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

[Andri]

The play of the game was not the Haliburton game winner to go up 1. It was actually a few minutes earlier when Andrew Nembhard went into his bag and pulled a double crossover stepback 3 over SGA down 6 to pull the game within 3 points. Rewatch that play it was incredible to see.

Another iconic moment was Siakam's block on SGA, and his 2 points off an offensive rebound in the very next possession while Shai misses him, to cut to 1.

[TheAlchemist]

God damn. I turned it off last night and just found out Indy won. Shoulda known better I guess. Good stuff.

Second time it happened to me. Literally.

[cjx]

Doc P Siakam 30+ point performance incoming for game 2, Fam

Enjoy the operation, you know what time it is

[TheGOATWill]

The play of the game was not the Haliburton game winner to go up 1. It was actually a few minutes earlier when Andrew Nembhard went into his bag and pulled a double crossover stepback 3 over SGA down 6 to pull the game within 3 points. Rewatch that play it was incredible to see.

Nembhard was the player of the game. His quickness on offense put pressure on OKC they couldn't ignore. On defense, he's strong and athletic enough that SGA can't just walk him wherever he wants on the floor. It wasn't just the stepback. The ball was in his hands late. I initially though Haliburton was hurt or tired. Nembhard was just the better option.

[Optms]

A lot of overreactions to Game 1 in here tbh. Fun ending and it was impressive of Indy to steal it in dramatic fashion the way they did, no doubt. The Playoff run they're on is simply remarkable with some of these clutch finishes and Hali certainly deserves his flowers as well. But OKC dominated almost the entire game and showed they are clearly then better team imo. They just tend to show their youth at the end of games at times and become too timid. I expect Game 2 to be a blowout victory for them though, just like it was after they dropped Game 1 to Denver at the buzzer. They also have by far the best player in this matchup in SGA and the Pacers don't have anyone who can guard him. He's going to feast this series and will be your FMVP. OKC in 6.

OKC is timid? I don't think so but you know who isn't timid, and the opposite in fact? The Pacers. They committed a lot TO's all game, unusual for them and still held their composure when lesser teams like Denver and Minnesota were blown out.

Its because they are battle tested. If they can survive in the Garden against Knicks fans, OKC is nothing to them. Especially with a championship coach in Carlisle manning the players. Pacers have more room to improve from here on out in actuality. OKC played their game and still lost. The series is closer than most people thought and still think.

[bisme37]

God damn. I turned it off last night and just found out Indy won. Shoulda known better I guess. Good stuff.

Second time it happened to me. Literally.

I did that in the Pacers-Bucks series and learned my lesson haha.

[flow]

I always hate the over simplification we as fans make after every win/loss. We need to look at the game as fluid, it's not turn base, or as simple as we didn't do X game 1 so when we do X game 2, it will be so easy. It doesn't work like that.

Do people realize how ridiculous they sound? These are the last 30 pages since Hali GOATed himself last night:

"OKC isn't going to shoot that poorly from the floor again"
"IND isn't going to turn the ball over 20 times in the 1st half again"
"JDub and Chet aren't going to be that bad again"
"IND isn't going to make 50% of their 3's"
"IND isn't going to out rebound OKC again"
"Dort isn't going to shoot like Ray Allen again"
"Dags isn't going to play an 11 man rotation again"

Seems to me like both teams have a ridiculous amount of adjustments they can make going into GM 2. It's not as easy as just rebounding better. To make that adjustment, you are opening something up, and the other team might exploit it. We saw that last night when the Thunder went small, they sped up IND and forced a ton of TO's, but at the expense of their rebounding/size advantage. IND took the ball out of Hali's hands and put it in Nembhart's in the 2nd half, and that's what gave them breathing room on offense, and led to open shots.

This is why coaching is so damn important in the NBA, and why its most glaring on the highest stage. Yes, players need to do their part, but coaches need to read and react to what they are seeing in real time, and make the proper adjustments. Rick is an absolute legend at this point, and last night was another example, sticking with Obi after he was shook, and taking the ball out of Hali's hands and putting his faith in AN.

I expect both teams to make proper adjustments. We should expect to see more big lineups from OKC with more Caruso, and the rotation to get cut to 9 guys. We learned that they have the ability to match up with IND, force them out of their actions, and stop them from getting to the rim while forcing TO's. SGA is also going to be unstopable in this series, and IHart has a clear advantage in the post given his size and offensive IQ/passing. IND knows they will get open looks as OKC wants to swarm on driving and hedge on every screen, and they have the necessary athletes to make things difficult for them on defense.

Thunder could easily come out and turn it up another level, SGA getting a whistle from the gods, Thunder getting every board and start making shots, and this could all be an over reaction, but the fight from this IND team is ridiculous, and outside of OKC, this is clearly Americas team right now. I've never wanted to see a team outside of BOS win more in my life, and I hope they steal this series and put depth and pace and space at the forfront of the NBA.

OKC was gassed as is. I'm not sure shortening the rotation is the answer.

.

[Optms]

If I have to hear how players are "gassed" after getting more than full weeks rest, being 23 years old, and on a deep team where minutes are distributed evenly....

Lebron was 40 years old with a million miles to those knees, playing a full 48 minutes and not a word was said about how he was gassed

[FlatearthZorro]

If I have to hear how players are "gassed" after getting more than full weeks rest, being 23 years old, and on a deep team where minutes are distributed evenly....

Lebron was 40 years old with a million miles to those knees, playing a full 48 minutes and not a word was said about how he was gassed

LBJ is one of the GOATs of the game, but he has barely played any defense in at least 7-8 years. I think the glazing needs to stop, if he plays both ends of the floor, he'd be at ~20 mins a game if even that....

[Bobbymcgee]

Pacers just need to minimize turnovers and they should be fine the rest of the way.

Looking at team stats it's obvious the Pacers are the better team.

[Optms]

If I have to hear how players are "gassed" after getting more than full weeks rest, being 23 years old, and on a deep team where minutes are distributed evenly....

Lebron was 40 years old with a million miles to those knees, playing a full 48 minutes and not a word was said about how he was gassed

LBJ is one of the GOATs of the game, but he has barely played any defense in at least 7-8 years. I think the glazing needs to stop, if he plays both ends of the floor, he'd be at ~20 mins a game if even that....

Spoken like someone who didn't watch game 5 of the Wolves/Lakers series or the series in general. Bron was playing elite defense for the full 48. But keep spewing the false narrative.

[Mrakar]

Still cant believe they looked at that Pacers challenge at the end where Wallace pushed Siakam out of bounds and called it marginal... Luckily Pacers won and no1 is mentioning it now, otherwise it would be all over twitter.

[Patches Perry]

I always hate the over simplification we as fans make after every win/loss. We need to look at the game as fluid, it's not turn base, or as simple as we didn't do X game 1 so when we do X game 2, it will be so easy. It doesn't work like that.

This should be stickied at the top of the forum every playoffs. Every playoff game takes on a new personality. Both teams will likely do some things better and some things worse.

[JulesWinnfield]

I usually don’t believe in team of destiny stuff but how many times is Indiana going to win one of these playoff games when their win probability was like 1% at some point in the 4th quarter. This is some magic carpet ride type stuff. What Halliburton has done in these situations in these playoffs (and all year in general) is unfathomable.

Even if the Pacers don’t win this title they’ve carved out a place in history for what they’ve done in this postseason. Never seen anything like it. And they’d be the most unlikely champion of my lifetime. We really don’t get this type of thing in the NBA. I hate the Pacers with a passion for decades as a Knicks fan, but if they pull this off I can’t do anything but be super impressed

[Revived]

Spoiler:

Read on Twitter

(This is not from Game 1, it's from Thunder-Nuggets)

[Kawaii Leonard]

Why did I fold

[Potential]

 Mon Feb 3, 2025 11:45 pm

How the hell did the Pacers win i swear the Jazz were up by 13 in the 4th

[RRR3]

this was the expression on so many peoples faces last night when he made that shot I bet lol

Shaq looking like Hunter S Thompson with those glasses

[xxSnEaKyPxx]

Still cant believe they looked at that Pacers challenge at the end where Wallace pushed Siakam out of bounds and called it marginal... Luckily Pacers won and no1 is mentioning it now, otherwise it would be all over twitter.

As a Pacers fan, I wasn’t as bothered by that no call as I was all the no calls in the first half. I’d probably feel differently about that no call had we lost as it was kinda icing on the cake of all the others, but yea. Was it a foul? Yea. Was it a foul I’d expect to be called in most games? Not really. With the game on the line though, those iffy calls are significant.

In the first half though, it was blatant. A Pacers player would drive and you’d routinely see 3 Thunder players all full swiping at the same time. I promise, not all 3 are getting all ball. I remember at one point they were showing a slow-mo replay of a block on Siakam, the commentator was talking about the amazing defense, but the replay showed he literally got all wrist and didn’t touch the ball. Then you had Dort run into Siakam and fall over and they called a foul on Siakam.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand refs are going to miss calls occasionally, it happens, but the level of physicality being allowed from each team was massively different. Just call it the same both ways. If you’re going to let OKC swipe wrists, fine, but don’t turn around and call the Pacers for a touch foul 5 seconds later. I remember once Caruso was called for a foul and wanted the play reviewed. The replay showed he got all wrist and didn’t touch the ball. I think he was so shocked they called him for it when they allowed him to do that for the entire game to that point.

Ultimately, despite that, the Pacers struggles in the first half were first and foremost on the Pacers themselves. They were nervous and it showed. They settled down a bit in the second half and started to play their game. The Pacers cannot afford to play another half like that in this series. Maybe the refs were letting things go because the Pacers were frantic? I don’t know, but I do know I want consistency in the game for both teams. The play where Dort ran into Siakam and Siakam was called for a foul is inexcusable. There are some tough calls to make on the fly in the game, but there is no reason any ref should ever blow their whistle on Siakam for that. There is no angle to even make that look like it was a foul on Siakam. The ref just made it up in his head, which makes all the other no calls look significantly worse to me.

[xxSnEaKyPxx]

Read on Twitter

Haliburton was smiling after losing game 5 to the Knicks.

His had a “It’s okay, we’re ending this in 6 vibe.” to it.

Maybe SGA has the same mentality? I can’t speak on his confidence/competitiveness to say. Simply saying a smile doesn’t necessarily mean he doesn’t care or something.