The Oklahoma City Thunder are on top of the basketball world.
For the first time since moving to OKC, the Thunder have captured the NBA title, beating the Indiana Pacers 103-91 in Game 7 on Sunday at home.
Canada’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the regular-season MVP, led the way for the Thunder with 29 points, five rebounds, 12 assists (a playoff career-high), one steal and two blocks while shooting eight of 27 from the field. Meanwhile, Montreal’s Luguentz Dort can also now call himself an NBA champion.
Chet Holmgren had a stellar game defensively, blocking an NBA Finals record five shots while adding 18 points and eight rebounds. Jalen Williams, the Thunder’s second star, added 20 points and two steals.
The Thunder finished off a season for the ages. Oklahoma City won 84 games between the regular season and the playoffs, tying the 1996-97 Chicago Bulls for the third-most in any season.
Only Golden State (88 in 2016-17) and the Bulls (87 in 2015-16) won more.
It’s the second championship for the franchise. The Seattle SuperSonics won the NBA title in 1979; the team was moved to Oklahoma City in 2008. There’s nothing in the rafters in Oklahoma City to commemorate that title.
Next October, a championship banner is finally coming. A Thunder banner.
Gilgeous-Alexander’s all-around impactful game kept their head above water in the first half, contributing to 34 of his team’s 47 first-half points and helping OKC back to the locker room with only a one-point deficit.
He turned it up further in the third, scoring six points and dishing out three assists to help the Thunder pull away from the Pacers with a double-digit lead to end the frame.
The Thunder continued to build on their lead in the fourth, taking it all the way to 21 points and putting the title out of reach of a notoriously miraculous Pacers comeback effort.
Coming into the Finals as the underdog, the Pacers were already fighting an uphill battle. Making it worse was a gutwrenching injury to superstar guard Tyrese Haliburton in the opening minutes of this Game 7, as the 24-year-old exited with an Achilles injury.
The rest of the Pacers fought hard to stay in this one, with Pascal Siakam netting 16 points and guard T.J. McConnell adding 16 points off the bench in place of Haliburton. Montreal native Bennedict Mathurin scored a team-high 24 points and 13 rebounds off the bench.
However, turnovers would prove to be their undoing as they gave the ball up 23 times to the Thunder’s seven. OKC took advantage of those mistakes, scoring 32 points off turnovers.
Home teams are now 16-4 in NBA Finals Game 7s. And the Thunder became the seventh champion in the last seven seasons, a run of parity like none other in NBA history.
The Thunder are the ninth franchise to win a title in NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s 12 seasons leading the league. His predecessor, David Stern, saw eight franchises win titles in his 30 seasons as commissioner.
— With files from the Associated Press
