Zürcher Nachrichten - Thunder beat Pacers in game seven, cap stunning season with NBA crown

EUR -
AED 4.322015
AFN 82.214801
ALL 97.829687
AMD 452.486126
ANG 2.106133
AOA 1079.178973
ARS 1450.462021
AUD 1.804832
AWG 2.121288
AZN 1.995996
BAM 1.953996
BBD 2.375907
BDT 144.346744
BGN 1.95398
BHD 0.44369
BIF 3505.638193
BMD 1.176859
BND 1.498648
BOB 8.131493
BRL 6.380812
BSD 1.176714
BTN 100.425145
BWP 15.585612
BYN 3.850845
BYR 23066.427915
BZD 2.363618
CAD 1.603593
CDF 3395.237477
CHF 0.935197
CLF 0.028536
CLP 1095.05973
CNY 8.432662
CNH 8.441134
COP 4709.376085
CRC 594.251409
CUC 1.176859
CUP 31.186752
CVE 110.164704
CZK 24.637887
DJF 209.536563
DKK 7.461319
DOP 70.424986
DZD 151.961006
EGP 58.019246
ERN 17.652879
ETB 163.306554
FJD 2.635223
FKP 0.862232
GBP 0.863614
GEL 3.201151
GGP 0.862232
GHS 12.178757
GIP 0.862232
GMD 84.147776
GNF 10205.665222
GTQ 9.047724
GYD 246.182733
HKD 9.238146
HNL 30.743358
HRK 7.534011
HTG 154.500653
HUF 398.778532
IDR 19108.652554
ILS 3.941536
IMP 0.862232
INR 100.695194
IQD 1541.463879
IRR 49575.166917
ISK 142.399583
JEP 0.862232
JMD 187.816615
JOD 0.834434
JPY 170.397935
KES 152.026299
KGS 102.916228
KHR 4727.71589
KMF 491.926539
KPW 1059.172417
KRW 1609.114612
KWD 0.359283
KYD 0.980686
KZT 611.110652
LAK 25356.59172
LBP 105432.468591
LKR 353.044083
LRD 235.934199
LSL 20.698792
LTL 3.474957
LVL 0.71187
LYD 6.338149
MAD 10.56175
MDL 19.821701
MGA 5295.111746
MKD 61.478246
MMK 2470.863045
MNT 4217.390708
MOP 9.514136
MRU 46.702886
MUR 52.899816
MVR 18.117969
MWK 2040.51627
MXN 21.946794
MYR 4.982781
MZN 75.27194
NAD 20.698616
NGN 1800.264346
NIO 43.300395
NOK 11.879622
NPR 160.677303
NZD 1.953144
OMR 0.451623
PAB 1.176714
PEN 4.172566
PGK 4.860554
PHP 66.665478
PKR 334.03603
PLN 4.244277
PYG 9377.343179
QAR 4.300784
RON 5.05849
RSD 117.07093
RUB 92.851465
RWF 1691.538433
SAR 4.41369
SBD 9.811381
SCR 16.606629
SDG 706.710603
SEK 11.270922
SGD 1.501619
SHP 0.924826
SLE 26.420386
SLL 24678.140035
SOS 672.479192
SRD 43.996894
STD 24358.596271
SVC 10.296407
SYP 15301.428614
SZL 20.682906
THB 38.300276
TJS 11.443533
TMT 4.130774
TND 3.428464
TOP 2.756322
TRY 47.032918
TTD 7.980565
TWD 34.167267
TZS 3106.906389
UAH 49.074696
UGX 4221.103231
USD 1.176859
UYU 47.226803
UZS 14776.359004
VES 128.834826
VND 30772.497813
VUV 139.373498
WST 3.050427
XAF 655.352003
XAG 0.032047
XAU 0.000355
XCD 3.180519
XDR 0.815048
XOF 655.352003
XPF 119.331742
YER 284.97608
ZAR 20.836927
ZMK 10593.143581
ZMW 28.505685
ZWL 378.947978
  • CMSC

    0.0900

    22.314

    +0.4%

  • CMSD

    0.0250

    22.285

    +0.11%

  • RBGPF

    0.0000

    69.04

    0%

  • SCS

    0.0400

    10.74

    +0.37%

  • RELX

    0.0300

    53

    +0.06%

  • RIO

    -0.1400

    59.33

    -0.24%

  • GSK

    0.1300

    41.45

    +0.31%

  • NGG

    0.2700

    71.48

    +0.38%

  • BP

    0.1750

    30.4

    +0.58%

  • BTI

    0.7150

    48.215

    +1.48%

  • BCC

    0.7900

    91.02

    +0.87%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.13

    +0.15%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    9.85

    +0.1%

  • BCE

    -0.0600

    22.445

    -0.27%

  • RYCEF

    0.1000

    12

    +0.83%

  • AZN

    -0.1200

    73.71

    -0.16%

Thunder beat Pacers in game seven, cap stunning season with NBA crown
Thunder beat Pacers in game seven, cap stunning season with NBA crown / Photo: MATTHEW STOCKMAN - GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP

Thunder beat Pacers in game seven, cap stunning season with NBA crown

The Oklahoma City Thunder crowned a dazzling season with an NBA title on Sunday, pulling away relentlessly in the second half to beat the Indiana Pacers 103-91 in game seven of the NBA Finals.

Text size:

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 29 points and handed out 12 assists and the Thunder's swarming defense finally proved to much for a Pacers team that lost talisman Tyrese Haliburton to a leg injury just seven minutes into the contest.

The underdog Pacers hung tough and held a 48-47 lead at halftime, but the Thunder out-scored them 34-20 in the third quarter and pushed the lead to as many as 22 points in the fourth.

"It doesn't feel real, so many hours, so many moments, so many emotions, so many nights of disbelief," Gilgeous-Alexander said, his voice breaking "It's crazy to know that we're all here.

"But this group worked for it, this group put in the hours and we deserved this."

Gilgeous-Alexander put himself among some of the game's greats as he earned Finals Most Valuable Player honors to go with his regular-season MVP and scoring title along with his first championship.

The 26-year-old Canadian star becomes the first player since LeBron James in 2012-2013 to win both the NBA regular season MVP and Finals MVP in the same campaign.

Jalen Williams scored 15 of his 20 points in the second half and Chet Holmgren added 18 points, eight rebounds, a steal and five of the Thunder's eight blocked shots.

A crowd of 18,203 at Paycom Center were given some tense moments as the Pacers chipped away at the deficit, but 23 Indiana turnovers leading to 32 Thunder points were ultimately too much for the Pacers to overcome.

The Thunder, who led the league with 68 regular-season wins, captured their first title since the club's controversial move to Oklahoma City in 2008, the franchise having won it all in 1979 as the Seattle SuperSonics.

The Pacers, three-time American Basketball Association champions in the 1970s -- remain in search of a first title since joining the NBA in the NBA-ABA merger.

- Haliburton injured -

Haliburton, already nursing a right calf strain when the Pacers won game six to force the first Finals game seven since 2016, had scored nine points -- all on three-pointers -- when he went down as he tried to drive past Gilgeous-Alexander.

Haliburton's right leg gave out and he sprawled forward, slapping the court in pain and disappointment.

Teammates gathered around him before he was helped off the court and to the locker room, supported and hopping on one leg with a towel over his head.

"What happened with Tyrese, all of our hearts droppd," Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said, adding that Haliburton was in the locker room at halftime "and he was very much a part of a group that believed that they could do this."

In his absence, the Pacers dug in. Down by three after the first quarter, they grabbed a 48-47 lead on Andrew Nembhard's step-back three-pointer with 4.3 seconds left before halftime.

In a first half that featured 10 lead changes, the three-point shot was an early difference-maker for the Pacers, who connected on eight of 16 from beyond the arc in the first half, but had just three after the break.

The Thunder struggled early from long range, but Gilgeous-Alexander made his first three-pointer of the night with 8:16 left in the third, Holmgren followed with a trey and Jalen Williams added another -- the quick 9-0 run giving Oklahoma City a 65-56 lead that set the stage for the rest of the game.

"We had 24 minutes to go get it -- we had 24 minutes to finish our season," Gilgeous-Alexander said of the Thunder's mindset coming out for the third.

Carlisle said the Pacers just weren't good enough in the third quarter.

"That quarter was the killer," he said, but he praised his team's effort in the fourth.

"There was no surrender," Carlisle said. "It was all defiant fight until the end."

Bennedict Mathurin led the Pacers with 24 points off the bench. Pascal Siakam and T.J. McConnell added 16 points apiece and Nembhard scored 15.

But the famously resilient Pacers, who rallied from a 10-15 season start and authored a string of stirring comeback wins, finally came up short.

D.Graf--NZN