Basketball: The ultimate game: Important about Game 7 in the NBA finals

“Game Seven.” For fans of US sports, this is the most beautiful word combination that there is-and the NBA finals now offer you exactly that. The Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers meet in the really last game of a long season and determine the champion on Monday (2:00 a.m. CEST/PROSIENMAXX and DAZN). “This is the ultimate game,” said Pacers coach Rick Carlisle. “We have a game that is about everything we worked for. And they too. The better team on Sunday will win,” said OKC leader Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

How did the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers make it to this point?

So far it has been back and forth in the finals. The Pacers surprisingly won the start against the big favorite in Oklahoma City by a goal at the last second. After the equalization, the team took the lead again in the third game of the series. After that, the Oklahoma City Thunder was the first team to win two games in a row and could have made the championship perfectly in the sixth game-but the Pacers dominated in the last home game of the season, after three quarters with 30 points and forced the seventh game, which is now all decisive in the best-of-Seven series.

Who is the favorite now?

Only for the 20th time there is a seventh game in the NBA finals. The home team 15 won of the 19 games before – the Oklahoma City Thunder are now the big favorite. Again. Even before the series began, most experts calculated with an OKC victory. Despite its young age, the best team in the main round had finally cleared hurdles such as the Denver Nuggets in the end. The last game seven in the NBA finals won the away team: in 2016, the Cleveland Cavaliers secured the title in San Francisco at the Golden State Warriors. And the Pacers have already won the first game of the series in Oklahoma City, contrary to all expectations.

The meaning of a title

Neither the Oklahoma City Thunder nor the Indiana Pacers have already brought the NBA title – at least not under the current name. The Oklahoma City Thunder emerged from the Seattle Supersonics, the franchise moved from the US state of Washington to Oklahoma in 2008. In 1979 the Supersonics won the championship, the people in Seattle still mourn the move of the team. Since the move, OKC made it into the finals, but in 2012 there was a defeat against Miami Heat. The Pacers lost the Los Angeles Lakers in 2000.

Shai Gilgeous -Alexander is the most valuable NBA player – officially, the Canadian was elected MVP. Tyrese Haliburton is the leader at the Indiana Pacers, became an Olympic champion in Paris before the season and has already caused legendary moments in the finals. But: Neither the Oklahoma City Thunder nor the Indiana Pacers are defined by their best players. Both teams rely on a broad squad in which players can also make the difference between victory or defeat.

In his seventh NBA season, Isaiah Hartenstein plays a central role on the way of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Before the season, OKC invested a three-year contract worth $ 87 million in the $ 27, who was born in the USA and grew up in Quakenbrück. Hartenstein had a strong season at the New York Knicks, who made a fixture in a good team from the substitute he was at the previous stations. For many experts, his skills as a passer and blocker for teammates as well as his strengths in rebounds and in defense are the key to the fact that the Oklahoma City Thunder was the best team in the league this season – and Hartenstein now has the chance to win the championship in the NBA as the second German after Dirk Nowitzki.

The problem with the ratings

Even before the first basket it was clear to the experts that the ratings for this final series would go down – and so it came. About 19 percent fewer people followed the first five games in the series compared to last season when the Boston Celtics played against the Dallas Mavericks. Why is that where the series is exciting and offers outstandingly good basketball? Neither the Pacers nor the Thunder come from a so -called Big Market. Indianapolis and Oklahoma City are relatively small US cities, the teams have few fans in other parts of the country – in contrast to the lakers, knicks or Celtics. Since the 2019/2020 season, when the title was played in the Bubble because of the Corona pandemic, there have been no bad ratings as this season. None of the first five games achieved an average of ten million viewers.