Oklahoma City Wins the NBA Championship

Oklahoma City completed their dream season by winning the NBA Championship on Sunday night. The Thunder beat the Indiana Pacers 103-91 in Game 7 to win the championship. It is the first championship in their 17 years of being in Oklahoma City.

Haliburton Injury:

However, the game was marred by a terrible injury to Indiana star point guard, Tyrese Haliburton, who went down with 4:55 left in the first quarter with a lower leg injury. It was later confirmed that he tore his right achilles tendon. Haliburton fell to the ground and was slapping the floor in pain. You could read his lips.

“No, no, no!” screamed Haliburton as the game continued to be played until the Pacers could call a timeout.

It completely took the air out of the Paycom Center for a bit. It was the third achilles tendon tear in the playoffs this season. Damian Lillard (Bucks) and Jayson Tatum (Celtics) were the other two big time players that suffered achilles injuries. Haliburton was helped off the court, but the Pacers draped a towel over Haliburton’s head to hide the obvious emotion he was going through at that moment.

Before the Haliburton injury the Pacers and Tyrese Haliburton were playing very good basketball. Indiana was hitting shots, getting second chance points, and playing great team defense.

Once play resumed, the Pacers battled the Thunder tooth and nail. Indiana went into the locker room at halftime with a 48-47 lead. It made people wonder if the Pacers could actually pull off a massive upset. However, that is where the Thunder leaned on their regular season MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. During the third quarter, Gilgeous-Alexander had a stretch of play that propelled the Thunder to outscore Indiana 34-20 to take a 13 point lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Indiana made a name for themselves by coming back from big deficits during the 2025 playoffs. The Pacers made the Thunder sweat it out a little bit by cutting a 22 point Oklahoma City lead down to 10 points behind a three point basket by Andrew Nembhard. Unlike other comebacks by Indiana during these playoffs the Thunder hung on and closed out the game to win their first NBA Championship.

Oklahoma City Post-Game:

“It doesn’t feel real,” Gilgeous-Alexander said after the game. “So many hours and moments. A ton of emotions. A lot of nights of disbelief. Many nights of belief. It’s wild to know that we’re all here, but this group worked for it. This group put in the hours, and we deserve this.” (ESPN)

At the end of the day, the Oklahoma City Thunder went out and earned their NBA Championship. With that being said, the Thunder will now have to get used to being the hunted instead of the hunter. Everybody will give them their best shot throughout an 82 game season.

How will the Thunder handle that mindset moving forward?

We will find out starting in October.

Michael J. Wilson-The Daily Waiver