The Oklahoma City Thunder won the franchise’s first title since moving from Seattle in 2008 by defeating the Indiana Pacers 103-91 in Game 7 of the NBA Finals.
In the deciding game at Oklahoma City’s Paycom Center on Sunday, the league’s Most Valuable Player (MVP), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, scored 29 points and added 12 assists in front of a raucous home crowd.
The same player had won the scoring title, regular season, and Finals MVP honors for the first time since Shaquille O’Neal in 2002, and he was also named the best player of the Finals.
The Pacers lost their star point guard early on, ; With an Achilles injury at the halfway point of the first quarter, Tyrese Haliburton saw their hopes threatened by a stifling Oklahoma City defense.
Gilgeous-Alexander responded, “It doesn’t feel real.” There are “so many hours, so many moments, so many emotions, so many nights of disbelief, and so many nights of belief.”
This group puts forth hard work. We deserve this, he continued.
An capped the championship extraordinary run ; The Thunder finished the regular season with a 68-14 record, which is good for the fifth-most wins in a single NBA season.
The surprise Eastern Conference champion Pacers pushed the league’s best team to the winner-take-all finale, which featured little star power but thrills in the final game between two small-market teams.
Five minutes into the game, Haliburton drained his third three-pointer for the Pacers, but it was a terrible mistake for Indiana when he slipped and fell two minutes later.
The two-time All Star was crying as his team’s medical staff rushed to his aid as a hush poured over the crowded building filled with Oklahoma City fans.
Aliburton was taken to the locker room but did not return, and a TV broadcast claimed he had an Achilles injury despite the team’s official release.
The Pacers put together a strong defensive performance to end the half one point ahead of the other team, keeping the score steady through a fast second quarter.
The Thunder, however, quickly seized control with Gilgeous-Alexander, who went 0-5 behind the arc in the third period, lighting the fuse with a 25-foot three-point jump shot after the third quarter.
Without Haliburton, the Pacers were unable to recover the deficit, with the Thunder giving the opener with a 9-0 run. However, they were masters of the late comeback in the postseason.
The battle of young champions
In their postgame celebration, the Thunder’s youth was distinctly present.
Thunder player Isaiah Hartenstein compared the post-game celebratory champagne bottles, saying, “No one knew how to open them.”
They were soon able to understand thanks to 31-year-old Alex Caruso, who is both the team’s oldest player and the only one with an NBA title before.
Hartenstein praised AC [Caruso] for giving us a great tutorial.
There was some inconsistentness with the Thunder youth.
The guys were all set to be who they are, and I tried to do that throughout the entire run, according to Thunder coach Mark Daigneault.
The Pacers are still without a championship in the NBA.
Without point guard TJ McConnell, who scored 12 points in the third half and made six of Indiana’s eight field goals in the frame, the Pacers could have had a worse team.
With 24 points off the bench, the Pacers finished the game. McConnell and Pascal Siakam each added 16.
Since 1988, when the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Detroit Pistons 108-105, the Thunder became the first NBA Finals team to score 100 or more points.
Caruso, who was a member of the Los Angeles Lakers’ 2020 championship team, expressed his hope that his postgame tutorial would eventually pay off.
Source: Aljazeera
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