Thunderbeatpaser wins first title in the franchise in Game 7 of the NBA Finals
The Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Pacers in Game 7 to win the franchise’s first NBA title.
Sports Pulse
The Oklahoma City Thunder won the NBA Championship. They made it through a fierce gauntlet, a Western conference, and then needed seven games to beat the Indiana Pacers, one of the league’s most difficult teams.
The Thunder put together a 68-win regular season and was a favorite to win the title despite never making any progress over the conference semi-finals with the group before this season. They learned what they need to finish the job through victory and loss through sweeps and 7 game series.
Indiana enters the offseason with one of the worst what-ifs. What happens if Tyrese Haliburton doesn’t get a bottom right injury in Game 5 and then gets more foot injuries and then doesn’t leave Game 7 in the first quarter?
Injuries always have some effect on the playoffs, while lightning is healthy enough and talented enough to survive.
The winners and losers of the Pacers-Thunder NBA Finals are:
Shy Gilgaus Alexander
Gilgeous-Alexander has had a great season of all time, becoming the fourth player in NBA history, winning regular season scoring titles, regular season MVP, title and final MVP in the same season, joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal.
Against the Pacers, he averaged 30.3 points, 5.6 assists, 4.6 rebounds, 1.9 steel, 1.6 blocks and 49.6% in the 3-point line, with 29 points, 12 assists and 5 rebounds, and was 11-11 on free throws.
I’m over myself
Thunder’s executive vice president and general manager has been sought this moment for almost 20 years. He came close with the Thunder team featuring Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden, but when the era fell apart in 2016 with Durant’s departure and Westbrook deal in 2019, Presty embarked on another plan to build a candidate. He succeeded with many well-versed draft picks, deals and free signing signatures. Thunder, the second Youngest team to win titles in the last 50 years, will become a favorite to win titles again in 2025-26.
Jalen Williams
The 24-year-old Williams appeared in the third season of 2024-25 as an All-Star, All-NBA performer and All-Defence choice. He is one of the best two-way players in the league and his best years are before him. He averaged 23.6 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists in the finals, earning an epic 40-point performance in Game 5.
Oklahoma City, Cities
Hurricane Katrina forced the New Orleans Hornets to move to Oklahoma City for the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons. It gave the city a taste of professional basketball and revealed that major professional sports franchises could thrive there. The unfortunate thing is that Seattle lost the team when he moved to Oklahoma City in 2008 (and that fraud can be fixed if the NBA expands). Thunder fans love the team and players appreciate their support.
Mark Daen
Daigneault, who won the title in his fifth season as coach Thunder, demonstrated that he is one of the best coaches in the league. His stable approach resonates with the player, quickly adapts and is a thinker coach.
Thunder Registration
With this team, it is difficult to name a few players because they receive so many contributions from so many players. Alex Caruso won his second title, and Chet Holmgren is important to his success in lightning, and players through the roster (Lou Dort, Cathon Wallace, Aaron Wiggins, Isaiah Joe, Isaiah Hartenstein, Ajay Mitchell, Kenrich Williams and Jaylin Williams) are now in the moment.
Indiana’s future is a hit
The loss, yes, will be Sting, but Indiana’s immediate outlook may have just become much more severe. If the Pacers are afraid of a torn Achilles manifesto, Indiana will be at a disadvantage for next season – assuming Halliburton can return for next season.
The third and fourth quarters of Sunday night proved how challenging it would be if Halliburton extended the time. He set the pace of Indiana’s offense, finding an open player and becoming one of the greatest players of all time. If he’s really been out for a few months, the Pacers will miss Halliburton badly.
The Pacers turnover costs them the game
Indiana, simply put, lost the game due to sales. I praise the Thunder, a historically big defence, but the Pacers have committed 23 sales, while Oklahoma City handed it just eight times. It led to a major contradiction of 32-10 in sales points.
We also began to skew the balance in the third quarter. The Pacers committed eight turnovers during the period and turned off turnovers only three times. The Pacers overtook 14 people during the period.
Some important pacers do not appear
Not to mention game 7 of the NBA Finals, the game where star players went down early, the path to victory was always to demand role players and step ups. And while it’s hard to blame the few players in Indy’s defeat, Obi Toppin (these finals posted a pretty big game), Aaron Nesmith and Miles Turner each struggled, going 13-3 (23.1%) for nine points. Toppin was held scoreless and committed three turnovers.
Hoops fans robbed the epic game 7
This looked like an epic Game 7 setup. Tyrees Halliburton finished the game hard, but a slow start was a problem. It’s not a Sunday night. Halliburton was offensive and in search of a shot, drained three deep three-pointers to score nine points in seven minutes of injury.
The Pacers were wandering around, but it was clear they were missing the star players to generate an attack. Perhaps even if Halliburton finishes the game, the Pacers are still losing. Either way, it would have been made for a much more attractive watch.
“You hate seeing it in sports in general, but at this moment my heart fell for him,” Gilgaus Alexander said. “I couldn’t imagine the biggest game of my life and anything like that was happening. It’s not fair, but competition is sometimes not fair.”
