Prep Rally: Pitcher Seth Hernandez of Corona is The Times' baseball player of the year... again
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. It's awards time for high school baseball and softball.
Pitcher Seth Hernandez of Corona is The Times' baseball player of the year for the second consecutive season. He improved on his performance and put together a two-year run in which he went 18-1. Here's a profile on the impact he made.
The Times' All-Star baseball team includes Quentin Young of Oaks Christian. He moved to shortstop and hit 14 home runs. Here's a look at the All-Star team.
The coach of the year is St. John Bosco's Andy Rojo, who guided the Braves to their first Southern Section Division 1 championship along with the Southern California Division 1 regional championship and their first Trinity League title since 2017. Here's the report.
Here's the final top 25 rankings by The Times with St. John Bosco at No. 1.
Oklahoma-bound Kai Minor of Orange Lutheran is The Times' softball player of the year. Here's the report on the impact she made for the Lancers.
Here's The Times' All-Star softball team.
The Times' coach of the year is Rick Robinson of Norco. He put together a team of young and old and guided the Cougars to the Southern Section Division 1 championship. Here's the report.
Dorsey football coach Stafon Johnson used to be a star running back for the Dons and USC. He knows all about running the ball, so there was a little comedy seeing the Dons playing in a seven on seven passing tournament at Western High. Except Johnson has embraced the passing game with the arrival of quarterback Elijah McDaniel, a sophomore transfer from Warren. And Johnson's son, Deuce, is a standout junior receiver.
So the Dons will be active this summer in passing tournaments. Not that Johnson wouldn't prefer to run the football. He'll never lose his love for seeing running backs gain yards.
City Section coaches had their annual meeting at the Rams' locker room at SoFi Stadium to discuss changes and updates for the fall season.
It was announced that View Park Prep won't have a football team this season, leaving Metro League teams scrambling to fill games.
Former L.A. Jordan quarterback James Boyd, who was the City Section player of the year, is the new head coach for the Bulldogs. He's 33 years old.
Here's a look at more City Section football news. . . .
La Serna won the Los Altos passing tournament. Orange Lutheran won the Chargers tournament using three quarterbacks. Schurr won the SGV tournament.
Offensive lineman Sam Utu of Orange Lutheran has committed to Alabama. . . .
Defensive back Derrick Johnson of Murrieta Valley has committed to Oklahoma. . . .
Safety Logan Hirou of Santa Margarita has committed to UCLA. . . .
Offensive lineman Cooper Javorsky of San Juan Hills has committed to UCLA. . . .
Tight end Beckham Hofland of Los Alamitos has committed to Boise State. . . .
Former Gardena Serra defensive lineman Robert James has changed his commitment from Fresno State to UCLA and will play for the Bruins this fall. . . .
Former Orange Lutheran linebacker Talanoa Ili, now at Kahuku, has committed to USC. . . .
Defensive lineman Kingston Schirmer of Corona Centennial has commited to Cal. . . .
Tyler Lee of El Camino Real was chosen the City Section player of the year in boys volleyball. Here are the complete All-City teams. . . .
Shalen Sheppard of Brentwood won a gold medal representing the USA U16 national basketball team. He'll be a sophomore. . . .
Luke Howe of El Camino Real is the City Section player of the year in baseball. Here's the complete All-City team.
Addison Moorman of Granada Hills is the City Section player of the year in softball. Here's the complete All-City team.
DeAndre Cole is the new boys basketball coach at Compton Centennial. . . .
Jake Tatch of JSerra has been selected the Gatorade state player of the year in boys soccer. He's headed to Michigan. . . .
Oaks Christian water polo coach Jack Kocur is the head coach for the USA Junior National team at the World Aquatics U20 Water Polo championships this summer. . . .
Deon Green is the new girls basketball coach at Chino. . . .
Chaminade has decided to add a flag football team. . . .
St. John Bosco closer Jack Champlin has committed to Washington. . . .
Former Servite star Max Thomas of USC finished second in the 100 meters at the NCAA track and field championships and helped the Trojans, coached by former Taft great Quincy Watts, win the NCAA title. . . .
The Fairfax basketball tournament originally scheduled to be held this week at Fairfax High has been changed to Pan Pacific Park.
Thousand Oaks grad Max Muncy, the 'other' Max Muncy, is getting hot in his return to playing for the Athletics.
He got recalled from the minor leagues and started showing power. He's playing third base while his former Thousand Oaks teammate, Jacob Wilson, is the shortstop. Muncy graduated in 2021 and Wilson in 2020.
Here's a story about Muncy and Wilson being together at Thousand Oaks.
Here's a story from 2021 on how Muncy kept improving to become a pro prospect.
From the Washington Post, a story on an adaptive tennis program making a difference.
From NFHS.org, a story on how to start archery as a P.E. program.
From the Los Angeles Times, a look back at the life of former Verbum Dei star David Greenwood.
Prep Rally will take the next two weeks off and return on July 7.
Have a question, comment or something you'd like to see in a future Prep Rally newsletter? Email me at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com, and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer.
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Yahoo
36 minutes ago
- Yahoo
NBA Finals: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander gives his all — and gives Oklahoma City its first championship after grueling Game 7
OKLAHOMA CITY — Luguentz Dort flexed and preened, and Alex Caruso popped his jersey to the crowd. Meanwhile Shai Gilgeous-Alexander could barely muster a smile, the Most Valuable Player so exhausted, so drained he couldn't lift his head, his eyes fixated across the way to his family. But he had time for the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy a few minutes later, fortified by triumph, along with raising the Bill Russell Trophy that signified his personal place in history as one of the few to win regular-season MVP and Finals MVP in the same season. Advertisement No meme-able moments, no super celebration planned — just exhaustion. 'Yeah, it's been a long journey. Long season,' Gilgeous-Alexander told Yahoo Sports, nearly two hours after the game, still on the postgame media circuit. 'A lot of games. I just wanted to go out and give it my all tonight. And I think I did so.' What an emotional night, what a long three weeks, a long 13 years for the Oklahoma City Thunder, the defining roar — a cathartic release from a fan base that believed it would be in June every year with a franchise that had done everything right despite market and financial disadvantages that proved difficult to overcome. It took seven games, a heartbreaking injury and a game challenge from an Indiana Pacers team that refused to exit the stage promptly, but the first championship in Oklahoma City history was clinched Sunday night with a 103-91 win at Paycom Center. Advertisement Gilgeous-Alexander had one of his least efficient games in the series and was clearly fatigued down the stretch after 40 breakneck minutes, but grinded out 29 points and 12 assists — including the decisive stretch in the third quarter that turned a halftime deficit into a double-digit lead. The shooting line (8 for 27) is reminiscent of Kobe Bryant's 6-for-24 performance in Game 7 of the 2010 Finals, but efficiency be damned in these spots — a championship is to be won, by any means necessary. 'So much weight off my shoulders. So much stress relieved,' Gilgeous-Alexander said in his news conference. 'No matter what, you go into every night wanting to win. Sometimes it just doesn't go your way. Tonight could have been one of those nights where we found a way.' Advertisement Giving all you have is romanticized in professional sports, without the promise of a payoff. But feeling it, while also knowing your main counterpart possibly gave his Achilles to the game, to the series, to history — it puts a different spin on the phrase. Tyrese Haliburton looked game for the moment. He looked ready for all the gloriousness Game 7 had to offer, the opportunity to beat a favored team on the road, in their building — hitting three early triples, all well-beyond the line. He was talking, he was barking — a primal yell to the smattering of fans wearing Pacers yellow in the stands. In Game 6, he looked to the heavens after making his first triple, the gates opening. Exhausted but triumphant, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander hoists the Larry O'Brien Trophy after delivering Oklahoma City its long-awaited first title. (Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images) (IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect / Reuters) In Game 7, he writhed in agony, banging his fist on the hardwood, crying out because he knew his injured calf gave way to something so much more severe. Advertisement He knew. Like Kevin Durant did in 2019 — almost in the same manner, hitting long jump shots on the road, giving his team life. Then his leg gave, and history was forever changed in that moment in Toronto. Unfortunately, the story of the NBA Finals cannot be accurately told without noting the toll. For all its beauty, the brutal reality sits in the cost. The best of Klay Thompson. The best of Kevin Durant. In some ways it leaves you with the same feeling, that you'd wished the series ended earlier, that even with the Thunder being worthy champions deserving of every ounce of praise they'll receive, that the series didn't have to claim limbs and careers. Advertisement Before the Pacers gathered around Haliburton, one Thunder player came to check on him, knowing he wasn't OK — Gilgeous-Alexander. These two teams are partners in history, forever bonded by competition and, unfortunately now, trauma. 'I just asked him if he was all right. Seemed like he was in pain,' he said. 'You just hate to see it in sports in general, but in this moment, my heart dropped for him. I couldn't imagine playing the biggest game of my life and something like that happening. It's not fair. But competition isn't fair sometimes.' Game 7's are never truly fair, or pretty. The body is beaten and atrophied after nine months and over 100 games of nonstop competition — nobody is fresh or at their absolute best. Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton writhes in pain after suffering a devastating injury in Game 7, a moment that shifted the Finals and silenced a roaring start. (Kyle Terada-Imagn Images) (IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect / Reuters) But the last few years have produced satisfaction for suffering or tortured franchises, luck smiling after frustrating years for the Milwaukee Bucks, Denver Nuggets and Boston Celtics. It showed what team building, continuity and learning through pain can produce. Advertisement 'This unfolded kind of quickly,' Thunder general manager and executive vice-president Sam Presti said to the adorning fans in the immediate wake of the win. Call that the understatement of the decade. Gilgeous-Alexander was the first step in this turnaround, in officially removing all residue from the Kevin Durant-Russell Westbrook years, even if the scar tissue remained with everyone living in Oklahoma City. In some ways, the fans seemed happier than the players — so much so, the players didn't know how to pop the cork on Champagne in the locker room. But the angst of the city was never transferred to the players. Even Presti himself, owner of all the draft picks from every team for the foreseeable future, had to own the tag of being the best executive in sports without the ultimate prize. Advertisement That's no more. 'Not at all, honestly,' Gilgeous-Alexander told Yahoo Sports when asked if there was extra weight on the players because of the franchise history. 'They don't put pressure on us, the fans, the organization, the front office. They let us be us. They tell us, if we want to win we should go win. And that's what we did.' The Thunder are champions because they were the best team all season, outlasting everyone in the Western Conference, and did just enough to hold off the Pacers. They'll go down in history as one of the best single-season teams in league history while having to scratch for everything in this winner-take-all Game 7. Advertisement If nothing else, they avoid ignominy. 'Going into halftime a lot of it was not letting up because [Haliburton]'s not playing,' Thunder forward Jalen Williams said. 'Then, too, just don't panic. When you're that close to a goal, but got to understand the other team is feeling the same way we are.' The Thunder trailed by one at the half after Andrew Nembhard hit a stepback triple, but soon unleashed a mini-version of their 40-minutes-of-hell defense to start the third quarter. Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams and Chet Holmgren — the three stalwarts — were the key to changing the complexion of the game while Dort and Caruso hounded anyone wearing a gold jersey. Williams finished with 20 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists, and several emotion-filled outbursts, the moments nearly overwhelming him. Advertisement Eight Pacers turnovers led to 18 points, and the Thunder were able to withstand yet another run from Pacers reserve T.J. McConnell (12 in the third). So wiped out was McConnell by night's end, he wore the night on his face some 90 minutes after the buzzer sounded. That's the minimum of what the Thunder require, just to compete with them, let alone beat them. Bennedict Mathurin tried to carry the Pacers in the fourth, finishing with 24 points and 13 rebounds (seven offensive), but they were outdone by a lack of firepower. They were not outdone by a lack of spirit or heart. The Thunder didn't make the Pacers quit — they outlasted them in an old-school 15-round boxing match and won on the cards. Advertisement 'You watch any Game 7 of a Finals, any Game 7 period, but Game 7 of the Finals, it's a different feeling, a different level of pressure,' Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. 'The gravity of the game is overwhelming for everybody participating.' Daigneault is now in the elite category, a young coach from the G League plucked by Presti years ago to spearhead this accelerated march to contention — and now history. Their structure is why Gilgeous-Alexander had the clairvoyance to commit to the franchise early, and never once has anyone uttered a desire for elsewhere. 'Sam and Mark. Their approach. Winning mentality,' Gilgeous-Alexander told Yahoo Sports. 'Building habits. The things they prioritize are winning things, and it's no coincidence we're winners.' They're not just winners, they're exhausted champions, etched in history.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
NBA Finals: How the Thunder's battle cry helped OKC become NBA champions — and one of the greatest teams of all time
"Be where your feet are." It is a battle cry the Oklahoma City Thunder adopted to help them stay in the present moment. Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault first shared it with his team on Feb. 7, 2023, when they were facing the Los Angeles Lakers, whose LeBron James was set to break the NBA's scoring record over the course of the game. Daigneault did not want his players to get lost in anything but competing in the game itself. Advertisement "The idea behind it was there's going to be so much going on in the arena during LeBron's moment that you have to be where your feet are," said Oklahoma City All-Star forward Jalen Williams between Games 3 and 4 of the 2025 NBA Finals. "You have to lock in and stay present in the moment. From there, we just ran with it. There's been so many outside factors and a lot of noise that have gone into my last three years. ... It became a little team mantra. It's just something to remind us how far we've come. The more we can get back to zero, the better we'll be." Oh, how far they have come. For many, that night was their first nationally televised glimpse of the young Thunder, who had spent the previous two seasons tanking. Those years yielded a foundation of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander via trade and both Williams and Chet Holmgren in the draft. Holmgren was injured back then in L.A., but Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams combined for 55 points in a narrow victory that spoiled James' celebratory night. Advertisement We figured then it was the start of something. Nobody could have predicted that night was the birth of one of the greatest teams in NBA history, a budding dynasty, but that is precisely what happened. Two short years later, the Thunder's feet took them to Game 7 of the NBA Finals, where on Sunday they beat the Indiana Pacers 103-91, clinching the franchise's first championship in its OKC era. I can almost hear you wondering, Really, this is one of the greatest teams ever? And the answer is yes, absolutely. These Thunder are one of seven teams in league history to win 68 games during the regular season and the first since the Golden State Warriors won an NBA-record 73 games in the 2015-16 season. Only these Thunder won the title. Oklahoma City also owns the second-best net rating (+12.8) in league history, trailing only Michael Jordan's 72-win Chicago Bulls from 1995-96. The Bulls are widely considered one of the greatest teams in NBA history, along with the 2016-17 Warriors, 1985-86 Boston Celtics, 1986-87 Los Angeles Lakers and others. Advertisement Point is: The Thunder belong among them now. How did they get here? By being where their feet are. The Thunder are where their feet are ... as NBA champions. (Photo by) (Getty Images) "I think it's attacking every day, attacking every rep, attacking every possession and trying to make that a habit, and understanding the compounding nature of that and impact of that when you do that," said Daigneault, a 40-year-old in his first NBA head-coaching gig. "These are guys that have seen success taking that approach. When you do something, then you find success doing it, it reinforces it, breeds commitment. The guys have done a great job of building that muscle over a long period of time now." "It's almost like a default," said Gilgeous-Alexander, who has turned himself into an MVP in the process. Advertisement The Thunder's success has followed a linear progression — from a 24-win team in 2021-22 to a 40-win play-in team a year later, the same season they spoiled James' big night, to a 57-win No. 1 seed in 2023-24 and finally to the 68-win juggernaut they were this season. Their internal development cannot be denied. "When you stack the days, stack the possessions, stack the games, that's going to take you as far as you're capable of in that moment," said Daigneault. "We're obviously further now than we were then. We maxed out what we were capable of at those times. I think that's the value of that type of approach." It should give hope to every team out there. All it took was three seasons of leaning into a growth mindset to transform from one of the NBA's worst teams, a team that was not even trying to win, to a champion. Of course, it is easier said than done. The Thunder identified Gilgeous-Alexander, who averaged 10.8 points per game as a rookie on the Los Angeles Clippers, as a future star, and not even they could have imagined he would have reached this level. They drafted Williams and Holmgren, a pair of All-Star-caliber complements, on the same night in 2022. They boast one of the smartest general managers in all of basketball, Sam Presti, who stockpiled draft picks and hit on them more often than not, building one of the deepest rosters in the league. And they targeted two of the game's best role players, Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein, this past offseason, hoping they were the final pieces to a championship puzzle. Advertisement And it all worked. This is not always how development unfolds. You can have a motto — "be where your feet are" — but you need everyone to buy into it. You need everyone to adopt it. You need everyone to live by it, and that is not always easy, either. The players credit their coach. The coach credits his players. Regardless, they all needed reminding of their mantra before Game 7, as none of them but Caruso had been in this spot, hours from an NBA championship. So Daigneault delivered the message once again. All the work they had done, the hours they put in, the moments they seized, it prepared them for this one. "I think that's the deal," said Daigneault. "You want to be prepared. You certainly want to learn the lessons, get the game plan into the game, but not at the expense of aggressiveness, confidence, instincts. That has been a strength of ours this season. We certainly have to lean on that. We have to understand the work is done, and we have to trust the work. The muscle is built. We have to flex that muscle." So, when the pressure reached its apex, when they needed most to be present, when the score was deadlocked, 56-56, midway through Game 7's third quarter, they flexed. They called on every possession they stacked, every rep they attacked. At that very moment, SGA, Holmgren and Williams connected on consecutive 3-pointers, turning a tied game into a comfortable advantage. From there, the team relied on its defense — the muscle it had worked so hard to build over time — to carry it to the championship. Advertisement "You've got to have those themes," Daigneault said of his team's mantra. "This team responds well to those things. If you put the right thing in front of them, they really take to it. I think that's the right way to approach competition. But these guys bring it to life with the way they play. You can talk about it all you want, but it comes down to how you perform. These guys perform like competitive monsters." When the moment called for it, they were present as themselves, calloused as champions. "Winning is what's remembered," added Holmgren. "It's what's immortal. I'm just so happy we were able to do it. There was so much hard work that a lot of people don't see that went into this. Years of hard work for everybody that led to this. It makes it all worthwhile. It makes it all ... it's just a great feeling." Be where your feet are. On the NBA mountaintop.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander gives his all — and gives Oklahoma City its first championship after grueling Game 7
OKLAHOMA CITY — Luguentz Dort flexed and preened and Alex Caruso popped his jersey to the crowd. Meanwhile Shai Gilgeous-Alexander could barely muster a smile, the Most Valuable Player so exhausted, so drained he couldn't lift his head, his eyes fixated across the way to his family. But he had time for the Larry O'Brien trophy a few minutes later, fortified by triumph, along with raising the Bill Russell trophy that signified his personal place in history as one of the few to win regular-season MVP and Finals MVP in the same season. Advertisement No meme-able moments, no super celebration planned — just exhaustion. 'Yeah, it's been a long journey. Long season,' Gilgeous-Alexander told Yahoo Sports, nearly two hours after the game, still on the postgame media circuit. 'A lot of games. I just wanted to go out and give it my all tonight. And I think I did so.' What an emotional night, what a long three weeks, a long 14 years for the Oklahoma City Thunder, the defining roar — a cathartic release from a fan base that believed they'd be in June every year, that they'd done everything right despite market disadvantages only to have it stripped away in a blink. It took seven games, a heartbreaking injury and a game challenge from an Indiana Pacers team that refused to exit the stage promptly, but the first championship in franchise history was clinched Sunday night with a 103-91 win at Paycom Center. Advertisement Gilgeous-Alexander had one of his least efficient games in the series and was clearly fatigued down the stretch after 40 breakneck minutes, but grinded out 29 points and 12 assists — including the decisive stretch in the third quarter that turned a halftime deficit into a double-digit lead. The shooting line (8 for 27) is reminiscent of Kobe Bryant's 6-for-24 performance in Game 7 of the 2010 Finals, but efficiency be damned in these spots — a championship is to be won, by any means necessary. 'So much weight off my shoulders. So much stress relieved,' Gilgeous-Alexander said in his news conference. 'No matter what, you go into every night wanting to win. Sometimes it just doesn't go your way. Tonight could have been one of those nights where we found a way.' Exhausted but triumphant, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander hoists the Larry O'Brien trophy after delivering Oklahoma City its long-awaited first title. (Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images) (IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect / Reuters) Giving all you have is romanticized in professional sports, without the promise of a payoff. But feeling it, while also knowing your main counterpart possibly gave his Achilles to the game, to the series, to history — it puts a different spin on the phrase. Advertisement Tyrese Haliburton looked game for the moment. He looked ready for all the gloriousness Game 7 had to offer, the opportunity to beat a favored team on the road, in their building — hitting three early triples, all well-beyond the line. He was talking, he was barking — a primal yell to the smattering of fans wearing Pacers yellow in the stands. In Game 6, he looked to the heavens after making his first triple, the gates opening. In Game 7, he writhed in agony, banging his fist on the hardwood, crying out because he knew his injured calf gave way to something so much more severe. He knew. Like Kevin Durant did in 2019 — almost in the same manner, hitting long jump shots on the road, giving his team life. Then his leg gave, and history was forever changed in that moment in Toronto. Advertisement Unfortunately, the story of the NBA Finals cannot be accurately told without noting the toll. For all its beauty, the brutal reality sits in the cost. The best of Klay Thompson. The best of Kevin Durant. In some ways it leaves you with the same feeling, that you'd wished the series ended earlier, that even with the Thunder being worthy champions deserving of every ounce of praise they'll receive, that the series didn't have to claim limbs and careers. Before the Pacers gathered around Haliburton, one Thunder player came to check on him, knowing he wasn't OK — Gilgeous-Alexander. These two teams are partners in history, forever bonded by competition and unfortunately now, trauma. Advertisement 'I just asked him if he was all right. Seemed like he was in pain,' he said. 'You just hate to see it in sports in general, but in this moment, my heart dropped for him. I couldn't imagine playing the biggest game of my life and something like that happening. It's not fair. But competition isn't fair sometimes.' Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton writhes in pain after suffering a devastating injury in Game 7, a moment that shifted the Finals and silenced a roaring start. (Kyle Terada-Imagn Images) (IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect / Reuters) Game 7's are never truly fair, or pretty. The body is beaten and atrophied after nine months and over 100 games of nonstop competition — nobody is fresh or at their absolute best. But the last few years have produced satisfaction for suffering or tortured franchises, luck smiling after frustrating years for the Milwaukee Bucks, Denver Nuggets and Boston Celtics. It showed what team building, continuity and learning through pain can produce. Advertisement 'This unfolded kind of quickly,' Thunder general manager and executive vice-president Sam Presti said to the adorning fans in the immediate wake of the final. Call that the understatement of the decade. Gilgeous-Alexander was the first step in this turnaround, in officially removing all residue from the Kevin Durant-Russell Westbrook years, even if the scar tissue remained with everyone living in Oklahoma City. In some ways, the fans seemed happier than the players — so much so, the players didn't know how to pop the cork on Champagne in the locker room. But the angst of the city was never transferred to the players. Even Presti himself, owner of all the draft picks from every team for the foreseeable future had to own the tag of being the best executive in sports without the ultimate prize. Advertisement That's no more. 'Not at all, honestly,' Gilgeous-Alexander told Yahoo Sports when asked if there was extra weight on the players because of the franchise history. 'They don't put pressure on us, the fans, the organization, the front office. They let us be us. They tell us, if we want to win we should go win. And that's what we did.' The Thunder are champions because they were the best team all season, outlasting everyone in the Western Conference, and did just enough to hold off the Pacers. They'll go down in history as one of the best single-season teams in league history while having to scratch for everything in this winner-take-all Game 7. If nothing else, they avoid ignominy. Advertisement 'Going into halftime a lot of it was not letting up because [Haliburton]'s not playing,' Thunder forward Jalen Williams said. 'Then, too, just don't panic. When you're that close to a goal, but got to understand the other team is feeling the same way we are.' The Thunder trailed by one after Andrew Nembhard hit a stepback triple, but soon unleashed a mini-version of their 40 minutes of hell defense to start the third quarter. Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams and Chet Holmgren — the three stalwarts — were the key to changing the complexion of the game while Dort and Caruso hounded anyone wearing a gold jersey. Williams finished with 20 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists, and several emotion-filled outbursts, the moments nearly overwhelming him. Those eight turnovers led to 18 points and they were able to withstand yet another run from Pacers reserve T.J. McConnell (12 in the third). So wiped out was McConnell by night's end, he wore the night on his face some 90 minutes after the buzzer sounded. Advertisement That's the minimum of what the Thunder require, just to compete with them let alone beat them. Bennedict Mathurin tried to carry the Pacers in the fourth, finishing with 24 points and 13 rebounds (seven offensive) but they were outdone by a lack of firepower. They were not outdone by a lack of spirit or heart. The Thunder didn't make the Pacers quit — they outlasted them in an old-school 15-round boxing match and won on the cards. 'You watch any Game 7 of a Finals, any Game 7 period, but Game 7 of the Finals, it's a different feeling, a different level of pressure,' Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. 'The gravity of the game is overwhelming for everybody participating.' Advertisement Daigneault is now in the elite category, a young coach from the G League plucked by Presti years ago to spearhead this accelerated march to contention and now, history. Their structure is why Gilgeous-Alexander had the clairvoyance to commit to the franchise early and never once has anyone uttered a desire for elsewhere. 'Sam and Mark. Their approach. Winning mentality,' Gilgeous-Alexander told Yahoo Sports. 'Building habits. The things they prioritize, are winning things and it's no coincidence we're winners.' They're not just winners, they're exhausted champions, etched in history.
