Oklahoma City Thunder wins NBA Championship with Game 7 victory as Tyrese Haliburton injury crushes Indiana Pacers
The Oklahoma City Thunder have been crowned NBA champions after finally seeing off the Indiana Pacers in Game 7 on Sunday night.
Led by MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Thunder secured the franchise's second-ever championship with a 103-91 win on their own court to wrap up a 4-3 series success.
The Pacers were stunned by the loss of their star player Tyrese Haliburton at the end of the first quarter. He suffered an Achilles injury and left the court in tears.
A spirited Pacers team did their best to compete without their main man, powered by a sensational performance from T.J. McConnell, but it was not enough to deny the Thunder.
Gilgeous-Alexander, who was named Finals MVP, scored 29 points and got 12 assists while Jalen Williams scored 20 and Chet Holmgren had 18 for the Thunder, who were pushed to the brink but 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 third-most in any season.
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.
The Pacers led 48-47 at the half even after losing star guard Haliburton to what his father said was an Achilles tendon injury about seven minutes into the game. But they were outscored 34-20 in the third quarter as the Thunder built a 13-point lead and began to run away.
Bennedict Mathurin had 24 points and 13 rebounds for Indiana, which still is waiting for its first NBA title.
The Pacers - who were 10-15 after 25 games and were bidding to be the first team in NBA history to turn that bad of a start into a championship - had leads of 1-0 and 2-1 in the series, but they simply didn't have enough in the end.
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.
Gilgeous-Alexander became just the fourth player in NBA history to win MVP, Finals MVP, a scoring title and play for a champion in the same season.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did it once, Michael Jordan then did it four times, and Shaquille O´Neal was the last entrant into that fraternity - until now.
'A lot of hard work, a lot of hours in the gym,' Gilgeous-Alexander said.
'This isn't just a win for me. This is a win for my family. This is a win for my friends. This is a win for everybody that was in my corner growing up. This is a win for the fans, the best fans in the world.'
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