Oklahoma City have knocked San Antonio out of the NBA playoffs to set up a bruising trans-tasman big man battle in the western conference finals.
Kiwi centre Steven Adams will go head-to-head with Australia's Andrew Bogut when the Thunder take on reigning champs Golden State - game one of the series to be played on Monday (Tuesday AEST) in Oakland, with the series winner earning a trip the NBA finals.
The Thunder advanced courtesy of a 113-99 drubbing of the Spurs on Thursday in Oklahoma to clinch the semi-final series 4-2, and they now have the defending champion Warriors in their sights.
"Very confident," the Thunder's all-star guard Russell Westbrook said.
"They are good team and the defending champs, but we are going in there to take care of business and try and move on."
The 213cm tall, 22-year-old Adams, who had 15 points and 11 rebounds, has become one of the NBA's best young centres.
He dominated Spurs' great Tim Duncan throughout the series and will be a handful for Bogut, who suffered a hamstring injury in the Warriors' series-clinching win over Portland on Wednesday.
After 19 seasons in the NBA, 40-year-old Duncan may have played his last game, with speculation the Spurs great will retire.
"Do you know something I don't know?" Spurs coach Gregg Popovich replied when asked if Duncan might retire.
Duncan said he is yet to make a decision.
"I'll get to that when I get out of here and figure life out," Duncan, after scoring 19 points and grabbing five rebounds in 34 minutes, said.
Popovich pointed to the lack of production from his bench, which included Australian point guard Patty Mills, who had five points and three assists.
The Thunder jumped on the Spurs early and midway through the second quarter Popovich had used 11 of his 13 players in an attempt to find a combination to match the Thunder.
The Thunder were up 55-31 at half-time and 91-65 at the start of the fourth quarter.
The Spurs were able to make a late run to erase some of the deficit.
"We hung tough, we have great character and I expected nothing less," Popovich said.
The Thunder were led by Kevin Durant's 37 points and nine rebounds.
Cleveland will play the winner of the Toronto-Miami series in the eastern conference finals.
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