Historic OKC Thunder title ties Jordan's Bulls for incredible stat as Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton suffers significant injury

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished off his MVP season with 29 points and 12 assists, and the Oklahoma City Thunder won the NBA championship, pulling away in the second half to beat the Indiana Pacers 103-91 on Monday.

Jalen Williams scored 20 and Chet Holmgren had 18 for the Thunder, who were pushed to a Game 7 brink in the NBA Finals — but finished off a season for the ages.

Oklahoma City won 84 games between the regular season and the playoffs, tying the 1996-97 Chicago Bulls for third-most in any season. Only Golden State (88 in 2016-17) and the Bulls won more.

READ MORE: Concern over Broncos star's new deal erased in 'no time'

READ MORE: 'Holy cow': Wild $2m choke leaves star on verge of tears

READ MORE: 'Nobody likes you': Stars in ugly spat ahead of Wimbledon

Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton, who was playing with a strained right calf, went down with a lower right leg injury in the first quarter and immediately began punching the court in frustration.

Haliburton put no weight on the leg as was taken to the Pacers’ locker room for evaluation. Virtually the entire Indiana playing, coaching and medical staff surrounded him on the court once he got hurt.

There was no immediate word from the Pacers on the severity of the non-contact injury.

The Pacers led 48-47 at the half even after losing Haliburton to what his father said was an Achilles tendon injury. But they were outscored 34-20 in the third quarter as the Thunder built a 13-point lead and began to run away.

Bennedict Mathurin had 24 points and 13 rebounds for Indiana, which still is waiting for its first NBA title. The Pacers — who were 10-15 after 25 games and were bidding to be the first team in NBA history to turn that bad of a start into a championship — had leads of 1-0 and 2-1 in the series, but they simply didn't have enough in the end.

Home teams are now 16-4 in NBA Finals Game 7s. And the Thunder became the seventh champion in the last seven seasons, a run of parity like none other in NBA history.

Pacers forward Pascal Siakam was part of the Toronto team that won in 2019, Thunder guard Alex Caruso was part of the Los Angeles Lakers team that won in the pandemic "bubble" in 2020, Milwaukee won in 2021, Golden State in 2022, Pacers forward Thomas Bryant and Denver prevailed in 2023, and Boston won last year's title.

The Thunder are the ninth franchise to win a title in NBA Commissioner Adam Silver 12 seasons leading the league. His predecessor, David Stern, saw eight franchises win titles in his 30 seasons as commissioner.