Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's Thunder is the NBA champion. (Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Indiana Pacers, 103-91, in Game 7 of the NBA Finals on Sunday night at Paycom Center, clinching its first NBA championship since relocating from Seattle in 2008. Regular season MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished with a game-high 29 points to go with 12 assists.
The intense series finale provided a worthy, if bittersweet, ending to the most competitive Finals since the 2016 classic between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors. The blue-clad home crowd, anxious to see the Thunder bounce back from a blowout loss in Game 6, remained standing throughout the clincher to support Oklahoma’s only major professional sports franchise.
Gilgeous-Alexander and Indiana star Tyrese Haliburton came out firing, though the duel proved short-lived when Haliburton crashed to the court midway through the first period, reportedly with an Achilles’ injury. The two-time all-star, who suffered a calf strain earlier in the series, pounded the hardwood in pain and put no weight on his right leg as he was helped to the locker room. After a brilliant postseason run highlighted by four game-deciding clutch shots, Haliburton’s night was over after just nine minutes.
The Pacers handled the initial shock of Haliburton’s absence well, taking a 48-47 halftime lead in what felt like a quintessential Game 7 grinder. Oklahoma City was unable to conjure much offense from anyone besides Gilgeous-Alexander, and Indiana plugged along valiantly without its floor general.
But Thunder Coach Mark Daigneault helped shift the game’s dynamic by starting energetic guard Alex Caruso in place of center Isaiah Hartenstein to begin the third quarter. Oklahoma City had buttered its bread all season with aggressive perimeter defense, and the smaller lineup helped the Thunder force seven turnovers in the third quarter to break open a tight game. After neither team led by more than five points in a nip-and-tuck first half, Oklahoma City finally pushed its lead to double digits late in the third quarter with a Jalen Williams layup and won the decisive period by a 34-20 count.
Pacers guard T.J. McConnell did his best to keep Indiana within reach, scoring 12 of his 16 points in the third quarter on an array of creative drives and pull-up jumpers. Ultimately, Indiana couldn’t keep up with just one reliable source of offense. The Pacers’ signature scoring balance and perimeter attack suffered without Haliburton at the wheel, enabling the Thunder to open a 21-point lead early in the fourth quarter on a Williams three-pointer set up by Gilgeous-Alexander.
Bennedict Mathurin (24 points, 13 rebounds) led a last-gasp push for Indiana, but the Thunder’s top-ranked defense held firm in the exhausting closing moments.
The Thunder’s championship capped a 17-year journey that began with the franchise’s controversial relocation from Seattle. After an Oklahoma City-based ownership group led by Clay Bennett purchased the SuperSonics in 2006, the prospect of a move emerged once efforts to build a new arena in Seattle stalled. Despite fierce opposition from fans, Bennett received approval for the relocation from the NBA’s board of governors and rebranded the franchise as the Thunder for the 2008-09 season.
Small-market Oklahoma City embraced its only major professional sports franchise, which was launching a rebuilding effort led by General Manager Sam Presti, the NBA’s youngest lead executive at the time, and fresh-faced stars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. Shortly after James Harden joined the mix, the Thunder overcame its youth to reach the 2012 NBA Finals. With a well-regarded front office and a core featuring three future MVPs, Oklahoma City seemed destined to enjoy a lengthy championship window.
Instead, Harden, Durant and Westbrook departed before delivering another Finals appearance. Durant’s 2016 defection to the Golden State Warriors was the death blow to the once-promising era, and it eventually forced Oklahoma City to start the rebuilding cycle all over again.
But Presti displayed the patience, foresight and eye for talent necessary to give Oklahoma City a second chance at a championship. The Thunder traded all-star forward Paul George to land Gilgeous-Alexander in 2019, and it struck gold in the 2022 draft by selecting Williams and Chet Holmgren. Presti prioritized a team-first, detail-oriented culture throughout the rebuilding effort, taking each new Thunder player on a tour of Oklahoma City’s poignant memorial to the 1995 bombing of a downtown federal building to instill a sense of the community’s history and values.
Gilgeous-Alexander acknowledged during his Western Conference finals MVP speech that the Thunder had endured some “really dark times” as it tried to claw its way back to the top of the standings. Oklahoma City went 22-50 in 2020-21 and 24-58 in 2021-22, finishing 14th in the 15-team conference in both seasons.
Yet Gilgeous-Alexander’s emergence as a franchise player and the influx of young talent around him propelled the Thunder into the West’s play-in tournament in 2023 and back into the playoffs in 2024. After a second-round loss to the Dallas Mavericks, Presti spent last summer plugging key roster holes with the additions of Caruso, a relentless backcourt defender, and Hartenstein, a beefy and skilled center to complement Holmgren.
The fully formed Thunder delivered the best season in franchise history. Oklahoma City won a franchise-record 68 games during the regular season, and its point differential of plus-12.87 was the highest mark in league history. Gilgeous-Alexander was the MVP and the scoring champion, Williams earned his first all-star selection, and Oklahoma City’s league-leading defense strangled opponents. The Thunder boasted the league’s best home record thanks to its “Loud City” faithful, and it went 29-1 against the Eastern Conference.
Despite Oklahoma City’s dominance, questions lingered right up until the confetti dropped Sunday night. Gilgeous-Alexander had never led a deep playoff run, Williams is only 24, and the 23-year-old Holmgren was working his way back from a hip injury that cost him more than half the season.
What’s more, teams as young as the Thunder rarely win the NBA title, and more experienced teams such as the Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves loomed in its path. Oklahoma City’s inexperience was on display when it gave up major fourth-quarter comebacks in Game 1 losses to the Nuggets in the conference semifinals and to the Pacers in the Finals.
Oklahoma City ultimately overcame its doubters as a collective, proving it was the NBA’s deepest and most complete team during a 16-7 run to the title. The Thunder showcased a different essential trait in each round of the playoffs.
In a first-round sweep, the Thunder was more composed and aligned than the Memphis Grizzlies, whose own promising rise was undercut by Ja Morant’s gun suspensions and a late-season coaching change. In the conference semifinals, Oklahoma City used its depth and lineup versatility to slow Nuggets star Nikola Jokic just enough and outproduce his shallow supporting cast.
In the Western Conference finals, the Thunder’s signature pressure defense overwhelmed Anthony Edwards, Julius Randle and the turnover-prone Minnesota Timberwolves in five games. And in a hard-fought Finals against the Pacers, Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams provided star power and shot-making that Indiana couldn’t match with Haliburton ailing — and then injured in Game 7.
Oklahoma City’s championship required timely contributions from a host of players.
Guard Lu Dort hit a series of three-pointers to drive a comeback victory in Game 5 against the Nuggets that prevented Oklahoma City from falling into a 3-2 hole against the 2023 champions. In a pivotal Game 4 road win over the Timberwolves in the next round, Holmgren hit clutch shots and made crucial defensive stops down the stretch to break Minnesota’s spirit and give Oklahoma City a commanding 3-1 lead.
Against Indiana, Gilgeous-Alexander scored 15 points in the fourth quarter of a momentum-swinging Game 4 road win, and Williams notched a career-high 40 points in a Game 5 victory to push Indiana to the brink. Other role players enjoyed days in the sun: Seldom-used forward Aaron Wiggins broke out with 18 points in a Game 2 win, and Caruso, who is not typically known as a scorer, added 20 points in Game 4.
By the time the Thunder finally put down the never-say-die Pacers, its lengthy climb to the championship was at risk of being overshadowed by its bright future. In the NBA’s parity era, which has crowned seven different champions in the past seven seasons, Oklahoma City is well-positioned for a title defense because it can bring back its entire rotation for the foreseeable future and none of its rotation players is at risk of age-related decline. Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams and Holmgren will command lucrative new contracts down the road, but Presti shouldn’t face the prospect of serious financial constraints until at least the 2026-27 season.
As Oklahoma City plans its first championship parade, the rest of the NBA must contend with the proposition that the newly minted champions are just getting started.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.