Obi Toppin des Indiana Pacers celebrates a basket against New York Knicks in the sixth game of the Eastern NBA 2025 qualifiers on Saturday in Indianapolis. The Pacers beat the Knicks 4-2 to qualify for the NBA final against the Thunder of Oklahoma City.
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Fans of Oklahoma City Thunder waited for an NBA title since their team arrived in town in 2008. For Indiana Pacers fans, who joined the NBA in 1976, waiting for a championship lasted Almost 50 years.
Now, for a team, this drought is about to end. The Thunder and the Pacers will meet in the NBA final of this year to have the chance to finally bring a trophy home.
Before moving to Oklahoma City and renamed as Thunder, the team won a title in 1979 As Seattle Supersonics. Shortly after the team moved in 2008, the Thunder was pretenders and reached the final in 2012. But this generation of the team could not capitalize on an ultra -tapered list (with Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden), and the Thunder has not been able to return to the final – until now after having deleted the Timberfolves of Minnesota 4 games 1.
The Pacers only reached the NBA final once in the history of the franchise, in 2000, when they fell into the back-to-back championship team Los Angeles Lakers. The Indiana won its place on Saturday evening after winning an exciting final of the Eastern Conference against the New York Knicks in six games.
The opening match of the final of the best final strokes on Thursday, June 5.
The Thunder experienced one of the most dominant seasons in the history of the NBA. At 68-14, Oklahoma City had the best record for the regular season, during which they outstripped the opponents of 12.9 points per game – An NBA record.
Their success this year has occurred by their young basic trio of the superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Wing Jalen Williams and seven feet Chet Holmgren. Holmgren is 23 years old, Williams is 24 years old and Gilgeous-Alexander, who was appointed MVP of the League after managing the NBA by scoring this season, is only 26 years old.
The success of Oklahoma City Thunder this year has occurred by their young basic trio of the Shai Gilgeous-Alexander superstar (right), Wing Jalen Williams and seven feet Chet Holmgren. Gilgeous-Alexander, who was appointed MVP of the League after leading the NBA by scoring this season, was only 26 years old.
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Images William Purnell / Getty
This domination continued during the western conference finals, in which the Thunder sent the Timberwolves of Minneapolis packaged with victory margins of 26, 15, 2 and 30 points.
The seeded pacers n ° 4, on the other hand, upset the New York Knicks in a tight series in which several games were won in one or the other team in the last minutes. In match 6 of the series, the Pacers won 125-108.
“Part of the shooting of this series was really beyond belief,” said head coach Rick Carlisle after the Victory of Indiana in match 4. “When you can stop and a rebound, it is almost sometimes like an anomaly.”
For the playmaker of the Indiana Tyrese Haliburton, these playoffs were a outing party. Barely a month ago, a survey of anonymous players carried out by Athletics Appointed Haliburton, the “most surfed player” in the league. During the final of the Eastern Conference, he shone, with an impeccable triple-double performance in match 4 and 21 other points on Saturday in match 6. Treater Pascal Siakam won the MVP of the Eastern Conference final.
Indiana and Oklahoma City are two of the smallest media markets in the NBA. The metropolitan region of Indianapolis is home to around 2.1 million people. Oklahoma City is smaller, with about 1.5 million people in the metro.
But the success of the teams has invigorated the two cities – especially in Oklahoma, where Thunder is the only major professional sports team.
No matter what team wins, this final will see the seventh different champion in the past seven years, a remarkable demonstration of parity in the modern NBA.
