MINNEAPOLIS -- The Oklahoma City Thunder's season ended pretty much as it started: With so much glimmering hope and optimism being run over by an uncontrollable train of bad luck variables.

Kevin Durant's foot surgery in October was only the beginning of the most adversity-filled campaign yet for the Thunder, and on Wednesday, with the New Orleans Pelicans impressively downing the San Antonio Spurs and punching a playoff ticket by virtue of a tiebreaker, OKC was left helpless.

"I've been proud of them all year," Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. "I told the guys after the game I couldn't be more proud. What they've done all year, just fought every game. It came down to the last game, we came up a game short. But we fought. We fought. We never made an excuse in a season we could've easily made excuses. We could've felt sorry for ourselves in training camp, we could've felt sorry for ourselves in December, and then again after the All-Star break, and then again in April. But we didn't. We fought and I couldn't be more proud."

On paper, the Thunder can doff their caps and say good job, good effort. With the reigning MVP missing 55 games, Serge Ibaka missing the last 18 and Russell Westbrook missing 15, the Thunder still managed 45 wins in the rough-and-tumble West, extending their playoff hopes to the final day of the season.

On the other hand, they also limped severely to the finish line, letting a 3½-game lead slip in three weeks, losing seven of their last 11 games. What was on the other side waiting for them? The Golden State Warriors buzz saw, of course. But the Thunder wanted that chance. Russell Westbrook deserved that chance.

"Obviously with the injuries and different things of that nature throughout the season, our team could've easily gave up," Westbrook said. "Obviously we made some changes with trades and things like that, and that could've been another excuse that we gave ourselves, but we never gave up. We competed all 82 games, and I'm proud of that."

Westbrook finished with a scoring title in hand, and 11 triple-doubles -- a tally bettered by only two other players in the past 20 years (Jason Kidd and Grant Hill). Those individual accolades meant little to him as he stood at his locker postgame in a lonely corner of the visiting locker room in the Target Center, but you can't take away the remarkable year he had in the wake of extreme adversity.

"He's had a season for the ages," Brooks said. "He's done things on both ends -- rebounding, passing, scoring, defending -- that hasn't been seen in decades."

Westbrook punctuated it with a sparkling 37-point performance in the Thunder's closing 138-113 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, scoring 23 in the first quarter and 34 by halftime. It seemed to be a possible tease of what he might have in store were the Thunder to qualify for the playoffs, but alas, outside factors once again got in the way.

OKC's locker room was a mix of frustration, sadness and disbelief. Enes Kanter sat with a towel covering his head. Nick Collison sat in his chair motionless staring at nothing in particular. No talking, no nothing. Just the click-clack noise of trainers packing bags for the last time this season.

It's stunning to think the Thunder aren't going to be part of the postseason, a team that seemingly had a spot reserved for the next decade. This isn't a team accustomed to scraping by; this has been one of the three most dominant teams over the past five seasons, behind only the Spurs and Miami Heat.

Now the Thunder have a lottery pick, and look to next season when (hopefully) they have a fully healthy roster that can see how good it really is.

Brooks has repeatedly called this his most talented group yet, but just one that was never able to be fully functional. Durant never played with the trade deadline acquisitions, and Ibaka only got a handful of games. The Thunder will enter the 2015-16 season with more pressure than they've ever experienced, not just because they're coming off a disappointing end to the 2014-15 campaign, but with Durant's oncoming free agency, the spotlight will be on.

"We have a good group of guys," Westbrook said. "Definitely with the group of guys we have we can make some noise with the team we have."

The Thunder's season from hell is finally over, maybe mercifully. There was never much hope in giving the Warriors a series, not with the defensive issues that have plagued OKC the past two months. The season was effectively over the minute Durant was ruled out. Even if Ibaka returned, reintegrating him was going to take time, something the Thunder didn't have.

But Westbrook still should've had that chance. With the way he threw his body all over the court night after night, playing his tank empty just to beat lowly teams like the Philadelphia 76ers, Denver Nuggets and Timberwolves, he deserved more than an unceremonious 82-game abrupt end. He lifted the Thunder as far as he could -- 45 wins in a season OKC only played at full strength enough times to count on two hands. He earned the right to try.

Instead, it's now six long months until the Thunder can try again, six months to reflect, rehash and regroup. Six months to think about the what-ifs, could-haves and if-onlys. And also six months to think about what still can be.