A perfect SGA season still needs a perfect performance

Sports Weekly All-Media Reporter Li Hui

There is still one game left in the NBA in the 2024-2025 season. Tomorrow, the Thunder will play at home against the Pacers, and the winner will become the NBA champion this season. Since 2016, the NBA Finals have never experienced a tiebreak. The finals of this season have also been called the best finals in recent years by many fans. In the first 6 games of the series, the Thunder and the Pacers have both scored a big lead, but they have never led their opponents by 2 wins. The Pacers have been behind 2-3, while the Thunder have been behind 0-1 and 1-2. Now, the two teams have returned to the starting line, and the winner of the life-and-death battle will undoubtedly be deserved and deserves the title of NBA championship.

For many players, this will be the most important game of their entire career, especially the Thunder's main player Alexander, which will even directly determine his historical status in the NBA.

If you can win, Alexander will become O'Neal's first player to win the scoring champion, MVP, Finals MVP and championship in a single season. In the media's opinion, Alexander will be among the top 8 point guards in history with this championship. After this championship, Alexander, who has increased confidence, has a great chance to continue to reap honors in the future and continue to improve his historical status. But on the other hand, if Alexander and the Thunder eventually lose the tiebreak, it will have a devastating blow to them, which means that Alexander, which was originally close to perfection, becomes meaningless, just like Curry and the Warriors in the 2015-2016 season, when they lost the Finals, 73 wins and 9 losses were just a regular season record.

There is no doubt that Alexander will be the player with the greatest pressure on the seventh tiebreak in this final. The failure or victory of other players will not have a huge impact on public opinion. Alexander is not the case. He was regarded as the favorite of this final before the game and once he lost, negative reports and emotions will follow.

Speaking of the mood of the finals, Alexander said, "This is a dream come true, and it is a god-given opportunity. I will remain grateful and do my best to be the best of myself - this is exactly what the whole team needs to do. There is no need to be deliberately amazed, just insist on letting us play now." Regarding the team's emotions, Alexander said, "We are very good at stripping away emotions and looking at the game from the right perspective. The most valuable thing about this team is to put the collective above personal emotions. Because of this, I don't need to do anything specifically - just keep playing the whole season ”

A record not so good for the Thunder, that is, the teams that lost the tiebreak in the past three finals lost the sixth game of the series, including the Warriors in 2016, the Spurs in 2013 and the Celtics in 2010, entered the tiebreak with the result of the loss, especially the Thunder with a crushing defeat, which will undoubtedly affect the team's mentality. Once the team cannot twist the rope and doubt each other, it will be difficult for them to perform efficiently. On the contrary, the Pacers, who are originally "drunk dogs", undoubtedly have a certain advantage in this regard.

With less than 24 hours left, Alexander ushered in the most challenging and important game in his personal basketball career. After a few years, this game is destined to be mentioned repeatedly. Alexander undoubtedly hopes to be able to recall this game with joy. He has performed stably throughout the season and now needs a perfect performance to freeze a perfect season.