NBA Finals 2025: Oklahoma City conquers the NBA title

With 29 points of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Thunder conquers his first NBA title in Oklahoma City by beating some injured Indiana Pacers

Oklahoma City – Shai Gilgeous-Alexander He left the court for the last time this season, collapsed in the coach’s arms Mark Daigneault and He finally smiled.

It’s over.

The climb is complete. The reconstruction is over. He Oklahoma City Thunder is champion.

The best team of the whole season was the best team at the end, taking the NBA title to Oklahoma City for the first time. Gilgeous-alexander culminated his season of MVP with 29 points and 12 assists, And the Thunder beat the Indiana Pacers -They lost to Tyrese Haliburton for a serious leg injury in the first minutes– 103-91 In the seventh and decisive game of the NBA finals Sunday night.

“It doesn’t feel real,” said Gilgeous-Alexander. “So many hours. So many moments. So many emotions. So many nights of disbelief. So many nights of faith. It is crazy to know that we are all here, but this group worked for it. This group put the hours and we deserve this.”

Jalen Williams scored 20 and Chet Holmgren contributed 18 For Thunder, which culminated a season for history. Oklahoma City won 84 games between the regular season and the playoffs, drawing with the Chicago Bulls of 1996-97 for third place in any season.

Only Golden State Warriors (88 in 2016-17) and Bulls (87 in 2015-16) won more.

It is the second championship for the franchise. The Seattle Supersonics They won the NBA title in 1979; The team moved to Oklahoma City in 2008. There is nothing in the beams in Oklahoma City to commemorate that title.

Next October, a championship banner will finally arrive. A thunder banner.

The Pacers led 48-47 at the half time even after losing Haliburton so his father said it was an Achilles tendon injury, approximately seven minutes after the game started. But 34-20 were exceeded in the third quarter while the Thunder built an advantage of 13 points and began to take off.

Bennedict Mathurin He had 24 units and 13 rebounds for Indiana, who is still waiting for his first NBA title. The Pacers, who had a record of 10-15 after 25 games and were trying to be the first team in the NBA’s history to turn a bad start into a championship, had advantages of 1-0 and 2-1 in the series, but they simply did not have enough at the end.

Local teams now have a 16-4 record in the decisive games of the NBA finals. And the Thunder became the seventh champion in the last seven seasons, an unparalleled parity streak in the NBA history.

The eaves of the Pacers, Pascal Siakam, It was part of the team of Toronto Raptors which won in 2019, the Guard of Thunder, Alex Carusowas part of the Los Angeles Lakers team that won in the “bubble” pandemic in 2020, Milwaukee Bucks He won in 2021, Golden State in 2022, the eaves of the PacersThomas Bryant, and Denver Nuggets They prevailed in 2023, and Boston Celtics He won last year’s title.

And now, the Thunder has its turn. The youngest team to win a title in almost half a century has reached the top of the NBA.

The Thunder is the ninth franchise to win a title in the 12 seasons of Adam Silver as commissioner of the NBA. His predecessor, David Stern, saw eight franchises win championships in his 30 seasons as commissioner.