The NBA Finals got here to an in depth with a giant win for one of many smallest of small-market groups within the league: the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder.
Make no mistake, although, the market could also be small however the crew, led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, was mighty. And league MVP Gilgeous-Alexander was rewarded with the Finals MVP award, as nicely, marking the primary time in 25 years that the identical participant has received each MVP trophies.
Their victory noticed the Thunder defeat the Indiana Pacers, whose string of comeback victories ended on this Sport 7, 103-91 loss.
Within the first quarter, the Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton went down with an Achilles harm. The celebrity guard was already taking part in via a calf pressure he suffered throughout Sport 5. Haliburton didn’t return to the ground and, regardless of a sport effort from his teammates, the Thunder managed many of the remainder of the matchup.
Coming into the competition with a home-court benefit, the Thunder boasted a league-best common season report of 68-14. The crew progressed to their first championship sequence since 2012 after defeating the Minnesota Timberwolves 4-1 within the Western Convention Finals.
Within the East, the Pacers dominated their rivals, the New York Knicks, 4-2, with Haliburton making a outstanding last-minute shot to win Sport 2. This Finals berth marked Indiana’s first time within the championship sequence since 2000. The championship marks the Thunder’s first Finals victory because the crew moved to OKC. Its different championship got here in 1979 within the crew’s earlier incarnation because the Seattle Supersonics.
This yr’s NBA Finals marks the seventh distinctive win in seven years, the longest stretch in league historical past, in addition to the primary Sport 7 since 2016. It’s additionally the league’s best Finals in years, marking the achievement of Commissioner Adam Silver’s effort to create parity among the many NBA’s smaller market and larger market franchises.
On the flip aspect, regardless of the sturdy sequence, the small-market matchup is more likely to be one of many lowest-rated in current reminiscence.
This Finals may be the final (it was their first collectively, too) for ESPN’s saying crew of Mike Breen, Richard Jefferson and Doris Burke. The latter, a Corridor-of-Fame trailblazer and the primary girl function in-game analyst for the NBA Finals, could not see her contract renewed.
