OKLAHOMA CITY — Don’t expect OKC to go to sleep anytime soon. For the first time since their 2008 relocation, the Oklahoma City Thunder have won an NBA championship. The fanbase finally reached the mountaintop after decades of coming up just short.

The Thunder beat the Indiana Pacers in a 103-91 Game 7 win. It was the grand conclusion of an exciting 2025 NBA Finals that went the distance.

“I’m just so happy for the guys. I mean, this is an uncommon team. This is a great team. All the boxes that this team checked this season, it’s a historic team,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said. “But there’s no guarantee you end it the way that we did. I just wanted it so bad for them. I was just so thrilled that we were able to get that done and get to experience this because they deserve it.”

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the Thunder had a slow start. Blame it on Game 7 nerves. The offense couldn’t get going. Tyrese Haliburton nailed his first three looks from the outside. Everything went in the Pacers’ favor.

And then on a turnover, Haliburton went down. He needed to be helped off the court. The Pacers’ worst nightmare came to life. Playing with a calf strain, everybody’s first thought went to a possible torn Achilles. While Indiana didn’t confirm the injury, he was ruled out the rest of the way after just seven minutes.

That shattered any optimism for the Pacers. The Thunder finished the first quarter with a 25-22 lead. But credit Indiana. The Pacers kept hanging around. That’s what they’ve done all playoffs. They scored 26 points in the second frame to make OKC sweat.

Andrew Nembhard nailed a step back 3-pointer in the final seconds. The Pacers had a 48-47 halftime lead. Frustration was the mood for most Thunder fans at the break. Shai Gilgeous-Ale xander stepped up, but Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren struggled.

It felt similar to Game 1. The Thunder should’ve been up by a lot of points at the break. Not down by one. Especially with Haliburton out. But the Pacers wouldn’t go away as the rest of the roster stepped up in their franchise player’s absence.

Then the Thunder finally found their stride out of the break. Without their lead ball-handler, the league’s best defense created plenty of turnovers. A bunch of steal-and-score sequences led to a signature avalanche run. The Thunder scored 34 points in the third frame to go up by double-digit points.

TJ McConnell was Indiana’s only source of buckets. He got by Cason Wallace and others pretty easily. But once the Thunder

shut him down, they didn’t have much else. The Thunder had an 81-68 lead after the third quarter.

Nobody wanted to say it aloud, but everybody thought it. The Thunder were 12 minutes away from glory. All they needed to do was stiff-arm the Pacers long enough. Holmgren pushed OKC’s lead to a game-high 90-68 with a little under eight minutes left.

Considering just how difficult points came for the Pacers, it would’ve taken a miracle for them to mount one last comeback. The Thunder had a few scares as Indiana cut it to as little as 10 points, but the final minutes turned into a freethrow battle that delayed the inevitable.

The Thunder shot 40% from the field and went 11-of-40 (27.5%) from 3. They shot 22-of-31 on free throws. They had 20 assists on 35 baskets. Five Thunder players scored double-digit points. Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 29 points and 12 assists. He was named the NBA Finals MVP. Williams finished with 20 points on 20 shot attempts. Holmgren had 18 points, eight rebounds and five blocks. Alex Caruso and Cason Wallace each scored 10 points off the bench.

Not the prettiest performance, but Gilgeous-Alexander gutted out a Game 7 NBA Finals win. It doesn’t get higher stakes than that. The Pacers looked shellshocked once Haliburton went down. That showed in their defense against the MVP winner.

And when he didn’t, Gilgeous-Alexander leveraged his gravity to help his teammates. Plenty of kick-out baskets resulted in good looks from the outside. That’s how you make the opponent rethink their defensive strategies.

“Yeah, coming off of Game 6, I obviously had a lot more turnovers than assists. That’s not a recipe for a win. I wanted to do whatever it took tonight to get a win,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Whether that was me playing in space or it was them not letting me play in space, some of my teammates are open, just trying to make the right basketball play. Just do whatever it takes to win at the end of the night. I got enough done.”

Meanwhile, the Pacers shot 41% from the field and went 11-of-28 (39.3%) from 3. They shot 22-of-29 on free throws. They had 17 assists on 29 baskets. Four Pacers players scored double-digit points. Bennedict Mathurin led the way with 24 points and 13 rebounds. Pascal Siakam had 16 points and four rebounds. Nembhard finished with 15 points and six assists. McConnell scored 16 points. Haliburton had nine points before he was injured.

The Thunder finally did it. They won an NBA championship. And cap off one of the greatest seasons ever. From 68 wins to the best point differential ever, this season will go down in league history as one of the most dominant campaigns seen.

“I’m incredibly grateful. Grateful to Sam and Mr. Bennett for the opportunity. Grateful for the players. I just feel such a sense of responsibility when you have a team like this. Everyone says the team is hard to coach, and usually that has a negative connotation,” Daigneault said. “When you have a team that is this talented, professional, competitive, this willing to sacrifice, that’s the ultimate pressure on a coach because you want to serve that. They deserve that.”

Oklahoma City officials announced that the Thunder’s NBA championship parade will be at 10:30 a.m. Today, June 24. The parade route starts at Northwest 10th Street and North Harvey Avenue and will head south on Harvey, west on Northeast Fifth Street, south on Walker Avenue, east of Oklahoma City Boulevard, south on South Robinson Avenue before ending at Southwest Sixth Street.

“The day of the parade will forever live in the annals of our city’s history,” Mayor David Holt said in a prepared statement. “It is a celebration of our team’s historic accomplishment and our city’s renaissance. All Thunder fans from across the city, state and world are invited. I encourage all employers and entities in OKC to allow availability for all to attend, to the greatest extent possible.

Holt added, “For those attending, please recognize the extraordinary and unprece dented magnitude of the event and expect long periods of time and significant walking for ingress and egress. And for downtown businesses and entities, please recognize that normal operations will not be possible on Tuesday. Let’s Thunder Up, OKC! WE are the champions!”

The city is preparing for large crowds at what will be Oklahoma City’s first-ever NBA championship parade. Similar celebrations in other cities have drawn more than 500,000 attendees, according to city officials.

Police officers, firefighters, and emergency personnel from across the metro area will be stationed along the parade route to help ensure public safety.

X