The Oklahoma City Thunder’s youth was evident in their postgame celebration following their 103-91 win over the Indiana Pacers in Game 7 to make them NBA champions on Sunday night.
“No one knew how to open them,” Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein said of the post-game celebratory champagne bottles.
They learned soon enough, thanks to 31-year-old Alex Caruso, both the oldest player on the roster and the only player on the team who had previously won an NBA title.
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“AC (Caruso) did a great job of giving us a tutorial,” Hartenstein said.
The NBA championship is the franchise’s first since moving to Oklahoma City for the 2008-09 season and first since winning the 1979 title as the Seattle SuperSonics.
The Thunder youth came through with inconsistency at times, even in Sunday’s game.
But they wore down the Pacers with a withering defense and big plays from plenty of players — most notably their star duo of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams.
Gilgeous-Alexander, the NBA Most Valuable Player, capped off his NBA Finals MVP run with 29 points and 12 assists with just one turnover.
Williams added 20 points, with the duo teaming up for perhaps the biggest basket in the game.
The Thunder took over in the third quarter, using the same suffocating defense that helped them earn the NBA’s best record at 68-14 and pushed them through their playoff run as the favorites to win the crown.
Late in the third, Gilgeous-Alexander drove to the basket then spun to create some space, drawing an “oooh” from the home crowd.
But instead of flipping up a shot, as he has done countless times during the season, Gilgeous-Alexander instead dished to Williams in the corner.
Williams quickly fired up a 3-pointer, which bounced high off the rim before draining through, sending the crowd into a frenzy as the Thunder’s lead stretched to nine after their back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers broke a tie.
Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren, who finished with 18 points, hit the other 3-pointers during the stretch.
Oklahoma City closed the third on a 25-12 run to take control, then stretched its lead to as big as 22 before Indiana battled back in the fourth to cut the deficit to 10 late but couldn’t get any closer.
“The whole run I’ve tried to help the guys just be who we are, and that’s all we needed is to be who we are,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said.
Oklahoma City didn’t commit a turnover in the third as it outscored the Pacers 34-20 in the quarter, and Williams scored nine points in the frame, including that critical 3-pointer during the stretch that put the Thunder ahead for good.
The Thunder scored 18 points off Indiana’s eight third-quarter turnovers and finished by winning the turnover battle 23-8.
“The game just came down to winning coverages and winning closeouts,” said Caruso, who was one of three Oklahoma City players with three steals.
The Pacers, who remain without an NBA title, lost star point guard Tyrese Haliburton to a right leg injury in the first quarter, when he scored nine points.
Haliburton started off hot, hitting three 3-pointers in a little more than five minutes to start the game.
But two minutes later, as the Pacers’ point guard was starting to drive outside of the top of the arc, he came crashing to the court and screamed.
The ball popped out to Caruso, who quickly fired to Gilgeous-Alexander, who found Williams streaking up court for a dunk as Haliburton remained crumpled on the ground with a non-contact injury.
After the play, Haliburton was helped off the court. The Indiana star, who suffered a right calf strain in Game 5 but had been playing through it, couldn’t put weight on his right leg as he was helped to the locker room.
Haliburton did not return and on the ABC broadcast, it was reported Haliburton had suffered a torn Achilles. “What happened with Tyrese is…,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said before a long pause. “All of our hearts dropped. He will be back. I don’t have any medical information about what may or may not have happened. But he’ll be back in time.”
Even without Haliburton, though, the Pacers kept the game tight, leading by one at halftime and tying the game at 56 in the third before the Thunder began their onslaught.
It could’ve been worse for the Pacers if not for point guard T.J. McConnell, who scored 12 points in the third, hitting six of Indiana’s eight field goals in the frame.
Bennedict Mathurin led the Pacers for the game with 24 points off the bench. Pascal Siakam and McConnell added 16 each.
The Thunder became the first team to score 100 or more points in an NBA Finals Game 7 since 1988, when the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Detroit Pistons 108-105.
Caruso, who played on the Los Angeles Lakers’ 2020 title team, said he hoped his postgame tutorial would pay off again down the road. “We’ll get some rest, rest, try to do it again next year,” Caruso said. “We’ll be better (at it) next year.”
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