{"id":90871,"date":"2025-06-11T07:44:19","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T07:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/90871\/"},"modified":"2025-06-11T07:44:19","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T07:44:19","slug":"how-2025-nba-finals-became-canadian-showcase-for-okc-thunder-pacers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/90871\/","title":{"rendered":"How 2025 NBA Finals became Canadian showcase for OKC Thunder, Pacers"},"content":{"rendered":"

INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 These NBA Finals<\/a> have reunited two pairs of Canadian guards who were tied together long before they arrived on opposite sides of basketball\u2019s biggest stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> and Lu Dort<\/a> for the Thunder<\/a>, and Andrew Nembhard<\/a> and Bennedict Mathurin<\/a> for the Pacers. SGA and Nembhard from Ontario, Dort and Mathurin from the same neighborhood in Montreal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The NBA Finals \u2014\u00a0a showcase of sorts for Canadian basketball \u2014\u00a0resumes Wednesday night in Indianapolis<\/a>. The series is tied 1-1.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we represent our teams here,\u201d Dort said, \u201cbut at the end of the day, we represent our country as well. It’s going to be really fun. They should enjoy it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

More: Isaiah Hartenstein’s impact on NBA Finals still large even amid Thunder lineup changes<\/a><\/p>\n

Dort, Mathurin representing Montreal\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lu Dort and Bennedict Mathurin grew up in the same neighborhood in Montreal. They share Haitian roots. They both played one year of college ball in the state of Arizona.\u00a0<\/p>\n

From there, their paths diverged.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dort, who went undrafted out of Arizona State, signed a two-way contract with the Thunder in the summer of 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mathurin, after a standout season at Arizona, was picked sixth by the Pacers in the 2022 NBA Draft. A score-first, hyper-aggressive guard, Mathurin is still finding his footing with the Pacers. He averaged 16.1 points per game this season on 46% shooting. His 5.3 rebounds per game were a career high.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dort, meanwhile, has become an all-world defender and a clutch 3-point shooter in Oklahoma City. Dort and Gilgeous-Alexander are pillars of the Thunder\u2019s rebuild \u2014\u00a0the only remaining players from the Thunder\u2019s 2019-20 playoff team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Mathurin was drafted, Dort was there in Brooklyn to support his friend from Montreal Nord \u2014\u00a0the hardscrabble area where they grew up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a good friend of mine,\u201d Dort said of Mathurin. \u201cLike a brother, honestly. I\u2019m really happy for what he\u2019s been doing throughout his career. Now we are at this point where we\u2019ve got to compete against each other. It\u2019ll be really fun.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Added Mathurin: \u201cI think it’s a great thing. I think it’s a great opportunity for me, Lu, the whole Montreal city. I think it’s a great step in the right direction just to be able to go against each other.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mathurin also used the word \u201cbrother\u201d to describe his relationship with Dort. But the niceties ended there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLu’s a great friend of mine \u2026 but we’re enemies,\u201d Mathurin said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

More: NBA Finals heads to Indiana tied 1-1: What we’ve learned about Thunder-Pacers so far<\/a><\/p>\n

SGA, Nembhard go way back\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Andrew Nembhard first played against each other when they were kids.<\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander was 9. Nembhard was 7. And the biggest thing they were competing for in those youth tournaments was a good time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just fun,\u201d Nembhard said. \u201cWe were just little kids having fun and enjoying hoops.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander and Nembhard grew even closer throughout the years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They played together for Team Canada last summer in the Paris Olympics, and Nembhard is one of only two non-Thunder players who have worn Gilgeous-Alexander\u2019s unreleased signature sneakers in a game this season.<\/p>\n

But he isn\u2019t wearing them in the Finals. The two Canadians have mostly guarded each other so far, and camaraderie was left at customs.<\/p>\n

That became clear in Game 1 when Gilgeous-Alexander drew a foul on Nembhard midway through the fourth quarter. He then gave the Pacers guard a light shove before he walked away.<\/p>\n

Nembhard immediately walked over to an official to plead his case, and he purposely bumped into Gilgeous-Alexander in the process.<\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander paid no mind to the not-so-subtle jab. That\u2019s to be expected when fighting for a championship.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a competitor,\u201d Gilgeous-Alexander said of Nembhard. \u201cHe\u2019s a winner. He plays the game the right way on both ends of the floor. Really good player.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indiana ultimately won Game 1. The Pacers erased a 15-point deficit to steal the win, and Nembhard drilled a stepback 3-pointer over Gilgeous-Alexander down the stretch.<\/p>\n

But OKC evened the series with a Game 2 win, and Gilgeous-Alexander erupted for 34 points. Plenty of those buckets came at Nembhard\u2019s expense.<\/p>\n

This series has been a back-and-forth battle between two of Canada\u2019s brightest stars. And while the setting is now shifting to Indianapolis, don\u2019t expect a change in sentiment between the fierce competitors.<\/p>\n

The real fun is just getting started.<\/p>\n

More: OKC fans ready to travel to Game 3 of NBA Finals: ‘I’m going to go and fight the good fight’<\/a><\/p>\n

Sign up for the\u00a0Thunder Sports Minute newsletter<\/a>\u00a0to access more NBA coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 These NBA Finals have reunited two pairs of Canadian guards who were tied together long before…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3783],"tags":[2540,1784,7,1435,363,4821,20042,311,839,1501,623,113,126,838,183,1436,54,79,70,85,6,1220,2541,67,310,475,179,3966,3965,1505,61,134,114,132,622,209,66,83,55,396,312],"class_list":{"0":"post-90871","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oklahoma-city-thunder","8":"tag-andrew","9":"tag-andrew-nembhard","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-bennedict","12":"tag-bennedict-mathurin","13":"tag-canada","14":"tag-canada-olympic-team","15":"tag-city","16":"tag-dort","17":"tag-finals","18":"tag-gilgeous-alexander","19":"tag-indiana","20":"tag-indiana-pacers","21":"tag-luguentz","22":"tag-luguentz-dort","23":"tag-mathurin","24":"tag-modular","25":"tag-modular-story","26":"tag-national","27":"tag-national-sports","28":"tag-nba","29":"tag-nba-finals","30":"tag-nembhard","31":"tag-news","32":"tag-oklahoma","33":"tag-oklahoma-city","34":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","35":"tag-oklahomacity","36":"tag-oklahomacitythunder","37":"tag-olympic","38":"tag-overall","39":"tag-overall-positive","40":"tag-pacers","41":"tag-positive","42":"tag-shai","43":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","44":"tag-sports","45":"tag-sports-news","46":"tag-story","47":"tag-team","48":"tag-thunder"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}