NBA Finals: Oklahoma City captures title as Haliburton injury dooms Indiana

OKLAHOMA CITY Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished off his MVP season with points and assists and the Oklahoma City Thunder won the NBA championship pulling away in the second half to beat the Indiana Pacers - on Sunday night Jalen Williams scored and Chet Holmgren had for the Thunder who were pushed to a Meeting brink in the NBA Finals but finished off a season for the ages Oklahoma City won games between the regular season and the playoffs tying the - Chicago Bulls for the third-most in any season Only Golden State in - and the Bulls in - won more It s the second championship for the franchise The Seattle SuperSonics won the NBA title in the crew was moved to Oklahoma City in There s nothing in the rafters in Oklahoma City to commemorate that title Next October a championship banner is at last coming a Thunder banner It was not easy to secure The Pacers led - at the half even after losing star guard Tyrese Haliburton to what his father revealed was an Achilles tendon injury about seven minutes into the contest But they were outscored - in the third quarter as the Thunder built a -point lead and began to run away Bennedict Mathurin had points and rebounds for Indiana which is still waiting for its first NBA title The Pacers who were - after games and were bidding to be the first company in NBA history to turn that bad of a start into a championship had leads of - and - in the series but they exclusively didn t have enough in the end Home teams are now - in NBA Finals Tournament s And the Thunder became the seventh champion in the last seven seasons a run of parity like none other in NBA history Pacers forward Pascal Siakam was part of the Toronto crew that won in Thunder guard Alex Caruso was part of the Los Angeles Lakers band that won in the pandemic bubble in Milwaukee won in Golden State in Pacers forward Thomas Bryant and Denver prevailed in and Boston won last year s title The Thunder are the ninth franchise to win a title in NBA Commissioner Adam Silver s seasons leading the league His predecessor David Stern saw eight franchises win titles in his seasons as commissioner