Finals things to know: Shai nearing a milestone, and don't expect close games

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has a chance to make a whole slew of history in these NBA Finals.

The Oklahoma City star is the first reigning MVP who'll play in the finals — they start Thursday night when the Thunder play host to the Indiana Pacers — since Golden State's Stephen Curry in 2016. He could become the first player to win a scoring title and an NBA title in the same season since Shaquille O'Neal did it for the Los Angeles Lakers in 1999-2000.

And sometime in Game 1 or Game 2, Gilgeous-Alexander will likely hit another milestone.

He comes into this series with 2,960 points this season — officially, anyway, more on that in a second — between the 82-game regular-season slate and now the postseason.

With 40 more points, he will record the 25th instance of a 3,000-point season when combining the regular season and the playoffs. The most recent to do it was Luka Doncic, who had 3,005 points for Dallas last season.

If the NBA Cup championship game counted statistically, which it doesn't, Gilgeous-Alexander would only need 19 more points for 3,000. He had 21 in that OKC loss to Milwaukee at Las Vegas in December, but those points don't count toward his season total.

Michael Jordan had 10 seasons with at least 3,000 points, Wilt Chamberlain had five and nine other players — Bob McAdoo, Elgin Baylor, James Harden, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, Rick Barry, Shaquille O’Neal and Doncic — have one.

For the second consecutive year, there are four Canadians in the NBA Finals.

Last year, it was Oshae Brissett for Boston and AJ Lawson, Olivier-Maxence Prosper and Dwight Powell for Dallas.

This year, it's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luguentz Dort for Oklahoma City, along with Bennedict Mathurin and Andrew Nembhard for Indiana.

“I played against Andrew when I was 9 years old,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “It's been an amazing journey. To see him having success, my own success, obviously Lu’s success, Ben’s success, it’s special. It’s hard to even wrap your head around. ... For us to make it to this stage, is a testament to our hard work, our character, people around us that helped us get here. It’s been a blessing. It’s been super fun.”

Dort said he hopes Canadians enjoy seeing four of their own in the finals.

“Obviously we represent our teams here,” Dort said. “But at the end of the day we represent our country as well.”

And it's certain that Montreal will get a title: Dort and Mathurin are both from there.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for me, Lu, the whole Montreal city,” Mathurin said. “I think it’s a great step in the right direction just to be able to go against each other. You know, Lu’s a great friend of mine. I would call him brother right now, but we’re enemies.”

Indiana's James Johnson has been in the NBA for 16 seasons. He has played for 10 different franchises. He has played under 11 different coaches.

He has finally made the NBA Finals.

Johnson came close in 2019-20, starting the season with Miami — which wound up making the bubble finals that season. But Johnson was part of a three-team trade about a month before the pandemic hit and ended up in Minnesota.

“Getting here now means that I was fortunate enough to be on a team of guys that only want winning," Johnson said. "I was fortunate enough to join a team of guys that just want to win — and they want to win by any means necessary.”

The last time Indiana's Rick Carlisle coached in the NBA Finals, every game was basically decided at the end. All six games of the Dallas-Miami series in 2011 were decided by 10 points or less.

Since then, those games are rare.

Out of the last 73 NBA Finals games, starting with the 2012 Heat-Thunder matchup through last season’s Boston-Dallas series, the average margin of victory has been 12.4 points per game.

There hasn’t been an instance of more than three consecutive single-digit finals winning margins in that stretch, and 45 of the 73 games have been decided by at least 10 points.

And there have been only six games in the last 12 finals decided by three points or less — while 10 have been decided by 20 points or more.

There hasn't been an overtime game in the NBA Finals since Game 1 of the 2018 series between Golden State and Cleveland.

The seven-year drought and counting without a finals overtime game is the longest in NBA history. There was a six-year stretch from 1984 through 1990 without an OT finals game, but never seven — until now.

If Oklahoma City wins the NBA title, it will mark the 13th time in the last 14 seasons that a division champion has wound up winning the finals.

The only exception in that span was Golden State in 2022. Before that, the last team to not win their division but win the NBA title was Dallas in 2011 — coached by current Indiana coach Carlisle.

The Thunder and Pacers are playing for the NBA championship, the Larry O’Brien Trophy and about $5 million.

Technically, $5,002,359. That’s what one team will get added to its share of the league's annual playoff pool by winning the NBA Finals this season.

The total pool this year, which will be divided by the 16 playoff teams, is $34,665,698. The Thunder have already secured no worse than $7,418,145 from the pool. The Pacers have secured at least $6,160,260.

The bonus pool is typically split in some way among players and staff from the playoff teams.

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Indiana Pacer coach Rick Carlisle, right, watches guard Tyrese Haliburton (0) stretch during a practice, Wednesday, June 4, 2025, ahead of Game 1 of the NBA Finals basketball series against the Oklahoma City Thunder in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)

Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle speaks during a news conference, Wednesday, June 4, 2025, ahead of Game 1 of the NBA Finals basketball series against the Oklahoma City Thunder in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander speaks during a news conference, Wednesday, June 4, 2025, ahead of Game 1 of the NBA Finals basketball series against the Indiana Pacers in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander watches during practice, Wednesday, June 4, 2025, ahead of Game 1 of the NBA Finals basketball series against the Indiana Pacers in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)

U.S. forces have boarded another oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea. The announcement was made Friday by the U.S. military. The Trump administration has been targeting sanctioned tankers traveling to and from Venezuela.

The pre-dawn action was carried out by U.S. Marines and Navy, taking part in the monthslong buildup of forces in the Caribbean, according to U.S. Southern Command, which declared “there is no safe haven for criminals” as it announced the seizure of the vessel called the Olina.

Navy officials couldn’t immediately provide details about whether the Coast Guard was part of the force that took control of the vessel as has been the case in the previous seizures. A spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard said there was no immediate comment on the seizure.

The Olina is the fifth tanker that has been seized by U.S. forces as part of a broader effort by Trump’s administration to control the distribution of Venezuela’s oil products globally following the U.S. ouster of President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid.

The latest:

Richard Grenell, president of the Kennedy Center, says a documentary film about first lady Melania Trump will make its premiere later this month, posting a trailer on X.

As the Trumps prepared to return to the White House last year, Amazon Prime Video announced a year ago that it had obtained exclusive licensing rights for a streaming and theatrical release directed by Brett Ratner.

Melania Trump also released a self-titled memoir in late 2024.

Some artists have canceled scheduled Kennedy Center performances after a newly installed board voted to add President Donald Trump’s to the facility, prompting Grenell to accuse the performers of making their decisions because of politics.

Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum says that she has asked her foreign affairs secretary to reach out directly to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio or Trump regarding comments by the American leader that the U.S. cold begin ground attacks against drug cartels.

In a wide-ranging interview with Fox News aired Thursday night, Trump said, “We’ve knocked out 97% of the drugs coming in by water and we are going to start now hitting land, with regard to the cartels. The cartels are running Mexico. It’s very sad to watch.”

As she has on previous occasions, Sheinbaum downplayed the remarks, saying “it is part of his way of communicating.” She said she asked her Foreign Affairs Secretary Juan Ramón de la Fuente to strengthen coordination with the U.S.

Sheinbaum has repeatedly rebuffed Trump’s offer to send U.S. troops after Mexican drug cartels. She emphasizes that there will be no violation of Mexico’s sovereignty, but the two governments will continue to collaborate closely.

Analysts do not see a U.S. incursion in Mexico as a real possibility, in part because Sheinbaum’s administration has been doing nearly everything Trump has asked and Mexico is a critical trade partner.

Trump says he wants to secure $100 billion to remake Venezuela’s oil infrastructure, a lofty goal going into a 2:30 meeting on Friday with executives from leading oil companies. His plan rides on oil producers being comfortable in making commitments in a country plagued by instability, inflation and uncertainty.

The president has said that the U.S. will control distribution worldwide of Venezuela’s oil and will share some of the proceeds with the country’s population from accounts that it controls.

“At least 100 Billion Dollars will be invested by BIG OIL, all of whom I will be meeting with today at The White House,” Trump said Friday in a pre-dawn social media post.

Trump is banking on the idea that he can tap more of Venezuela’s petroleum reserves to keep oil prices and gasoline costs low.

At a time when many Americans are concerned about affordability, the incursion in Venezuela melds Trump’s assertive use of presidential powers with an optical spectacle meant to convince Americans that he can bring down energy prices.

Trump is expected to meet with oil executives at the White House on Friday.

He hopes to secure $100 billion in investments to revive Venezuela’s oil industry. The goal rides on the executives’ comfort with investing in a country facing instability and inflation.

Since a U.S. military raid captured former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro on Saturday, Trump has said there’s a new opportunity to use the country’s oil to keep gasoline prices low.

The full list of executives invited to the meeting has not been disclosed, but Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips are expected to attend.

Attorneys general in five Democratic-led states have filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s administration after it said it would freeze money for several public benefit programs.

The Trump administration has cited concerns about fraud in the programs designed to help low-income families and their children. California, Colorado, Minnesota, Illinois and New York states filed the lawsuit Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The lawsuit asks the courts to order the administration to release the funds. The attorneys general have called the funding freeze an unconstitutional abuse of power.

Iran’s judiciary chief has vowed decisive punishment for protesters, signaling a coming crackdown against demonstrations.

Iranian state television reported the comments from Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei on Friday. They came after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei criticized Trump’s support for the protesters, calling Trump’s hands “stained with the blood of Iranians.”

The government has shut down the internet and is blocking international calls. State media has labeled the demonstrators as “terrorists.”

The protests began over Iran’s struggling economy and have become a significant challenge to the government. Violence has killed at least 50 people, and more than 2,270 have been detained.

Trump questions why a president’s party often loses in midterm elections and suggests voters “want, maybe a check or something”

Trump suggested voters want to check a president’s power and that’s why they often deliver wins for an opposing party in midterm elections, which he’s facing this year.

“There’s something down, deep psychologically with the voters that they want, maybe a check or something. I don’t know what it is, exactly,” he said.

He said that one would expect that after winning an election and having “a great, successful presidency, it would be an automatic win, but it’s never been a win.”

Hiring likely remained subdued last month as many companies have sought to avoid expanding their workforces, though the job gains may be enough to bring down the unemployment rate.

December’s jobs report, to be released Friday, is likely to show that employers added a modest 55,000 jobs, economists forecast. That figure would be below November’s 64,000 but an improvement after the economy lost jobs in October. The unemployment rate is expected to slip to 4.5%, according to data provider FactSet, from a four-year high of 4.6% in November.

The figures will be closely watched on Wall Street and in Washington because they will be the first clean readings on the labor market in three months. The government didn’t issue a report in October because of the six-week government shutdown, and November’s data was distorted by the closure, which lasted until Nov. 12.

FILE - President Donald Trump dances as he walks off stage after speaking to House Republican lawmakers during their annual policy retreat, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)