The Minnesota Timberwolves, seeded sixth, will face the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals on Tuesday night at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City. Sportsbooks favor the Thunder heavily, both for the game and the series.
The Thunder are determined to protect their home-court advantage in this seven-game series. However, fans of the Timberwolves—and even some Thunder fans—who live outside the local viewing area (which includes Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri, and Nebraska) are blocked from buying tickets through Ticketmaster, the official ticket partner for the team and the NBA.
In other words, Oklahoma City Thunder is not selling Western Conference Finals tickets to Timberwolves fans living out of town or to anyone outside the designated region.
To see if this practice is common among playoff teams, a check was made on the Ticketmaster sites for the Minnesota Timberwolves, New York Knicks, and Indiana Pacers. None of these teams impose similar geographic restrictions for purchasing tickets to their home playoff games. This policy appears to be unique to the Thunder and their Paycom Center for the 2025 NBA Playoffs.
