SGA Caps Off Magical Season
Photo: Special to the NY Beacon
By Andrew Rosario
The Oklahoma City Thunder completed their magical season when they defeated the pesky Indiana Pacers last Sunday night in game 7 of the NBA Finals. In the 103-91 win in front of their home fans who stood for most of the game, point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander continued his stellar play. SGA finished the game scoring 29 points, registering 12 assists and connecting on 11 of 12 free throws. After winning the regular season scoring title and MVP, SGA joined Hall of Fame Kareem-Abdul Jabbar as the only players to achieve that feat by the age of 26. As they had done all postseason, the Pacers would not go away easily. Indiana took out the Miami Heat in 4 games. The Milwaukee Bucks were no match and were defeated in 5 games.. They took out the #1 seed Cleveland Cavaliers who 62 games in 5 games. They advanced to the NBA Finals after taking out the Knicks in 6 games.
The Pacers stunned OKC in the first game coming away with a win and suddenly had home court advantage. The Thunder would respond winning game 2 but Indiana won game 3 to take a 2-1 series lead. Staring at the possibility of going down 3-1, Alexander went crazy in the 4th quarter to even the series. OKC would win game 5 and Indy did not want Oklahoma to celebrate the championship on their home floor taking game 6 and forcing a game 7 on the road.
Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton was a game time decision with a sore right calf. You wouldn’t know it as he drained his first 3, 3-point attempts. Last his last basket gave the Indiana a 14-10. Unfortunately, Haliburton attempted to dribble up court and his right leg gave out. He fell face first, slamming his right hand on the court several times, writhing in pain. He was carried to the locker room and would not return. It was later revealed he tore his Achilles Tendon. “All of our hearts dropped,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. Indiana composed themselves and were only down 2-points at the end of the first quarter. In fact, they took a 48-47 halftime lead.
The Thunder came out with a purpose in the third quarter. Their defense suffocated the Pacers as they stole the ball 14 times by games end. It led to a 32-10 scoring advantage from the turnovers. OKC scored 14 more points (34-20) taking a 81-68 lead going into the final quarter in which they scored the first 9-points effectively ending the game.
Said Alexander after the game, “as a kid, you dream. Every kid dreams. But you don’t ever really know if it’s going to come true. I’m just glad and happy that my dreams have been able to come true.”
The Pacers only had 2 starters to score in double figures. Pascal Siakam was held to 16 points and Andrew Nembhard scored 15 points. They did get bench production from the scrappy TJ McConnell’s 16 points and Benedict Mathurin 24 points. Said Siakam after, “It was refreshing to be in that environment and to see how much basketball means for people (in Indiana). I hope you guys can see that we fought hard and we couldn’t get it done,”
This was the second time that the Thunders made it to the Finals since relocating from Seattle in 2008. They lost to the Miami Heat in 2012. The last NBA team to win back to back titles was the Golden State Warriors who did it in 2017 and 2018.
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