Nineteen first-half turnovers versus 0.3 seconds of game lead.
Hands and walls. The Oklahoma City Thunder wasted no time exhausting the Indiana Pacers in the first half of Game 1 of the NBA Finals, ceaselessly chopping at the ball and making their opponent viscerally uncomfortable and taking the ball time after time after time. You don't want to dribble. You don't want to pass. You want to crawl into a hole.
Mark Daigneault replaced Isaiah Hartenstein with Cason Wallace in the starting lineup ahead of Game 1, which was not so much a preemptive adjustment as a statement of intent: to double down on speed and cover the entire court to slow down the Pacers' offense and make every inch of it challenging.
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The obvious greatness of the NBA playoffs comes from the increased stakes and everything that goes along with them. The ratcheted-up intensity and physicality. The chess match between coaches. Seeing the emotions on players' faces and their will to win and sometimes their avoidance of loss.
Secondarily, the sudden increase in our familiarity with the players, teams, systems, and rotations has a real payoff by the time we reach the Finals. Dropping in randomly on the Pacers on a weekday afternoon in January as they play Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs in Paris is its own reward, but that's a short, disposable burst compared to the marathon of watching them every other night over six weeks. We learn their tendencies and grow attached the way we might to a favorite team we've watched for six months.
The Pacers were not themselves in the first half of Game 1. Indiana played with force and confidence against each of their three opponents in the East. This was not them as they were calibrating against Oklahoma City's historically excellent defense. Aaron Nesmith was their most critical player on both sides of the floor, trying to slow down Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on defense and control the ball on offense. Tyrese Haliburton was passive—or he was simply being patient for the time of game when we have come to expect him to excel remarkably as the Pacers walk you down.
Now the Thunder have experienced the exceptionalism of the Pacers, where no lead beyond a blowout is safe. This is now the fourth time the Pacers have executed an improbable late game comeback.
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Myles Turner banked in an off-the-dribble three to his left with just over 6:00 remaining for the Pacers to get within four at 98-94. The Thunder had extended their lead to 15 less than four minutes earlier off a Jalen Williams dunk. Indiana kept hanging around during the second half but was unable to go on an extended run to get the score dangerously close. The Thunder, like the peak Warriors' teams of the previous decade, have routinely used the third quarter to turn a 10-point game into a blowout. But the Pacers found some comfort and stopped turning the ball over. The game was still probably going to stay just beyond reach until that improbable Turner shot. It inserted belief for the Pacers and doubt for the Thunder.
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Oklahoma City scored their final points in the game with 1:27 remaining in the fourth when Shai Gilgeous-Alexander grabbed a rebound off a highlight verticality block by Lu Dort on Aaron Nesmith and drove in transition for an acrobatic layup over Obi Toppin. 110-105 Thunder.
Andrew Nembhard made two free throws following a foul by Alex Caruso near the top of the key. 110-107 Thunder.
Pascal Siakam blocked Shai's next drive before grabbing Nembhard's missed three-pointer for a putback layup. 110-109 Thunder.
On the next Thunder possession, Shai hesitated against Nembhard and laid it off to Jalen Williams for a tough drive and missed shot. After Siakam was unable to secure the defensive rebound and lost their challenge, Shai had another opportunity to go up by three points and then use their up-three fouling strategy. The possession began to look fraught when Shai casually fumbled the dribble between his legs off his left foot and was unable to create enough space, with Nembhard holding the middle while both Siakam and Nesmith stunted toward him to wall him off from his spot.
Nesmith beat Lu Dort to the rebound, then passed to Siakam, who relayed the ball from Toppin to Haliburton—and you knew it was going to end the way it always does for the Pacers during this run. No timeout. Haliburton snaked from the left sideline across the logo to the midrange just inside the right wing to shoot over Cason Wallace with 0.3 remaining. 111-110 Pacers.
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When the Pacers eliminated Milwaukee in the first round with their initial comeback win coming on a Haliburton layup, the aftermath was dominated by Haliburton's father, John Haliburton, talking trash to Giannis Antetokounmpo in the middle of the court, and Antetokounmpo's profound response discussing respect, winning and losing, fatherhood. Haliburton handled the unfortunate situation exceptionally well by both being supportive of his father and also acknowledging that it was inexcusable.
Haliburton is unorthodox and can be corny, but he is entirely self-aware, which makes him a villain you can grow to love over the span of an NBA playoffs rather than just a boring villain. Or maybe not even a villain at all.