The NBA Finals came to a close Sunday with a big win for one of the smallest of small-market teams in the league: the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Make no mistake, though the market may be small the team led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was mighty. Gilgeous-Alexander, the league MVP, was named the Finals MVP after the Thunder’s 103-91 victory over the Indiana Pacers in the deciding Game 7.
The Pacers, who had taken a 2-1 lead in the series and then had to force a Game 7 with a Game 6 win, lost Tyrese Haliburton early Sunday with an Achilles injury; the superstar guard was already playing through a calf strain he suffered during Game 5. Haliburton did not return, and the Thunder controlled most of the rest of the game.
The Thunder came into the postseason with a league-best regular-season record of 68-14. The team progressed to its first championship series since 2012 after defeating the Minnesota Timberwolves 4-1 in the Western Conference Finals. The NBA Finals win marked the franchise’s second ever and first since it moved to OKC; it previously won the title in 1979 at the Seattle Supersonics.
The Pacers had dominated the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals to reach the NBA Finals for the first time since 2000.
This year’s NBA Finals marked the seventh unique win in seven years, the longest stretch in league history, as well as the first Game 7 since 2016. It’s also the league’s most competitive Finals in years, marking the fulfillment of Commissioner Adam Silver’s effort to create parity among the NBA’s smaller-market and bigger-market franchises.
On the flip side, despite the strong series, the small-market matchup is likely to be one of the lowest-rated in recent memory.
This Finals could also be the last (it was their first together, too) for ESPN’s announcing team of Mike Breen, Richard Jefferson and Doris Burke. The latter, a Hall of Fame trailblazer and the first woman serve as in-game analyst for the NBA Finals, may not see her contract renewed.