Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 35 points while Jalen Williams added 24 points, seven assists, and five rebounds to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to a dominant 125-93 win over the Denver Nuggets in Sunday's Game 7.
The Thunder will square off against the Minnesota Timberwolves in their first Western Conference finals since 2016, with Game 1 tipping off Tuesday in Oklahoma City.
Mark Daigneault's team entered the fourth quarter Sunday with a 25-point lead and only increased it in the final frame, pushing the advantage to 43 points over the 2023 champions.
Oklahoma City fueled its second-half surge with a 16-3 run in the final three minutes of the second quarter. The Thunder scored nine unanswered points after the restart, fueled partly by a flagrant-1 foul assessed to Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon, who was noticeably limited Sunday while reportedly playing with a partially torn hamstring.
Reigning MVP and 2025 finalist Nikola Jokic led Denver with 20 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists but posted a minus-23 in the loss. Christian Braun and Jamal Murray scored 19 and 13 points, respectively, though no other Nuggets player reached double digits. Gordon, who played 25 minutes despite his injury, finished with eight points and 11 rebounds.
"Off the top, I want to acknowledge Denver, they displayed the mettle of a champion," Daigneault said to begin his postgame press conference. "Obviously, they've won championships, the core guys, and they displayed that this series. The run to this point and the run they gave us was impressive. They're a bunch of zombies.
"We have the ultimate respect for their team, and we're better now than we were at the beginning of the series, and it's because of them. They pushed us to the limit. We just have such respect for all the guys in that locker room and their staff and their organization, and I just wanted to hit that off the top."
The Thunder's win guarantees the NBA will crown a seventh different champion in as many seasons. It also ensures one of the four remaining teams will snap a significant championship drought.
The Timberwolves and Indiana Pacers are still searching for their first NBA title, while the two-time champion New York Knicks last won in 1973. The Thunder technically have the most recent title of the four, though the franchise's only championship was captured in 1979 as the Seattle SuperSonics.
