Oklahoma City Thunder beat Indiana Pacers to claim first-ever NBA title
In other NBA news, Kevin Durant was traded to the Houston Rockets after several weeks of discussions.
In football, Real Madrid secured their first Club World Cup victory by defeating the Mexican side Pachuca. Juventus clinched their spot in the Round of 16 by crushing Wydad Casablanca. Paul Pogba agreed to sign with Ligue 1 side Monaco after two years without playing.
In tennis, Carlos Alcaraz won the Queen's tournament in London, while Marc Marquez claimed victory at the Italian Grand Prix in MotoGP.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
France 24
6 hours ago
- France 24
Oklahoma City Thunder beat Indiana Pacers to claim first-ever NBA title
In other NBA news, Kevin Durant was traded to the Houston Rockets after several weeks of discussions. In football, Real Madrid secured their first Club World Cup victory by defeating the Mexican side Pachuca. Juventus clinched their spot in the Round of 16 by crushing Wydad Casablanca. Paul Pogba agreed to sign with Ligue 1 side Monaco after two years without playing. In tennis, Carlos Alcaraz won the Queen's tournament in London, while Marc Marquez claimed victory at the Italian Grand Prix in MotoGP.
France 24
8 hours ago
- France 24
Thunder claim franchise's first NBA title after game 7 victory over Pacers
The Oklahoma City Thunder crowned a dazzling season with an NBA title on Sunday, pulling away relentlessly in the second half to beat the injury-hit Indiana Pacers 103-91 in game seven of the NBA Finals. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 29 points and handed out 12 assists and the Thunder's swarming defense finally proved to much for a Pacers team that lost talisman Tyrese Haliburton to a leg injury just seven minutes into the contest. The underdog Pacers hung tough and held a 48-47 lead at halftime, but the Thunder out-scored them 34-20 in the third quarter and pushed the lead to as many as 22 points in the fourth. "It doesn't feel real, so many hours, so many moments, so many emotions, so many nights of disbelief," Gilgeous-Alexander said, his voice breaking "It's crazy to know that we're all here. "But this group worked for it, this group put in the hours and we deserved this." Gilgeous-Alexander put himself among some of the game's greats as he earned Finals Most Valuable Player honors to go with his regular-season MVP and scoring title along with his first championship. Jalen Williams scored 15 of his 20 points in the second half and Chet Holmgren added 18 points, eight rebounds, a steal and five of the Thunder's eight blocked shots. A crowd of 18,203 at Paycom Center were given some tense moments as the Pacers chipped away at the deficit, but 23 Indiana turnovers leading to 32 Thunder points were ultimately too much for the Pacers to overcome. The Thunder, who led the league with 68 regular-season wins, captured their first title since the club's controversial move to Oklahoma City in 2008, the franchise having won it all in 1979 as the Seattle SuperSonics. The Pacers, three-time American Basketball Association champions in the 1970s -- remain in search of a first title since joining the NBA in the NBA-ABA merger. Haliburton injured Haliburton, already nursing a right calf strain when the Pacers won game six to force the first Finals game seven since 2016, had scored nine points -- all on three-pointers -- when he went down as he tried to drive past Gilgeous-Alexander. Haliburton's right leg gave out and he sprawled forward, slapping the court in pain and disappointment. Teammates gathered around him before he was helped off the court and to the locker room, supported and hopping on one leg with a towel over his head. In his absence, the Pacers dug in. Down by three after the first quarter, they took a 43-42 lead on a three-pointer by Bennedict Mathurin with 2:02 left in the second quarter. Oklahoma City would take the lead again before Andrew Nembhard drilled a step-back three-pointer with 4.3 seconds left to put the Pacers up 48-47 at halftime. The first half featured 10 lead changes, both teams coming out with determination on the defensive end with everything at stake. The three-point shot was an early difference-maker for the Pacers, who connected on eight of 16 from beyond the arc in the first half, but had just three after the break. The Thunder struggled early from long range, but Gilgeous-Alexander made his first three-pointer of the night with 8:16 left in the third, Holmgren followed with a trey and Jalen Williams added another -- the quick 9-0 run giving Oklahoma City a 65-56 lead that set the stage for the rest of the game. "We had 24 minutes to go get it -- we had 24 minutes to finish our season," Gilgeous-Alexander said of the Thunder's mindset coming out for the third. "It was either gonna be bad or it was going to be pretty. We did everything we could." Bennedict Mathurin led the Pacers with 24 points off the bench. Pascal Siakam and T.J. McConnell aded 16 points apiece and Andrew Nembhard scored 15. But the famously resilient Pacers, who rallied from a 10-15 season start and authored a string of stirring comeback wins, finally came up short.
France 24
9 hours ago
- France 24
Man City demolish Al Ain to reach Club World Cup last 16
In a match dubbed the "Abu derby", with City owner and United Arab Emirates vice-president Sheikh Mansour's side facing off against that of his elder sibling, Sheikh Mohamed, president of Al Ain and also the country, the Premier League side showed no brotherly love. Ilkay Gundogan put City ahead before starlet Claudio Echeverri netted his first goal for the club with a free-kick and Erland Haaland slotted in the third with a penalty. In the second half Gundogan struck again, Oscar Bobb rolled in the fifth and Rayan Cherki grabbed his first City goal as they pulled level with Juventus on six points at the top of Group G. The result also confirmed Juve's place in the next round. "Now we have to see whether we'll be first or second in the group," said City coach Pep Guardiola. "We played a little bit better than the first game, especially in the second half." Guardiola said on the eve of the game his squad needed trimming and that was reflected in his decision to rotate his entire starting line-up from the opening win over Wydad Casablanca. In came superstar striker Haaland, new arrival Rayan Ait-Nouri, and exciting prospect Echeverri, among others. Serbian coach Vladimir Ivic's Al Ain were crushed 5-0 by Juventus in their opening fixture and the 10-time Premier League champions offered another unforgiving challenge. After a disjointed opening, City took the lead in the ninth minute in fortuitous fashion, with Gundogan's chip towards Haaland at the back post floating into the net of its own accord. Al Ain had a good chance to pull level when the dawdling Nico Gonzalez had his pocket picked and the UAE side sprang forward, but Nassim Chadli's effort was superbly tipped wide by Stefan Ortega. City's 19-year-old Argentine attacker Echeverri, on his first start for the club, doubled their lead after 27 minutes with a perfect free-kick that swerved around the outside of the wall and left goalkeeper Khalid Eisa rooted to the spot. With the Mercedes-Benz Stadium mostly full apart from the top ring of seats, fans began sending a Mexican wave around the ground. It came to a standstill when Bernardo Silva's corner was headed against the post by Josko Gvardiol, before starting back up. Haaland rolled a shot narrowly wide when he might have scored the third after a one-two with Silva sent him galloping through. The Norwegian hitman eventually got his goal in first-half stoppage time after Manuel Akanji was hauled to the ground by Ramy Rabia and City were awarded a penalty following a VAR review. Haaland sent Eisa the wrong way with a low spot-kick for his first goal of the tournament. Relentless Haaland should have scored again after the hour mark but Eisa denied him with a good double save. Instead it was Gundogan who got his second, with a well-taken dinked finish. The midfielder has recently been linked with a move to Galatasaray, but Guardiola said Saturday he is still counting on the 34-year-old in the United States. Substitute Oscar Bobb showed fleet footwork before rolling in the fifth at the near post before Cherki sealed the win. Signed from Lyon ahead of the tournament, the French attacking midfielder had a quiet debut against Wydad but powered home from the edge of the box late on in his second appearance. City face Juventus in Orlando on Thursday in a shoot-out to decide who will finish top of the group and potentially avoid a last-16 clash against Spanish giants Real Madrid. With one more goal they would have moved ahead of Juve on goals scored and had a slight advantage, but City ran out of time. "Unfortunately we started the second half a bit slow, so there was not much time at the end to score the last goal to be ahead of Juve ahead of the last group-stage game," Gundogan told DAZN.
