It unfortunately was another year of the Los Angeles Lakers watching another team hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy as the Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Indiana Pacers in seven games to win their first NBA Championship.
The NBA Finals featured two small market teams, but that didn’t make the matchup any less great as the series went seven games for the first time since 2016.
Unfortunately, a lot of the wind was taken out early in Game 7 when Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton went down with what appeared to be a serious Achilles injury. His team continued to fight without him but ultimately came up short on the road to a Thunder team that was dominant all season long.
After the conclusion of the postseason, Lakers legend Pau Gasol took to social media to express his appreciation to both the Thunder and Pacers for what were incredible postseason runs:
We’ve witnessed two unforgettable Playoff runs. But that’s the beauty of sport—only one team takes home the ring.
Congratulations to @okcthunder on a historic season and for being crowned champions! What a journey.
Special recognition to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for making history…— Pau Gasol (@paugasol) June 23, 2025
It’s hard not to feel bad for the Pacers and Haliburton, who had nine points in the first quarter and looked to be on his way to an all-time great Game 7 performance before going down with the injury. Having that happen in the final game of the season is brutal, and there will always be a “what if” surrounding this series.
As Gasol mentioned though, the Thunder are more than deserving as the NBA Champions and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, in particular, had one of the greatest seasons ever. He became the first player since another Lakers legend in Shaquille O’Neal to be named regular season MVP, NBA Finals MVP and win the scoring title in the same season.
Austin Reaves discusses fit with Luka Doncic on Lakers
If the Lakers want to get on the Thunder’s level then they will need to put pieces that fit around Luka Doncic. And while Austin Reaves may not be the ideal fit, he isn’t concerned that he can coexist with Doncic.
“I think it brings so much chaos offensively because you got two guys, you know obviously I’m not putting myself in Luka’s category because he’s top three player in the NBA,” Reaves said in an exclusive interview with Lakers Nation. “But it brings two guys in the 1-2 spot, then obviously you have Bron too, that are willing passers, that can create chaos on defense. So therefore, I think it’s gonna be tough for teams to stay in front of us, I feel like we can get good looks every possession. And then defensively, we just have to lock down and just be with it mentally every possession. Right after the trade I think for like a month or two months, we had a top five defense in the NBA so we’ve shown that we can do that we just have to continue to grow in our schemes and how we wanna do that and be smart with all that.”
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