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

UcanUwill · Post #21 » by **UcanUwill** » Thu Jun 12, 2025 4:37 pm

Castle Black wrote:Good news for OKc.

Read on Twitter

Thats interesting. Small sample size tho.

Post #22 » by **bisme37** » Thu Jun 12, 2025 4:40 pm

I just realized they interrupted the drawn-out pace of 3 day breaks so they could play this one on Friday the 13th lol. Spooky.

Post #23 » by **Capn'O** » Thu Jun 12, 2025 4:45 pm

Knicks and Cavs fans:

Jadoogar · Post #24 » by **Jadoogar** » Thu Jun 12, 2025 4:53 pm

Whatever happens from here on out is fine, i'm just happy the thunder didn't win in a route and the pacers are getting their due.

Accurim · Post #25 » by **Accurim** » Thu Jun 12, 2025 5:20 pm

i dont see the pacers getting fazed by OKCs defense. im expecting pacers to continue having high 30-40pt quarters, and OKC doesnt have the firepower to match it. i saw it as a defense vs offense series, and OKC defense isnt as impactful vs pacers.

SGA through 3 games, is an unstoppable scorer. deserving MVP.

dWadeOwnzYou · Post #26 » by **dWadeOwnzYou** » Thu Jun 12, 2025 5:21 pm

This has been a great Finals and both team are deserving of a championship with their own stories to tell. Its been a pretty tightly contested and its hard to say whats the outcome will be. I know this for a fact, this Indiana team showed that they mean business in game one and whatever regular season records you want to use should be thrown out the window.

dygaction · Post #27 » by **dygaction** » Thu Jun 12, 2025 5:21 pm

Castle Black wrote:Good news for OKc.

Read on Twitter

It only happened twice in history, so not enough statistics.

The_Ghost_of_JB · Post #28 » by **The_Ghost_of_JB** » Thu Jun 12, 2025 5:23 pm

I don't see Indy winning the series but they have made it interesting so far. OKC is winning the next 3 games.

davidv2001 · Post #29 » by **davidv2001** » Thu Jun 12, 2025 5:53 pm

shi-woo wrote:I'm hoping IND comes out swinging and this is a blowout.

Refs, just let them f'in play please

You won’t get an Indiana blowout win if the refs let both teams play. The Thunder rely on reaching with their hands and playing as close to the line regarding freedom of movement rules to suffocate teams defensively. The refs need to call those fouls, otherwise you could see a Thunder blowout win like what happened in game two.

Lunartic · Post #30 » by **Lunartic** » Thu Jun 12, 2025 5:56 pm

iwasawitness wrote:No, they wouldn't. OKC is a better team on both ends of the floor with a significantly better bench and much better coaching. It would be a slaughter. You don't have to be the best team on the past 20 years to be better than the 2011 Heat either. They weren't even the best team that season, let alone the last 20 years.

Which finals teams in the last 20 years could beat this juggernaut monster of an unbeatable team that happens to be down 2-1 currently to the 4th seed Pacers?

I'm curious who you think can topple them? If anyone.

Percentsign · Post #31 » by **Percentsign** » Thu Jun 12, 2025 6:23 pm

good finals so far. A shame about the low TV ratings

Post #32 » by **tsherkin** » Thu Jun 12, 2025 6:25 pm

Indy did a pretty good job on Shai. He didn't murder them with high FG%, he coughed it up 6 times, and then holding him to 3 FGA in the fourth quarter was quite impressive as well. They have to watch some of their own turnovers and stuff, but that press they were playing near the end was pretty brutal for the Thunder to deal with. Just chewed clock.

Game 4 is going to be very, very interesting.

Blame Rasho · Post #33 » by **Blame Rasho** » Thu Jun 12, 2025 6:32 pm

tsherkin wrote:Indy did a pretty good job on Shai. He didn't murder them with high FG%, he coughed it up 6 times, and then holding him to 3 FGA in the fourth quarter was quite impressive as well. They have to watch some of their own turnovers and stuff, but that press they were playing near the end was pretty brutal for the Thunder to deal with. Just chewed clock.

Game 4 is going to be very, very interesting.

The thunder haven’t really been in gritty tooth and nail games compared to the pacers. If the thunder win the series it is because they win games handily. If it is a close 2 or 3 possessions game, I overwhelmingly favor the pacers. They are composed and we seen the thunder miss free throws, miss game sealing plays more than most championship teams.

ShootersShoot · Post #34 » by **ShootersShoot** » Thu Jun 12, 2025 6:35 pm

The pacers are very difficult to defend and also have great defensive personnel. This isnt some fluke

Talbot44 · Post #35 » by **Talbot44** » Thu Jun 12, 2025 6:41 pm

jigga_man wrote:
Andri wrote:
Castle Black wrote:Good news for OKc.

Read on Twitter

Sonics won in 1979 being the lower seed, after losing G1. So they were 2-1, and won. That on top of my head, so I doubt that stat.

That was under the 2-3-2 format. It was changed to 2-2-1-1 recently in 2014 so that stat itself is useless

Nah, he's right. Seattle was the road team, and they were up 2-1. It was 2-2-1-1-1 from 1947-1985. Lakers/Celtics cross country travel made them do the 2-3-2.

Post #36 » by **Capn'O** » Thu Jun 12, 2025 6:42 pm

tsherkin wrote:Indy did a pretty good job on Shai. He didn't murder them with high FG%, he coughed it up 6 times, and then holding him to 3 FGA in the fourth quarter was quite impressive as well. They have to watch some of their own turnovers and stuff, but that press they were playing near the end was pretty brutal for the Thunder to deal with. Just chewed clock.

Game 4 is going to be very, very interesting.

I don't know if I've ever seen a team that's as good at ball pressure as they are without giving up open looks. I'm not quite sure how they're doing it.

Post #37 » by **tsherkin** » Thu Jun 12, 2025 6:51 pm

Capn'O wrote:I don't know if I've ever seen a team that's as good at ball pressure as they are without giving up open looks. I'm not quite sure how they're doing it.

It's quite impressive.

Blame Rasho wrote:
The thunder haven’t really been in gritty tooth and nail games compared to the pacers. If the thunder win the series it is because they win games handily. If it is a close 2 or 3 possessions game, I overwhelmingly favor the pacers. They are composed and we seen the thunder miss free throws, miss game sealing plays more than most championship teams.

They had some tough ones against the Nuggets, but it wasn't quite the same, for sure. And as you note, the composure OKC has been displaying at the line is troublesome.

It's been a feisty series.

Post #38 » by **Capn'O** » Thu Jun 12, 2025 7:01 pm

Yeah, the late game execution is another big piece. Before we hit the Pacers, my Knicks were having a historic clutch playoffs and they were still more clutch. It might not be fair to the players but these execution and game management factors are why Carlisle is getting so many flowers.

Optms · Post #39 » by **Optms** » Thu Jun 12, 2025 7:03 pm

Still awaiting the Thunder to sweep that RealGM's finest promised me.

xBulletproof · Post #40 » by **xBulletproof** » Thu Jun 12, 2025 7:10 pm

tsherkin wrote:Indy did a pretty good job on Shai. He didn't murder them with high FG%, he coughed it up 6 times, and then holding him to 3 FGA in the fourth quarter was quite impressive as well. They have to watch some of their own turnovers and stuff, but that press they were playing near the end was pretty brutal for the Thunder to deal with. Just chewed clock.

Game 4 is going to be very, very interesting.

The other thing they did was put him in a ton of action on the defensive end and make him work OT. Also, abused him quite a bit there.

Haven't fact checked it because I'm at work, but I did see someone say he has a 70% blow by rate on drives defensively in the finals.

All in all, he will be tired at the end of the game. Same thing the Pacers did with Brunson, and Mitchell.

Who wins Game 4 of the NBA Finals?