The Oklahoma City Thunder earned the NBA championship. They made it through the fierce gauntlet that is the Western Conference and then needed seven games to beat the Indiana Pacers, one of hardest-playing teams in the league.
The Thunder put together a 68-win regular season and were favorites to win the title even though they had never advanced beyond the conference semifinals with this group before this season. They learned what was required to finish the job through wins and losses, through sweeps and seven-games series.
Indiana enters the offseason with one of the worst what-ifs. What if Tyrese Haliburton hadn’t sustained a lower right injury in Game 5 and had not left Game 7 in the first quarter after further injuring his leg?
Injuries always impact the playoffs to some degree, and the Thunder healthy enough and talented enough to survive.
Here are winners and losers from the Pacers-Thunder NBA Finals:
