Draft Night Celebration

Lore & Background

With a league-best regular season record of 68–14, the Thunder held home-court advantage in the Finals. They came into the series as heavy favorites against the 50–32 Pacers. The Pacers set an NBA postseason record with five 15-point comebacks. One was in Game 1 of the Finals, when Tyrese Haliburton made a game-winning two-point jump shot with 0.3 seconds left. The teams split the first six games, forcing a decisive Game 7, in which Haliburton tore his right Achilles tendon in the first quarter. The Thunder's victory secured their second championship in franchise history, after their 1979 title as the Seattle SuperSonics, and their first since their 2008 move to Oklahoma City.

Reader's Guide

The 2025 Finals crowned the NBA's seventh unique champion in seven years, the longest stretch in league history. The 2025 Finals was also the first since 2006 in which both cities were seeking their first NBA championship. The Thunder's victory was the first championship in any major professional sport for the state of Oklahoma. This was the first playoff match-up between Oklahoma City and Indiana.

Oklahoma City won both of its regular season games against Indiana. The Thunder had not lost a game at home to an Eastern Conference team since losing to the Pacers on March 12, 2024. Both teams were in the Finals after missing the playoffs two seasons prior. This was the smallest NBA Finals in terms of total market size, with the previous lowest mark belonging to Cleveland and San Antonio in 2007.

The total television market size comprises fewer than two million households with Indianapolis being the 22nd largest and Oklahoma City being the 26th largest out of 28 markets league-wide. The 2025 Finals also set another milestone; it was the first Finals without a luxury tax team since the salary cap era began in 2002.

Did You Know?

• Coincidentally, both teams traded former star player Paul George in trades that yielded their best players, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Tyrese Haliburton to the Thunder and the Pacers, respectively.
• The Thunder entered the NBA Finals as the second-largest betting favorite in the previous 20 years, with only the 2018 Golden State Warriors having shorter pre-Finals odds since 2005.
• The 18-game difference in wins between the teams was the largest among NBA Finals participants since the 1981 Finals between the 62-win Celtics and 40-win Rockets.
• In the 2024–25 season, Oklahoma City had its best season in franchise history, finishing 68–14 to secure the top seed in the Western Conference for a second straight year.
• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander became the first player to win the regular season MVP and an NBA Finals in the same season since Steph Curry in 2014–15.