2025 NBA FINALS: #1 Oklahoma City Thunder vs #4 Indiana Pacers (IND leads 2-1)

[Godymas]

Even if Haliburton has not been stellar for the whole series, he might still be the Pacers FMVP if they win. They only win game 1 cause of him, and this game he was very good, Siakam was too. It could even go to a Mathurin, Nembhard or Mcconnell if the series plays out a certain way.

[hardenASG13]

Naw would still take this Pacers win over what Dallas did. What Dallas did was amazing but they did have a bonafide superstar in Dirk and a great roles players. Don't think there is a player on Dirk's level on the Pacers.

Tell us you didnt watch NBA in 2011, without telling us.

Uh, it seems like you didn't watch the NBA in 2011. That heat team was extremely top heavy, they won 1 game more than Dallas that regular season. Dallas was about +160 to win that series, where's Indy was about +550 to win this series. Now, I think both 2011 Dallas and Miami would beat this OKC team, too, as they just havent looked as good as their record in these playoffs. The betting line on this OKC/Indy series was absurd to begin with based on how good the pacers have looked all playoffs. But it seems like you are just going on names of players on Miami (well 3 names) and not remembering they werent overwhelming favorites over an extremely good Dallas team.

[Lunartic]

the 2011 Mavs are a greater team than 2025 pacers.
The Mavs had future HOFs and all star players on their team. Its not close.

lebron is better than sga

2025 OKC are a better team than 2011 Heat by a pretty significant margin.

Do you think '25 OKC is the best team in the last 20 years?

The Heat sans Lebron's meltdown in 2011 would smoke them. The Dubs with KD would kill them. The Raptors title team beats them too.

[Sign5]

lebron is better than sga

2025 OKC are a better team than 2011 Heat by a pretty significant margin.

Do you think '25 OKC is the best team in the last 20 years?

The Heat sans Lebron's meltdown in 2011 would smoke them. The Dubs with KD would kill them. The Raptors title team beats them too.

Pretty sure he's a lebron stan so saying 2011 heat was some cupcake of a team lessens the blow of the fact that Lebron choking was the major reason the Heat lost that series. Lebron and Mavs/Dirk fans don't like to hear that (the latter because that narrative detracts from Dirk's phenomenal run).

Top heavy or not, '11 Heat had the very last year of prime Wade, prime Bosh, prime Lebron, Haslem, Miller and scrubs. That isn't SIGNFICANTLY, key word significantly worse than many all time teams outside maybe the KD warriors, 2nd 3peat Bulls and a couple others.

You can argue 2025 okc are better than the '11 heatles.. sure but to there's a huge gap is quite ludicrous imo. Once again Lebron choking completely skews the image a lot have of that Heat team. They gentlemen swept their way to the finals and would've likely 4-1'd Mavs too if Bron simply plays basketball like he's done for 99% of his career in games 2-5.

[50yrceltsfan]

lebron is better than sga

2025 OKC are a better team than 2011 Heat by a pretty significant margin.

Do you think '25 OKC is the best team in the last 20 years?

The Heat sans Lebron's meltdown in 2011 would smoke them. The Dubs with KD would kill them. The Raptors title team beats them too.

Both Celtics championship teams (last year and the Garnet-Pierce-Allen team) were better than OKC. The Warriors were better. The Heat teams were better. The Spurs were better.

The Thunder are a nice, fairly deep team that hasn't matured yet and lacks top tier talent except for SGA. Trying to compare them to some of these teams with 2-3 HoFamers in their primes is ridiculous. Individually and collectively, they haven't proven ANYTHING yet.

[wang000hk]

I hesitated to bringing this up earlier because it's such a miniscule sample size, but the potential chink in the OKC armor was their poor record in close games this season. They have been such a dominant team that it was easy to ignore, but now we are seeing it in this series. The Pacers are like a well honed knife in close games, having experienced and come out on top in so many of them these playoffs. The Thunder haven't and it has shown in Games 1 and 3

But they also got tested by Nuggets in plenty of close games

[Ssj16]

Naw would still take this Pacers win over what Dallas did. What Dallas did was amazing but they did have a bonafide superstar in Dirk and a great roles players. Don't think there is a player on Dirk's level on the Pacers.

Tell us you didnt watch NBA in 2011, without telling us.

Uh, it seems like you didn't watch the NBA in 2011. That heat team was extremely top heavy, they won 1 game more than Dallas that regular season. Dallas was about +160 to win that series, where's Indy was about +550 to win this series. Now, I think both 2011 Dallas and Miami would beat this OKC team, too, as they just havent looked as good as their record in these playoffs. The betting line on this OKC/Indy series was absurd to begin with based on how good the pacers have looked all playoffs. But it seems like you are just going on names of players on Miami (well 3 names) and not remembering they werent overwhelming favorites over an extremely good Dallas team.

Not to mention Dallas beat the Lakers (previous season champs) and the Thunder (young up start but still talented) on their way to the finals. The only real good team Indy faced was NYC. Both the Bucks and Cleveland suffered critical injuries in those series.

[MoneyTalks41890]

I wonder what people will complain about now since they can’t claim it’s a bad series. Games 1 and 3 in particular were pretty great basketball games.

I’ll be at game 4, ready for some of that Indiana hospitality.

[Profound23]

I wonder what people will complain about now since they can’t claim it’s a bad series. Games 1 and 3 in particular were pretty great basketball games.

I’ll be at game 4, ready for some of that Indiana hospitality.

From a Bucks fan nothing much to complain about. Love seeing small markets get their time to shine. Great series, exciting finishes. Hoping this goes seven games.

[Karate Diop]

I wonder what people will complain about now since they can’t claim it’s a bad series. Games 1 and 3 in particular were pretty great basketball games.

I’ll be at game 4, ready for some of that Indiana hospitality.

It's a shame the league has done such an incredibly terrible job marketing these finals...

[MrPainfulTruth]

Naw would still take this Pacers win over what Dallas did. What Dallas did was amazing but they did have a bonafide superstar in Dirk and a great roles players. Don't think there is a player on Dirk's level on the Pacers.

Tell us you didnt watch NBA in 2011, without telling us.

So what’s your point? Isn’t it true that the Pacers don’t have a player as good as Dirk Nowitzki?

Dirks run was the greatest i've ever seen. I dont know how you compare these Pacers to him. His "great role players" were a bunch of guys way beyond their prime, and his opponents throughout the whole playoffs were incredibly tough, including the reigning champions LA Lakers and OKC, to finish with the Miami Heat superteam. Meanwhile Indiana beat NY...mkay.

They have a great run but recency bias, and making everything instantly into "greatest ever" or "epic" or "historic" is just so tiresome

[tsherkin]

It's a shame the league has done such an incredibly terrible job marketing these finals...

Must agree; these Finals have been pretty awesome. Still very much up in the air and all, but two great teams playing awesome ball. Loads of fun to watch.

[MrPainfulTruth]

This 2011 Mavs debate vs Indy this year is ridiculous because who cares. Most of ya’ll seem to agree but just talking past one another.

1st - Pacers haven’t won yet. IF THEY DO, their run would be more improbably , less likely, more Cinderella than 2011. But that’s not same as “greater”. Mavs run was greater cause of teams they faced, Mavs were not that much of underdogs like Pacers team are. Dirk was legit #1. Going into playoffs, people wouldn’t have ranked anyone on Pacers top 15 in league.

Hali was 3rd team All-NBA for the 2nd season in a row. That is literally the definition of top 15.

No its not. Not if the spots are position based.

[dakomish23]

The box score shows Siakam with 21 points on 8-14. Good game nothing crazy if you just look at that. But every bucket he made just seemed extra important, whether it was getting IND off the mat to start the game, his fast break buckets or his buckets to close out the game.

Continues to have a special post season run

[SA37]

Even if Haliburton has not been stellar for the whole series, he might still be the Pacers FMVP if they win. They only win game 1 cause of him, and this game he was very good, Siakam was too. It could even go to a Mathurin, Nembhard or Mcconnell if the series plays out a certain way.

Nembhard's defense has been outstanding and he's probably been the most consistent player for the Pacers. At this point, I'd say he has been the most valuable Pacer. So far in this series, I'd have it Nembhard, Siakam, Turner, Haliburton.

Haliburton hit the game-winner, but Nembhard and Turner were key down the stretch in Gm1. Haliburton was probably Indiana's best player in gm 3, but I didn't think he played particularly well. I thought Mathurin and McConnell were much more impactful. In fact, I think Indiana played better as a team with Haliburton on the bench in gm 3.

The most consistent player for the Pacers so far has been Nembhard. He's been incredible. Then I am torn between Siakam and Turner, but I'd give an edge to Turner here because I think Siakam has been subpar relative to what he should/could be doing.

[SA37]

I wonder what people will complain about now since they can’t claim it’s a bad series. Games 1 and 3 in particular were pretty great basketball games.

I’ll be at game 4, ready for some of that Indiana hospitality.

These are two excellent basketball teams. I think OKC got too bogged down in gm 3 with SGA trying to force things a bit too much. I think OKC has gone away from its depth and I think that is a mistake. Isaiah Joe hit two 3s and then was pulled and I don't think was ever allowed back in. Not sure why Jaylin Williams isn't getting much run.

I'd like to see OKC trust their bench a bit more.

[kwajo]

The box score shows Siakam with 21 points no 8-14. Good game nothing crazy if you just look at that. But every bucket he made just seemed extra important, whether it was getting IND off the mat to start the game, his fast break buckets or his buckets to close out the game.

Continues to have a special post season run

The Pacers have relied on Siakam in several games to get them going in the 1st Q, that's where his experience shows through. A bunch of ECF and Finals games the Pacers have looked a bit shaky at the start and you'll see Pascal scoring their first 6 points, or 10 of their first 14, or something like that. It steadies the ship to have him go get buckets and make reads under pressure to start a game.

He is the perfect star for this kind of team because he fills gaps - on team defense, rebounding, ball movement, etc. - for the rest of the team all the time, which is usually why his stats are sometimes up and down even when he is the most important player on the floor for his team.

[GiannisAnte34]

Thunder in 7

[Lunartic]

2025 OKC are a better team than 2011 Heat by a pretty significant margin.

Do you think '25 OKC is the best team in the last 20 years?

The Heat sans Lebron's meltdown in 2011 would smoke them. The Dubs with KD would kill them. The Raptors title team beats them too.

Pretty sure he's a lebron stan so saying 2011 heat was some cupcake of a team lessens the blow of the fact that Lebron choking was the major reason the Heat lost that series. Lebron and Mavs/Dirk fans don't like to hear that (the latter because that narrative detracts from Dirk's phenomenal run).

Top heavy or not, '11 Heat had the very last year of prime Wade, prime Bosh, prime Lebron, Haslem, Miller and scrubs. That isn't SIGNFICANTLY, key word significantly worse than many all time teams outside maybe the KD warriors, 2nd 3peat Bulls and a couple others.

You can argue 2025 okc are better than the '11 heatles.. sure but to there's a huge gap is quite ludicrous imo. Once again Lebron choking completely skews the image a lot have of that Heat team. They gentlemen swept their way to the finals and would've likely 4-1'd Mavs too if Bron simply plays basketball like he's done for 99% of his career in games 2-5.

Ahh the old 5D chess strategy of propping up their favorite player by trashing their teammates unless it's the off-season and they're trying to convince everyone that the Heat will run through the league.

There's zero players that could guard Lebron on that OKC team, Dort would be in foul trouble, Caruso is far too small and OKC's bigs are built like twigs.

Bosh was better than Chet/Hart
Wade was better than Williams
Bron was worlds better than SGA

Definitely would be a close series due to OKC's shooting advantage and depth but I don't see how they would be "significantly" better at all.

[Lunartic]

2025 OKC are a better team than 2011 Heat by a pretty significant margin.

Do you think '25 OKC is the best team in the last 20 years?

The Heat sans Lebron's meltdown in 2011 would smoke them. The Dubs with KD would kill them. The Raptors title team beats them too.

Both Celtics championship teams (last year and the Garnet-Pierce-Allen team) were better than OKC. The Warriors were better. The Heat teams were better. The Spurs were better.

The Thunder are a nice, fairly deep team that hasn't matured yet and lacks top tier talent except for SGA. Trying to compare them to some of these teams with 2-3 HoFamers in their primes is ridiculous. Individually and collectively, they haven't proven ANYTHING yet.

I forgot that that 2014 Spurs title team - they'd roll over OKC