The best team of the regular season made it: the Oklahoma City Thunder are the new NBA champions. The former franchise of Spanish Congolese center Serge Ibaka won the game 7 at home against the Indiana Pacers of Pascal Siakam by 103 points to 91. The Thunder’s players take the NBA Finals 4-3 and a first crown ever.
In the times of Kevin Durant (who was traded to the Houston Rockets a couple of days ago by the way), James Harden and Russell Westbrook, the Oklahoma franchise never managed to win a title. The best result was the NBA Finals in 2012 against Miami. Years went by, and while Harden and Westbrook are still looking for a first trophy in the league, this is eventually an achieved task for OKC. The team of youngsters led by Canadian point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wrote a first line in the history of the franchise thanks to this victory over the Pacers last night. SGA, already MVP of the regular season, was also awarded MVP of the Finals.
Unfortunately for the Pacers, their point guard Tyrese Haliburton had to leave his teammates quite early in the game after barely 7 minutes played due to an injury. Without him, the Indiana franchise was unable to stop the Thunder who did not miss the opportunity to win in front of the OKC fans. Shai had 29 points, while Jalen Williams added 20 points. 5 players of the Thunder scored 10 points or more.
On Indiana’s side, Cameroonian forward Pascal Siakam, NBA champion with the Toronto Raptors in 2019, scored 16 points. Coming from the bench, Bennedict Mathurin strongly contributed with 24 points, 13 rebounds and 3 assists in 33 minutes.
The NBA season is now over. Time for deserved holidays!
Guillaume Mahot