The NBA Finals are set: It’ll be Thunder vs. Pacers, starting Thursday night

By TIM REYNOLDS The seeds for the NBA Finals began getting planted unknowingly in back when Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was about to enroll at Kentucky and Tyrese Haliburton was getting ready for his senior year of high school in Wisconsin That was the year the Indiana Pacers traded Paul George to the Oklahoma City Thunder The Pacers landed Domantas Sabonis out of that deal The Thunder would exchange George in to the Los Angeles Clippers for a package that included Gilgeous-Alexander The Pacers would exchange Sabonis in to Sacramento for a package that included Haliburton And here we are Gilgeous-Alexander is the NBA s MVP and Oklahoma City s best sportsman Haliburton is an Olympic gold medalist and Indiana s best sportsman They ll lead their teams into Meeting of the NBA Finals on Thursday night Indiana at Oklahoma City the start of a series that will decide who hoists the Larry O Brien Trophy Man I m just so proud of this group Haliburton disclosed in the on-court televised interview with TNT after the Pacers - success over the New York Knicks on Saturday in Challenge of the Eastern Conference finals I don t even have words right now It s really exciting We ll enjoy this one for now There s four more there s a lot more work to do against a really tough unit The Thunder depending on how you count are in the finals for either the second time or the fifth time The franchise when it was in Seattle lost what was then called the NBA World Championship Series to Washington in then won the title in a rematch against the then-Bullets in and lost in the NBA Finals to Chicago in Oklahoma City got to the finals in losing to Miami The Thunder are - this season after going - in the regular season and then - in the playoffs sweeping Memphis in Round surviving seven games against Denver in Round and then ousting Minnesota in five games for the Western Conference title When you win that s a special thing Thunder forward Chet Holmgren disclosed It s not guaranteed in this league If everybody was guaranteed to win it d be a participation trophy instead of a Larry O Brien So you have to kind of take it in and understand what you ve accomplished to that point but then the next day you have to start turning the page get rid of the emotions and start focusing on preparation and what you have to do to conquer the next step And that s where we re at Indiana is in the NBA title round for the second time having lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in The Pacers franchise won ABA titles in and They got out of the Eastern Conference as the No seed beating Milwaukee in five games in Round beating top-seeded Cleveland in five games in Round and then beating New York in the conference finals The Pacers were - through the first games of the season then went - to finish the regular season They are the fourth band to start - or worse and go on to win a conference title joining Seattle in - - the - St Louis Hawks - and the - Minneapolis Lakers - None of those teams went on to win the NBA title In states it s just basketball Pacers coach Rick Carlisle explained But this is Indiana Our guys earned this Congratulations to our guys Oklahoma City swept the season series with Indiana - part of a regular season where the Thunder who finished with the NBA s best record went - against the Eastern Conference That doesn t include a loss to Milwaukee in the NBA Cup final a meeting that didn t count in any standings So the matchup is set It s the Paul George finals albeit without Paul George who had arguably the best season of his career with the Thunder averaging points and finishing third in the MVP voting for - starting at OKC on Thursday Obviously he wasn t here long but he had great years here Thunder coach Mark Daigneault reported Saturday when appealed about George s impact I mean one of the best years of his career was here one of the best individual seasons a contestant s had here which is saying something here with the guys they ve had So I have a lot of respect for him AP NBA https apnews com nba