Berry Tramel
OKLAHOMA CITY — With 32.4 seconds left Sunday night, Mark Daigneault mass-substituted, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander walked off the Paycom Center court. Daigneault met him with a hug.
Daigneault was the proxy for four million Oklahomans who want to embrace SGA and his precocious Thunder teammates.
The NBA champion calls Oklahoma home. The Thunder beat the scrappy Indiana Pacers 103-91 in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, with Gilgeous-Alexander leading the way.
Unless you want to count the Oklahoma Land Run, this was the biggest sporting event ever staged on Oklahoma soil. And Oklahoma’s biggest star ever came through with a fabulous game, with a lot of help from his friends.
SGA had 29 points, and pay no attention to his 8-of-27 shooting. He was in command of the game, with his 12 assists coming in a variety of ways. Jalen Williams added 20 points and Chet Holmgren 18. Williams needed 20 shots to make seven, but that’s the nature of Game Sevens. Defense reigns.
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The Thunder was helped by the first-quarter injury to Pacer star Tyrese Haliburton, who suffered a clearly major injury with the score tied at 16. But these Pacers being these Pacers, super sparkplug T.J. McConnell kept Indiana in the game.
But the Thunder wore down Indiana with a familiar script.
The Thunder takeaway machine was back. The Thunder passing returned, too. And OKC launched enough 3-pointers to make enough to keep up with Indiana.
The Thunder had 14 steals on the Pacers’ 23 turnovers, leading to 32 OKC points. The Thunder had 20 assists on its 35 baskets. And the Thunder matched Indiana’s 11 3-pointers.
As the final seconds ticked down, the Paycom Center crowd roared, and Thunder chairman Clay Bennett wept. Bennett and associates brought this franchise from Seattle 17 years ago. And now the O’Brien Trophy resides in Oklahoma.
Call it Blue Heaven in Game 7.
Everything was hard-earned. It’s supposed to be hard-earned in a Game 7. These Pacers are stout-hearted. Even after OKC took a 21-point lead early in the fourth quarter, the Pacers clawed back, twice getting within 10.
But the Thunder staved off the comebackers from Indianapolis, and the Cinderella Pacers had no storybook ending for what would have been the biggest surprise champion in NBA history.
Haliburton’s injury cast a pall over Game 7. He had been playing with a calf strain, sometimes playing well and sometimes not.
Haliburton was off to a hot start Sunday, sinking three 3-pointers in a four-possession span, all in the first five minutes.
But dribbling in the frontcourt later in the first quarter, Haliburton crumbled to the floor, Alex Caruso picked up the loose ball and started a fast break that resulted in a Williams dunk.
Indiana coach Rick Carlisle called a quick timeout, and the Pacers sprinted to surround Haliburton, who eventually was helped off the court in obvious pain, an Achilles tendon tear the fear. He never returned.
And to no one’s surprise, the Pacers didn’t quit. They stayed close and even took a 48-47 halftime lead, on Andrew Nembhard’s long 3-pointer with three seconds left in the half.
A fabulous third quarter propelled the Thunder. OKC turned a 48-47 halftime deficit into an 81-68 lead. The Thunder didn’t commit a turnover; Indiana committed eight, leading to 18 points.
Williams (nine points in the period) and Holmgren (seven) rose up and gave Gilgeous-Alexander help.
McConnell made Indiana forget its Haliburton problems, scoring 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting in an 11-possession span. But McConnell is accustomed to playing 20 minutes a game, not the 28 required of him Sunday. And while his heroics staved off OKC’s first bombardment, there was no salve for the second.
Cason Wallace’s corner 3-pointer gave the Thunder a 73-66 lead, then Isaiah Hartenstein’s steal off McConnell set up a Wallace layup, Williams scored two straight baskets and Hartenstein’s tip-in with 29 seconds left gave the Thunder that 13-point lead, the game’s biggest.
The fourth quarter became a coronation. A top-of-the-key 3-pointer by SGA. A Wallace layup after a great defensive stand. A Williams wing-3 off SGA’s 12th assist of the game that made it 89-68.
The Pacers were out of gas. They went more than six minutes without a point, extending into the first 4½ minutes of the fourth quarter.
Paycom Center boomed with delight on the biggest sports night in state history. Group hugs all around.
berry.tramel@tulsaworld.com
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