By Miguel Mike Medina
Photo Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
The San Antonio Spurs are going to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2014. It’s the same season where they won their last championship.
The Oklahoma City Thunder, who were the defending champions, lost to the Spurs 111-103 in Game 7 on Saturday night. Victor Wembanyama won the Western Conference Finals MVP at the age of 22. The Spurs and Knicks will meet in the NBA Finals, a rematch of the 1999 Finals. Talk about a Hollywood script.
A new champion will be crowned this season. Basketball gets better when there’s a new champion every season. As intriguing as dynasties may be, the Spurs are much more compelling when we see new, different teams winning. It’s going to be the eighth year in a row that a new team will raise the Larry O’Brien trophy.
Both teams played well. Wemby finished the game with 22 points and 7 rebounds in 42 minutes. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, two-time MVP, scored a game-high 35 points on 12-of-21 shooting.
He also recorded nine assists, four rebounds, three steals, and one block.
Chet Holmgren did it show up in Game 7. He’s one of the most important players on the Thunder roster. Holmgren has been great for the Thunder all season long. Scoring only four points in a critical Game 7 is not a good look. It’s going to be an interesting off-season to see what general manager Sam Presti will do.
Thunder losing Jalen Williams to a hamstring injury hurt them, as he’s one of the team’s best players. Williams wasn’t 100 percent, and he couldn’t play in Game 7. The team was also missing Ajay Mitchell. Regardless of being short-handed, the Thunder felt that they should’ve been better.
“I still think we had enough to get it done,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We just didn’t get to it in the biggest game of the series.”
Wemby was very emotional after the game. It’s been an amazing journey for the young superstar out of France. He now leads the Spurs to the finals.
The Knicks and the Spurs will begin the NBA Finals on Wednesday, June 3rd at 8:30 pm. Game 1 will be at San Antonio.
Miguel Mike Medina is the publisher of The MMM Journal. He can be reached at medinamiguelmike@gmail.com and themmmjournal@gmail.com
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