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

[Jadoogar]

The Pacers may never get that close to the title again. This one’s gotta hurt.

I can't see the Pacers rebounding from this home loss, surrendering home advantage while letting a late lead evaporate alongside the rush of imminent glory circulating the crowd for almost 48 minutes.

I agree that the pacers aren't going to come back but it's not like they choked some massive lead. They were up 4 with 3 minutes left. Sometimes the better team just wins, not everything is a choke

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[Jailblazers7]

Both teams play a very physical and aggressive style of defense that forces the refs to call a difficult game. Sometimes they let the guys play and sometimes they call a foul - it’s just the nature of the game.

Last game Mathurin was getting some pretty touchy calls but I don’t remember hearing so much crying about it.

[brutalitops]

You can't change the way the games been reffed a minute to go.

You cant establish what's going to be acceptable and not then completely change it and expect players to adapt with a minute to go.

All credit to OKC. Caruso was huge, but I felt like the end it basically robbed the pacers the chance to get back into it calling these types of fouls, when majority of the game your letting everyone (not just OKC but Pacers) play physical.

And its **** because while the reffing wasn't perfect first 3 and a half games, it was consistent every game which is the most you can ask for.

[GrandTheftRondo]

I’m going to refuse to pile on this train you’re going down. He was fouled legitimately most of the game

The fouls aren’t even the thing tonight.

He’s allowed to push off like nobody else in NBA history is.

Then you factor in Caruso and Dort being allowed to maul people all game while nothing is allowed on the other end.

Seriously, watch Dort defend Haliburton for a possession. He slaps the **** out of his arms, he grabs him, pushes him. None of it gets called.

It’s disgraceful.

Literally every superstar pushes off.
Jordan pushed off in 98.
Its annoying but it's basically never called, would be weird to start calling it now

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None push as blatantly and hard as SGA does.

Anyway, my post was more about the rest of the officiating.

OKC’s entire gameplan is to test the refs as much as they can.

Their defensive strategy is to hack, whack, grab etc as much as they can knowing the refs can’t call everything or refuse to call it tight.

But no other team is afforded the same leniency with fouls.

It doesn’t make sense.

[Chuck Everett]

Also a good move by Daigs (yes, I will give him some credit), when McConnell came into the game in the 2nd half, he had Shai on him instead of Wiggins or Joe. TJ got nothing around the rim with SGA sliding with him and really did nothing after halftime.

[og15]

When people ask why coaches have short leashes with some guys, or don't play some guys more, Mathurin showed why this happens with his play in the end of this game.

Just too many poor decisions clustered into such a small stretch. Missed FT's, at least you can say, okay, it happens, but the discipline and the decision making on defense was painful.

[levon]

Caruso should start over iHart next game.

They waste so much time with their starters

[VicG]

Also a good move by Daigs (yes, I will give him some credit), when McConnell came into the game in the 2nd half, he had Shai on him instead of Wiggins or Joe. TJ got nothing around the rim with SGA sliding with him and really did nothing after halftime.

Agreed overall but there was that one iso score TJ had against Shai specifically.

[VINO 24]

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[Patches Perry]

It would be nice to have a thread for the folks who just want to troll and another thread for the rest of us to talk about the game

I often want to make an Idiot Thread and just merge every idiot comment into it lol. But then I'd kinda feel like I was promoting idiot comments by giving them their own thread, and also it's probably not very moderately of me to make a thread called Idiot Thread haha.

Bumping this for newfound relevance. I wouldn't make an "idiot" thread but maybe an officiating grievances thread so that the basketball threads can actually stay about basketball. Yall do this with politics all the time (and rightfully so). These people whining are not idiots, they are sore losers who selectively resort to conspiracies every time there is an outcome they don't like.

[GeorgeMarcus]

No, he intentionally hunts BS fouls and he also intentionally pushes off. Sure, the refs shouldn't reward it but that doesn't mean I have to respect SGA's nonsense. I hated that **** from Harden too. Pathetic is the only way to describe it. It's a disgraceful style of play that's disrespectful to the game. Sorry if that opinion offends you, but it's an honest one.

The opinion doesn't offend me so much as it offends the competitive spirit. True competitors will themselves/their teams to victory whatever the cost. There are so many other examples in the game- drawing fouls on the defensive end for instance. Yet people celebrate those instances as smart, gritty, etc. What SGA does is fundamentally the same thing. If you don't enjoy watching it, it's something that should be addressed with the league not the players.

'the competitive spirit'

Please.

It's laughable to compare push offs and foul baiting to drawing charges (I guess that's what you meant by drawing fouls on the defensive end?). The first two are a perversion of the game and an offensive foul respectively. The last one is rewarding a defender for gaining position first, a legal play.

Laugh all you want but it's virtually the same thing. Trying to draw fouls on different ends of the court to increase your team's chances of winning. Pretty straight forward. I sense a bit of pretzel logic to justify your salt. I don't like Harden either but it was never for his foul baiting... It is the players' literal jobs out there to try and win basketball games

[Zeno]

I think the Pacers are cooked. Tonight was the game they had to win. Winning in OKC is just so tough. They barely managed to steal game 1. I can't see them doing it again

I really think this is a toss up. Yes OKC has two of three at home, but these are two very resilient teams and with their youth, I don’t think you can make declarations from here.

[metalinguss]

Couple of missed calls, but this loss is solely on Nesmith. I have no idea what the hell he was doing down the stretch on defense.

What do you mean solely?

Hali played hero ball and made crucial TOs
Mathurin - we all know what happened there
Turner was a non factor
Siakam stopped getting the ball

Idk why Nesmith gets the sole blame

[Jimmy Recard]

Here I was saying OKC can’t slow down Indy’s offfense at all, then they hold them to 17 in the last quarter. Indy choked too which helped.

[Nuntius]

Welp. Great game, OKC fans. OKC really flipped the script on us in the 4th tonight.

Up until tonight, OKC had won every 1st quarter and we had won every 4th quarter. The exact opposite of what happened tonight.

We lost a huge, huge chance tonight. Unbelievably huge. We basically blew our best chance at a title. It's a 3-game series now with OKC homecourt. We have to win at least one in OKC to win the title. That's very hard to do.

Look, we were able to generate good shots down the stretch. Myles, Nembhard and Hali all had some good looks. We just didn't hit them which is why we lost. Happens but it doesn't make the loss any less devastating.

We're going 7 buddy. It's been a legendary series between the 2 smallest markets in the NBA regardless of the outcome. We all won.

I do agree that we're going 7. I do not expect us to lose 3 straight games. But I also do not expect us to win 1 of the remaining 2 in OKC. We need to but I don't expect it.

You guys have the upper hand now.

[mdonnelly1989]

Is it me or did we just watch Shai take FTs for the last 10 mins of the game. That pisses me off, nobody wants to watch FTs in these games like that.

[Optimus_Steel]

Mathurin is losing some money tonight

Someone said after the previous game that he had earned himself a near max deal lol

[syrus3]

LMAO @ this “incredible historic defense” which is really fouling and hacking all game.

[BigDan245]

Denver had a real shot to win game 5 in OKC...Let's see if they have the guts to at least keep it close. If they play a close game and lose, I feel better about this series going 7...If they get boat raced, I think an OKC run in game 6 will seal it. Almost like GSW-BOS.

[ball_takes23]

Talking about the refs when a pacer player missed 3 FT with under a minute is wild.

There was 47 minutes before that one. The first half was the worst reffed half of basketball I may have ever seen, and the Pacers were up 3. Should have been up 20. It was clear the NBA got what they wanted.

The Pacers were winning the game when the 4th started. So how exactly do calls from the 1st half change the outcome? Let's not be a poor sport.

because points in the first half also count towards the final score