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

[Rzwynn]

Tough game for Benedict down the stretch. 3 missed FT and 2 off ball fouls in crunch time. OKC covers the -6.5

[Dadouv47]

This series isn't over because OKC looks super tired and I have no clue how bad is Chet injury. OKC gonna benefit from the 3 day off between games that's for sure.

[jkvonny]

Missing 2 free throws in a finals (playoffs—sorry) game…trust Orlando fans know the pain.

That was a tuff one for yall.
I remember the young Magic team edging out the Pacers in the 1995 ECF , 4-3. Went all 7 games.

Favored to beat the defending champs, Rockets in NBA Finals.
Lost Game 1. Choked late lead missing a lot of FTs st the end. Lost close game. Kinda set the tone. Messed with Orlando's head, upset by the Rockets in the series. All close games if I recall.

Poor Pacers, that's gotta hurt. Too many missed FTs.

[CelticSooner]

I just want more close games. This has been a blast, good playoffs all together.

[WeLikeOurGuys]

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.

[xBulletproof]

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.

[wade44]

You mean like this?

[Marrs-Law]

That was the best chance to win the series. Pacers just were not able to execute in the fourth quarter, and that's on them.

I am not sold on the idea the refs were rigged; seemed like they just call a ton of ticky-tack fouls, miss a lot of fouls, and the Pacers never drive to the rim (and when Siakam did he got a lot of fts) so we had the ugly first half. It's just so easy for people to say the refs are rigged when 95% it's easily explainable by something else.

On the plus side, the Pacers simply looked like the better team for the majority of the game. I simply do not understand some of the offensive plays they made, specifically by Hali and by Siakam in the third that probably lost them the game. I think they clean that up.

People will count them out probably, but I think the Pacers have a legitimate shot at taking G5. They pretty much have to, so we will see.

[og15]

Indy doesn't really have a chance when OKC is getting a ton of foul calls and getting a FT parade.

That being said Hali going iso and Mathurin completely melting down with dumb fouls and bricked FT's certainly did not help.

That's not really how it played out. SGA for example had 2 FTA until 3:34, and then Mathurin kind of got a little carried away with the fouls, and of course there were intentional fouls.

[ibraheim718]

Are you guys considering this a great series?
Like the games are close but it's not like there's an amazing level of play imo. It's equal to like the Lakers/Heat bubble title

It's been rather entertaining.. that's all that matters in my eyes

[karmew32]

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.

If anything, that makes the loss even more devastating.

[PierceFan4ever]

Every star player in the league pushes off. I’m a Celtics fan and Tatum does it but I’ve seen him get called for offense foul if it’s blatant or if the opponent sells it a bit to show the refs look I’m getting shoved. But for whatever reason, SGA does not get called for it once and he uses that push off on nearly every midrange. Some you can play on and it’s that superstar offensive play that they get but you cannot swallow your whistle on the push off sga did on Nesmith, not to mention the travel afterwards. That’s pacers ball up 1 with like a minute to play. Such a huge no call and it’s what people are annoyed with mainly regarding SGA.

[OldSchoolNoBull]

Indy's offense has looked so good all playoffs, but it completely stagnated in the last six minutes of this game. And the missed FTs didn't help.

Pretty gutting for Indy. But it's still a tied series. Just can't let this get in their heads, can't lose belief in themselves. So many doubted they'd even get to this point.

[LoveMyRaps]

Looks like Mathurin successfully distracted some of yall from that horrendous performance by Haliburton.

Hali deserves at least 80% of the blame for that loss.

A lot of critical turnovers by him.

Tbf game was pretty much out of reach when Mathurin decided to go full r’d.

[Jeremy Lin 7]

On a serious note, Pacers don't have a high level iso scorer to close this game out. Hali been making clutch shots, but he struggles to create quality looks against OKC this series. Siakam isn't that guy either.

[og15]

you mean how he went 5-8 on the night?

It was really all about when he missed the FT's. Could have made it 105-107 with two makes and 23 seconds left. Also the foul on SGA with hand in the cookie jar, Nembhard does not commit that foul for example, just have to be more disciplined there. The other foul, I mean, that's just trying to contest, that happens, so not going to get on him about that. The missed two FT's down 4 though was tough.

Also 5/8 from the line isn't good

Sent from my SM-S921W using RealGM mobile app

Yea, that's still a poor 63%

[bisme37]

Congrats Thunder fans. Shai was terrific down the stretch. Must be a relief to get this one haha. Great series.

[Tor_Raps]

Missing 2 free throws in a finals (playoffs—sorry) game…trust Orlando fans know the pain.

Literally thought about Nick Anderson during that stretch but its still not the same... Nick's choke job was on another level sadly for you lol

[Chuck Everett]

Siakam kind of ran from the ball late as well. He didn't seem to want it either, even coming out of timeouts. That was surprising. He rarely even touched it.

[EmpireFalls]

Stop blaming the refs and start pointing the finger at Indy’s awful execution down the stretch. They were so slow into everything.