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

[Stone]

Cut it to 15 by halftime

[RB34]

another Dort flop rewarded.

[The4thHorseman]

Indy got'em right where they want'em

[Mk0]

OKC playing for real this time. No stupid tricks.

Won’t matter - snow bunny assassin needs to be within 20’with 30 seconds to go

He really is the next Reggie Miller

[jehosafats]

Nembhard only one playing hard

[Iwasawitness]

Ok maybe I spoke to soon there might be a game 2 blowout here potentially.. lol

This is the Pacers we're talking about.

They could be down 29 with a minute left and I wouldn't be surprised anymore if they came back.

[djsunyc]

Siakim looks bad out there

one of those "they played harder" games

[sp6r=underrated]

Yeah, 3 days of rest go a long way. There was that one quote about it from AG after the Nuggets lost their series I'm sure they wish they could have gotten 3 days in-between games.

This is the post with the blowout charts I was talking about:

Spoiler:

I was fooling around on stathead and found this interesting.

I picked 1996 as the starting season since the NBA had 29 teams at that point. The end point was this season. This is RS only. I did not pro-rate for lockout/covid seasons. Nor is this pace adjusted

The first table shows by season
1. Number of games decided by less than 5.
2. Number of games decided by more than 20.
3. Number of games decided by more than 30.
4. Number of games decided by more than 40.

There is a modest decrease in the number of close games.

96-98 (removed lockout) avg number of < 5 points: 329.66
00-09: 346.1
10-11/13-19 (removed lockout): 333.75
22-25 (removed COVID):311

There is an explosion of blowouts which is visually apparent on the chart.

Accordingly the ratio of close games to 20 point games is in decline. It has gone from 2 to 1 ratio for most of the time period to 1.2 to 1.

This is an interesting chart. In the modern NBA where you can close a 20 pt gap incredibly fast you can also just increase the gap much further but seems like it averages it out more in the 10-20 range than close games now days.

I also wonder how many of this game teams are just punting on them or conceding.

My take is the NBA just needs to monitor the collapse in close games to see if the trend continues. You correctly point out comebacks are easier now but still most 20 point leads are solid and it is probably going to turn off fans if most games are blowouts

[jkvonny]

Was a close back and forth game but now OKC pulling away. Wow

[cjx]

Pacers aren't serious

These NBA teams oscillate so wildly

[EastonEddy]

Siakim looks bad out there

Disappointing effort. I still think they aren't looking for him enough. Why is throwing an entry pass to the post so difficult?

[sp6r=underrated]

Indiana needs to target 15 by halftime just to feel good about themselves.

[MoneyTalks41890]

Tip drill

[Marrs-Law]

It's not like the pacers played well in game 1. Its clear as day what the pacers need to do to stay alive... Hit 3s at a high clip. They don't do that they lose quite easily. This is the 2023 heat all over again.

It would be fine if they were generating decent looks; but they aren't. They haven't been able to most of the quarter. That concerns me much more than being down 23.

[jehosafats]

22pt lead ain't ****

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

This OKC crowd is something else. It’s homogenized

Let's keep sexual preferences out of this.

[Nuntius]

Kenrich Williams and Aaron Wiggins have been huge for OKC in this stretch.

[MoneyTalks41890]

Nembhard’s been a baller

[KGDirkTD_Fan]

Pacers defense looks absolutely gassed or lost. They really need to kick themselves into gear.

[The4thHorseman]

Hartenstein afraid to shoot the 14 footer