

But those Sonics, with Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp, were too much for the Suns. Now that we finally have a Thunder-Suns series, the wait is on for Thunder-Kings. … We might be waiting a while. The Thunder, since its inception in 2008, is about to play in its 27th playoff series.

The Kings have played in one playoff series during that same span. INSIDE THE MATCHUPS: Thunder vs Suns: Who has the edge in first round of NBA Playoffs?Here are the Thunder’s most common West playoff opponents by series played: Grizzlies: 4Mavericks: 4 Rockets: 3 Spurs: 3Lakers: 2Nuggets: 2 Clippers: 1 Jazz: 1 Pelicans: 1*Suns: 1Timberwolves: 1 Trail Blazers: 1 Warriors: 1 In addition to the novelty of the Thunder and Suns meeting as first-time playoff foes, here are three other storylines heading into the series. MUSSATTO: Can Thunder join NBA's repeat club?

Detaching from past success key for OKCShai Gilgeous-Alexander vs. Dillon Brooks Dillon Brooks has already fired the first shot of the series. “There are a lot of foul baiters on that team,” Brooks said of the Thunder on the Amazon postgame show Friday night.

Dillon, that’s your countryman you’re talking about! Canadians are supposed to be nice!Phoenix isn’t going to win this series, but the Suns have to do whatever possible to win the discourse. The Canadian trio of Brooks, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Lu Dort is going to be at the center of everything in this series.

Dort and Brooks are two of the most physical defenders in the NBA. Both are prone to crossing the line — Dort in subtle ways, Brooks in brash ones. The Olympics are two years away.

Plenty of time for the Team Canada teammates to mend the rifts that are bound to form in this series. Shenanigans aside, the 30-year-old Brooks is amid the best offensive season of his career. He’s averaging 20.2 points on solid-for-him 44% shooting.

Phoenix ranked 27th in defensive rating a season ago. The Suns are ninth this season. The Brooks Effect. CARLSON: OKC Thunder coach Mark Daigneault 'getting better' even without awardsHow will Phoenix score?No really, I’m asking.

Of the 16 playoff teams, only Portland and Orlando had a worse offensive rating in the regular season. The Thunder, meanwhile, had the best defense by a wide margin (again). The Suns take a lot of threes (fifth-most) but they’re 12th in 3-point percentage.

Phoenix is reliant on the midrange with Devin Booker and Dillon Brooks. The Suns don’t get into the paint, which is why they don’t get to the foul line (28th in free throw attempts). They do get a ton of offensive rebounds, fourth in the NBA, so second-chance points will be crucial against the sometimes rebounding-challenged Thunder.

The Thunder has too many guys to throw at Devin Booker. Lu Dort, Cason Wallace and Alex Caruso are going to take turns harassing the Suns star. When the ball is out of Booker’s hands, I expect a lot of chucking from Brooks and Jalen Green — who was excellent in the play-in games.

Bold prediction: Green scores more points than Booker in this series. The Suns need an outlier 3-point shooting night to steal a game. A random Jordan Goodwin game where he goes 8-of-13 from three … which is precisely how the Suns upset the Thunder on Jan. 4 in Phoenix.

More: Sam Presti, OKC Thunder secure lottery pick in 2026 NBA Draft thanks to ClippersThunder only went 3-2 in season series Put a giant asterisk next to the regular-season series. One of those Suns wins came in Game 82, when the Thunder sat everybody. In the biggest game of consequence between the two teams, on Dec. 10 in the NBA Cup quarterfinals, the Thunder blasted the Suns by 49 points.

That was the Thunder’s most lopsided win of the season, but it too comes with an asterisk. The Thunder had its Big Three available. The Suns were without Devin Booker.

Both teams were close to full health in their first meeting, a 123-119 Thunder win in Oklahoma City. Maybe that gives the Suns some hope. In the Thunder’s 136-109 win against the Suns on Feb. 11, neither SGA nor Devin Booker played.

So yeah, even though it’s a robust five-game sample, throw the regular season series out. The Suns enter this first-round series on short rest while the Thunder is as healthy and rested as it has been all season. OKC swept New O