Don’t doubt defense

Oklahoma City clamped down defensively on Indiana and held the Pacers to their lowest point total in the entire playoffs as the Thunder claimed the NBA championship via a 103-91 decision in Game 7 of a pulsating Finals at the Paycom Center Sunday night (yesterday morning, Manila). No question, coach Mark Daigneault’s formula was focused on defense. In OKC’s four wins in the Last Dance, Indiana was held to an average of 102.8 points and forced to 18.8 turnovers each loss. The Pacers had 22 miscues in Game 5 and 23 in Game 7 with OKC capitalizing to win both contests at home. Indiana’s turnovers led to OKC taking 12 more field goal attempts in Game 5 and 17 in Game 7.

The clincher brought out the grittiest defense from OKC after Indiana brushed off Tyrese Haliburton’s first quarter exit with an Achilles injury to lead at the half, 48-47. In the third quarter, the Thunder turned things around as Indiana fell prey to OKC’s swarming, suffocating and stifling defense to commit eight turnovers. At the 2:20 mark, TJ McConnell was called for a five-second inbound violation which magnified how OKC stepped up its stranglehold. Ironically, it was McConnell who kept Indiana alive in the face of OKC’s assault with 12 of his 16 points in the third period.

Indiana, however, battled like a wounded tiger in the fourth where the Pacers rebounded from a 22-point deficit with 7:41 left to 10 twice, the last with 2:16 to go. But coach Rick Carlisle had no replacement for Hali down the stretch and OKC held on to win. Although the Pacers finished with more rebounds, they couldn’t counter conceding 32 turnover points. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was as usual spectacular with 29 points, five rebounds, 12 assists and only one turnover. Chet Holmgren anchored OKC’s defense with five blocks and scored 18 points, including a triple, in 31 minutes. The 7-1 stringbean center missed his entire rookie 2022-23 season with a Lisfranc injury in his right foot and before the playoffs, sat out 50 games recovering from a hip fracture but was a major force in the Finals. Lu Dort, Isaiah Hartenstein, Alex Caruso, Jalen Williams and Cason Wallace had their moments throughout the playoffs so it was far from just an SGA-Chet show. OKC, averaging 24.9 years to become the second youngest NBA title team ever, is now the seventh different team to win the Larry O’Brien trophy since 2019.