Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Oklahoma City Thunder capped an extraordinary season by beating the Indiana Pacers 103-91 in match 7 of the NBA final to win the first title of the franchise since the SEATTLE move in 2008.
The most useful player in the League (MVP), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, led the scoring in front of a noisy crowd in the center of Oklahoma City, with 29 points and 12 assists in the decisive match on Sunday.
He was also crowned the best player in the final, marking the first time since Shaquille O’Neal in 2002 that the same player had won the score title, the regular season and the MVP honors.
The Pacers suffered a hard blow very early when they lost their star playmaker, Tyrese Haliburton, halfway through the first quarter with an injury from Achilles and saw their hopes of title aneant by a stifling defense of Oklahoma City in the second half.
“It doesn’t seem real,” said Gilgeous-Alexander. “So many hours, so many moments, so many emotions, so many nights of disbelief, so many nights of belief.
“This group works hard. This group has taken the hours, and we deserve this,” he added.
The championship crowned an extraordinary race for the Thunder, which ended the regular season with a 68-14 file, good for the fifth most important victories in a single NBA season.
The finals between two small market teams were light on the power of the stars but delivered thrills, while the champions surprise of the champions of the Eastern Conference pushed the best team of the League to the winner’s final.
The Pacers went down to the straight track while Haliburton emptied his third three points five minutes after the match, but the night took a terrible turn for Indiana when he slipped and fell two minutes later.
The Two Time All Star was in tears while the medical staff of his team rushed alongside him, and a silence fell on the building filled with fans of Oklahoma City.
Haliburton was helped in the locker room but did not return, and although there was no official update of the team, a television program reported that he had undergone an injury from Achille.
The resilient pacers kept the game tight through a second physical quarter, setting up a great defensive effort to finish half-time with one.
However, the Thunder quickly took control with Gilgeous-Alexander, who went 0-5 behind the arc in the first half, lighting the fuse with a three-point jump from 25 feet to four minutes after the third quarter.
The Pacers were masters of late return to the playoffs, but without Haliburton, they could not recover the deficit, the Thunder opening the fourth quarter with a sequence of 9-0.
Youth champions struggle
The youth of the Thunder was obvious in their post-match celebration.
“No one knew how to open them,” said Thunder Center Isaiah Hartenstein about post-match celebration bottles.
They learned early enough, thanks to Alex Caruso, 31, both the oldest player on the list and the only player of the team who had previously won an NBA title.
“AC (Caruso) did an excellent job to give us a tutorial,” said Hartenstein.
Thunder young people have sometimes been inconsistent.
“The whole race, I tried to help the guys to be who we are, and that is all we needed is to be who we are,” said Thunder coach Mark Daigneault.
The Pacers remain unit NBA.
It could have been worse for the Pacers without the leader TJ McConnell, who scored 12 points in the third, reaching six of the eight goals on the field of Indiana in the context.
Bennedict Mathurin led the Pacers for the match with 24 points on the bench. Pascal Siakam and McConnell added 16 each.
The Thunder has become the first team to score 100 points or more in a final match of the NBA 7 since 1988, when the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Strait Pistons 108-105.
Caruso, who played in the title team of Los Angeles Lakers in 2020, said that he hoped that his post-match tutorial would reimburse the road again.
“We are going to rest, rest, try to start again next year,” said Caruso. “We will be better (over there) next year.”
