Oklahoma City Thunder Win the 2024-2025 NBA Championship

 24-25 NBA Finals:  Congratulations to Thunder.  They deserved this championship, and I love how they did it with a combination of defense and young talent.  Shai was dominant averaging 30 points per game but had lots of help from Jalen Williams (23 ppg) and Chet Holmgren with his defense.  We got a seven-game series, great moments and some really good games.  There were some blowouts as well but that doesn't mean we didn't enjoy the playoff's Cinderella, Indiana, making us believe they could win this series.  OKC is a very young team outside of 30-year-olds Alex Carusso and Kenrich Williams.  They are setup for a long successful run.  I won't put money on more championships, because as we've seen parity is the name of the game in the NBA right now.

2025 NBA Finals: Indiana Pacers vs Oklahoma City Thunder

We get Pacers - Thunder in the NBA Finals.  While I'm sure ABC execs are not excited about having two small market teams in the Finals, I am.  We get two great teams and great players in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Tyrese Haliburton.  OKC was the class of the league the entire season.  Their defense and the play of MVP SGA were overwhelming for teams.  While Denver took them to seven games, the Thunder only took nine games to dismiss the Grizzlies and Timberwolves.  The Pacers were 20-9 after the All-Star break and took out the Cavs, Bucks and Knicks in the playoffs.  They shouldn't be overlooked, and Tyrese Haliburton is the real deal having some amazing games in the playoffs.  I do think OKC wins this series.  Maybe 4-2.  I understand it could even be 4-1 but I have more confidence in Indiana.

Who am I rooting for?  Indiana.  This only their second NBA Finals and they've never won an NBA championship.  OKC has won a championship as the SuperSonics in the '78-79 season.  I also think their window for competing for a championship is longer than the Pacers.  No matter who wins I think it is a win for fans.  These small market teams built their teams through good front office moves in the draft, free agency and the trade market.  There are lots of fun players outside of the stars.  They are both deep.  We should celebrate these teams.  We are getting some "old school" basketball in the playoffs, so it'll be interesting to see how much they let them play.  Enjoy!

NBA Playoffs Round 2

 The NBA playoffs gave us a good first round though no major surprises.  You weren't surprised by LA losing, right?  Clipper-Nuggets was the most fun though not all games were close.  The Aaron Gordon slam at the buzzer off a Nokic miss is a play that will be replayed for a long time.  I think all four of the Round 2 series should be fun for their own reasons.  OKC vs Denver should be good, but I think the Thunder are just too good while the Nuggets must be tired.  The T-Wolves and Warriors should be a fun series.  I don't know who to take but I think Golden State wins this one.  Knicks and Celtics could be a slugfest, but Boston falls into the too good to lose category at this point.  Cavs-Pacers should be another good series, but it may have been undone due to Darius Garland's injury.  Hopefully Cleveland can rebound from their game 1 loss and make this a good series.  No reason they can't.  An OKC-Boston Finals still feels like how this plays out and I wouldn't mind that.  I think they are the two best teams and a seven-game series would be great.  That said, I think we get OKC-Golden State and Cleveland-Boston in the Conference Finals matchups.