The Oklahoma City Thunder made history Sunday, winning the city’s first NBA championship with a 103-91 victory over the Indiana Pacers in Game 7 of the NBA Finals at Paycom Center.
The Thunder did it largely the way it did plenty of its other wins this season — with a smothering defense, big moments from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren and a dominant third quarter.
There were plenty of numbers to dissect after OKC’s latest victory, both with Sunday’s game itself and the Thunder’s overall run.
Here’s a look at quite a few of those numbers:
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5: Blocks for Chet Holmgren, setting a record for Game 7 of the NBA Finals. Holmgren finished with 11 blocks in the Finals and 43 in the playoffs.
53: Plus/minus rating swing from Game 6 to Game 7 for Jalen Williams. After posting a minus-40 rating in Thursday’s game, Williams was a game-best plus-13 in the decisive Game 7.
12: Assists for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, a playoff career high. SGA had 10 assists twice in these playoffs, including in Game 5 of the Finals.
377: Combined points in the NBA Finals for SGA and Williams, the second-most for a duo in the last 50 years. The only tandem who scored more was LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, who scored 398 in 2016.
Thunder’s defensive pressure wins out ….
32: Points for OKC off 23 Pacers’ turnovers. Lu Dort, Alex Caruso and Cason Wallace each had three steals.
22.7: The Thunder’s average points off turnovers in the playoffs, five more than the second-best team in the category in the postseason, the Cleveland Cavaliers. Indiana averaged 17.3 points off turnovers in the postseason.
… Especially in the third quarter
18: Points off eight Indiana turnovers in the third quarter for the Thunder. Six of those came on the second and third OKC possessions during a critical 9-0 run early in the third that put the Thunder ahead for good.
12: Points for Indiana’s T.J. McConnell in the third.
3: Turnovers for McConnell in the quarter. The first came on a Williams steal that led to a Holmgren 3-pointer for the second bucket during that 9- 0 run, then the second came on Lu Dort’s steal that led to a corner 3-pointer from Williams resulting from a spinning pass from SGA with 7:16 remaining in the quarter.
20: Shooting percentage for Pacers other than McConnell in the third. While McConnell was 6 of 7 from the floor, the rest of the team was 2 of 10 and attempted just four shots inside the arc.
0: Turnovers for the Thunder in the third quarter.
Thunder makes history
1: Team in NBA history to win a title after dropping a playoff game by 40 or more points. The Thunder lost Game 3 of the Western Conference finals to Minnesota, 143-101, before bouncing back to win the last two games of the series to advance to the NBA Finals.
16: Wins for home teams in 20 NBA Finals Game 7s.
5: Consecutive NBA Finals Game 7s where the winner scored 100 or fewer points before Sunday’s victory.
84: Wins for the Thunder, 68 in the regular season and 16 in the playoffs.
4: Teams in NBA history to reach that mark.
Ryan Aber covers OU athletics for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Ryan? He can be reached at raber@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @RyAber. Sign up for the OU Sooners newsletter to access more OU coverage. Support Ryan’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.