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Philippines, 23 Jun 2025 |
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Oklahoma Completes Dream Season; Whips Indiana in Game 7, 103-91 for First NBA Title in Thunder Era By Teodoro Medina Reynoso PhilBoxing.com Mon, 23 Jun 2025  Oklahoma completed a dream season beating worthy Finals rival Indiana Pacers in the ultimate game, 103-91 to win its first NBA championship in the Thunder era. The Thunder emerged as the team with the best win-loss record in the league at 68-14, won the Western Conference Finals in six games over fellow pre-season favorite, Minnesota Timberwolves and had team superstar guard Shai Gilgeous Alexander named as the season's Most Valuable Player. It is just fitting for Oklahoma City to cap its season campaign with a well deserved NBA title in a Finals series that went the full route. And the Thunder did it by showing for most parts why it is also the best offensive and defensive team in the league. In the final game, Oklahoma showed why against an Indiana team who simply didn't know how to quit trying after losing their own superstar guard Tyrese Haliburton to recurrent injury with barely seven minutes gone in the first quarter. Up to that point, Haliburton had shown readiness to lead his team, scoring nine points all from the three points area. We are now left to ponder what could have been had Haliburton not reinjured the same leg that had suffered calf strain in game 5 and left him in pain sprawled on the parquet floor. He was helped off the court and never came back. TJ McConnel who had been a revelation for Indiana in the Finals, went in for Haliburton and lo and behold, he became an instant steadying presence as he, Pascal Siakam and Andrew Nembhard rallied the Pacers. Indiana even had the lead in the first half 48-47, primarily on the strength of tougher defense as Gilgeous Alexander was the lone source of Oklahoma consistent scoring, pouring 16 of his team high 29 points in the period. The third quarter saw Oklahoma unravelling their league's best defense qualities as the Thunder starved the Pacers for points with virtually only McConnel able to pierce their defense. Meanwhile, Gilgeous Alexander showed another facets of his game by helping his teammates to get open shots and in defending the painted area. The other Thunder also pressured the Pacers into committing turnovers and missed shots as Alex Caruso, Lue Dorf and Cason Wallace laid traps on Indiana ball carriers and Chet Holmgren putting the lid on inside attackers. The effort resulted to a 34-20 third quarter that enabled the Thunder to establish full control of the game heading to the final period, 81-68. With the Thunder limiting Indiana's scoring opportunities through McConnel and Siakam, Bennedict Mathurin took it upon himself to try and rally the Pacers in the fourth quarter but Oklahoma simply matched whatever points Indiana could put up for the decisive, comfortable win. Oklahoma's big three, as they have done most of the regular season, did it again and fittingly in the last game of the post season: Gilgeous Alexander aside from top scoring with 29 points, also registered a Finals high 12 assists on top of 5 rebounds. Partner Jalen Williams finished with 20 points and Holmgren slammed home 18 points and blocked four shots. They were backed up by Caruso and Dorf with 10 points each. Mathurin led Indiana with 24 points followed by Siakam and McConnel both with 16 points. Nembhard had 15 points. As mentioned Haliburton scored 9 points in only 7 minutes of action. Indiana could gain some consolation in emerging as the Eastern Conference best team despite only finishing fourth after the regular season. The Pacers defeated top seed Cleveland Cavaliers in the Conference semi-finals and third seed New York Knicks in the East Finals. The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.  |
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