OKLAHOMA CITY — When it mattered most, the Thunder looked like the team that had dominated the NBA all season.
For six-and-a-half games, Indiana’s pressure defense and sharp rotations frustrated the Thunder offense. Oklahoma City was slow to get into its actions, was forced to play more isolation than it prefers, and — as long as the Pacers were taking care of the ball — the Thunder were stuck in the mud. Indiana was relentless, kept scoring, kept pushing.
Then, for the final 24 minutes of Game 7 (against a shorthanded Pacers team), the Thunder looked every bit the best team in the NBA, forcing 13 turnovers and scoring 18 points off them, playing with pace and hitting their shots. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander looked like the MVP, scoring and also orchestrating the game, finding his teammates. For 24 minutes, everything clicked.
Oklahoma City has its first NBA championship since moving to the city, following a 103-91 Game 7 win at home.
It was a fitting end to a season in which the Thunder were the best team in the league, boasting 68 wins and a historic +12.8 net rating. The best team won.
“I think the most impressive part was the group that did it, the group we had, we had so much fun playing together,” Gilgeous-Alexander said of this team. “It made it feel like we were just kids playing basketball. It was fun.”
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was deservedly named NBA Finals MVP, the first player since LeBron James in 2013 to win the regular-season MVP and Finals MVP awards, as well as an NBA title.
He cemented his name on that trophy in Game 7 when he made the Pacers pay for the lower pickup point they had success with in Game 6; he turned the corner on drives, and then either hit his patented fadeaway or kicked out to the open shooter. It was a masterclass from SGA, who finished with 29 points and 12 assists.
This game, however, was essentially decided in the first quarter, and in the saddest of ways.
Tyrese Haliburton was not afraid of the moment. He made three early, deep 3-pointers to put the Pacers up by a handful, and it looked like this could be one of those nights for him. Then came the sickening moment that silenced even the OKC crowd.
Haliburton had to be helped back to the locker room, a towel draped over his head. He would not return to the game with what the team officially called a “lower leg injury,” but Haliburton’s father confirmed to ABC that it is a torn Achilles.
That didn’t take the fight out of the Pacers — they continued to play pestering elite defense, contesting every drive and shot inside the arc while the Thunder shot just 4-of-18 from 3-point range in the first half.
The Pacers shot 8-of-16 from beyond the arc in the first half and were up 48-47 at the half because of it. For the game, Pascal Siakam and T.J. McConnell had 16 points each and played their hearts out.
Then came the second half, and the game changed.
The Thunder got four offensive rebounds and a couple of turnovers by the Pacers in the first three minutes, which changed the momentum of the game. As did this Lu Dort 3.
Then the rest of the Thunder started to hit their 3s — after the game was tied, 56-56, the Thunder forced two more turnovers, hit three consecutive 3-pointers, the lead was up to 9 and the building was rocking. The Pacers hit some shots, but they fell into the habit of trying to do too much individually, not moving the ball like they are capable, and this is where not having Haliburton to settle them made a huge difference. All the while, the Thunder kept forcing turnovers, and hit more 3s in the third quarter than they did all of the first half.
By the end of the third, it was 81-68 Oklahoma City, and the party was on. The Pacers were the Pacers and never quit, making the Thunder work for it, but the party never stopped. Well, it stopped for a second in the Thunder locker room because they couldn’t open the champagne bottles.
“First of all, none of us knew how to do it,” Isaiah Hartenstein said, laughing. “It was more like YouTube tutorials. We were asking [Alex Caruso] how to do it. It was not really in sync because no one really knew how to do it. Yeah, shout-out to AC for kind of teaching us how to pop champagne, I guess.”
Hartenstein won a title overseas in Lithuania, didn’t he learn to open a bottle then?
“No. When I won in Lithuania, they just drank hard tequila. Just hard liquor straight,” he laughed.
Whatever the drink of choice, the Thunder’s party continued, and it carried out into the streets and the Oklahoma City night.
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