2025 NBA Finals: Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Indiana Pacers

Do I remember correctly that there used to back-to-back finals games? Or definitely closer to each other than this?

 

ESPN pushed for Finals exclusivity, but we almost had NBC and ESPN alternating….would’ve been the best solution since ESPN was always going to keep it.

 

and the guy that disrespected him went home

 

Not surprising at all to see OKC in the Finals but getting the full "Flyover Country" finals with Indiana is definitely a shock. I'll be rooting for Indy I suppose. Finally started rewatching Stranger Things too (set in Indiana) so that's appropriate.

 

Haha but filmed in Georgia and the Georgia Kid Antman is out.

 

Unfortunately, referees will have a big impact, but Pacers are great without fouling. Referees in game 6 really tried in the 2nd half to call some BS to get the Knicks potentially back in but it didn’t work. So let’s see. I could see the refs and league wanting their MVP to win, but there’s a lot of love for the Pacers play style, so we might just have to follow the money and look at bets and odds. Where the money’s made, that’s likely who will win.

 

As I was driving to work this morning I turned my radio to ESPN, thinking that there would be some discussion about the finals.

What they were discussing instead:

-Was this season a failure for the Knicks?
-What do the Knicks need to do in the offseason?
-Has their championship window passed?
-Is Brunson good enough to be the best player on a championship team?
-Can Thibs get this team any further?
-Should they / can they "run it back"?

In the 10 minutes that I listened, the Pacers or the Thunder, and actual games to be played, were not even mentioned

ESPN radio is as bad as ESPN TV.

 

There's 4 more whole days to talk about the Finals before it even starts - putting the dirt on the knicks season before moving on is what all the nba take havers are doing today

 

I just looked this up, and the Pacers are the worst team defending isolations in the playoffs giving up a whopping 1.25 points/possession and 56% shooting on ISO’s

I’d honestly be surprised if Shai doesn’t average at least 35 this series

 

unfortunately

games on ESPN don’t even feel like playoff games half the time…aside from the horrendous commentary from people like Doris, they lower the crowd noise…the halftime show is garbage with 30 seconds of commentary followed by 5 minutes of commercials…they also start games like 15-20 minutes past the stated start time which doesn’t happen on TNT nearly as often

TNT and NBC would’ve been the best

 

Jarace Walker out two games at least.

He didn't get much run but I thought he'd maybe be more helpful vs. OKC with his athleticism and size

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/45433601/pacers-jarace-walker-least-2-games-start-nba-finals

 

Disagree on TNT, them losing the rights was the best outcome. Now we get some decent commentators across other channels and we don’t have to deal with donkey boy or Shaq ever again. That alone is worth it. And people can still tune into them via YouTube and whatnot. Win win. Now they’re on the channel they deserve with their stupid show.

 

-The Pacers indeed don’t defend iso well, but iso is also not a focus of OKC’s offense (just 5.8 ppg)

-OKC forces the most turnovers in the league, but they are 5-4 in the playoffs when forcing 18 or less. They forced an average of 15.3 in their 14 regular season losses.

-The Pacers had 68 of 82 regular season games with 18 or less turnovers, and 15 of 16 playoff games under 18 TOs. They protect the ball remarkably well for a fast-paced offense.

-OKC struggled with Denver, a top 5 team in assists per made FG. The Pacers are another top 5 team in that category (and #1 in the playoffs). Memphis and Minnesota were 15th and 19th.

I'm not saying the Pacers should be expected to win, but I think it is less lopsided than most pundits say it is.

 

did the good guys win yet?

 

ISO is a big part of SGA’s offense, that’s why I brought it up…he was 3rd in isolation frequency during the regular season and 20% of his possessions are isolations these playoffs

Why is 18 turnovers the cut-off? Most teams would have the majority of their games where they committed less than that since that’s a ridiculous amount of turnovers to commit and would’ve easily led the league year in and year out

OKC struggled with Denver because they have Jokic and couldn’t shoot a lick on the road…they also choked away game 1

Thunder shot 9-35, 10-41, and 11-40 from deep in the 3 games at Denver…J-Dub, their 2nd option, was also shooting 34% from the field and 21% from deep the 1st 6 games against the Nuggets

OKC shut down Denver’s offense…Nuggets had a 104 offensive rating that series which would’ve been the worst offense in the league during the regular season lower than 30th place Washington Wizards

this shouldn’t be viewed as a 01 Lakers vs Sixers situation, but this should be viewed as a pretty big failure for OKC if they were to lose this series as a 68 win team with HCA

 

Of the 16 playoff teams, in playoff games OKC ranks

10th in frequency of iso plays (8.5%)- Pacers are 12th
11th in points per game off iso plays (7.9)- Pacers are 14th
13th in FG% off iso plays (38.2%)- Pacers are 11th
8th in scoring frequency (43.4%)- Pacers are 9th

https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/isolation?dir=D&sort=POSS_PCT

In the regular season, OKC indeed was much more iso dependent:
5th in frequency of iso plays (9.0%)
3rd in points per game off iso plays (10.5)
4th in FG% off iso plays (45.1%)
2nd in scoring frequency (48.4%)

 

u keep talking about the entire team when I am talking about a single player…I am talking about Shai, not the entire team

me bringing up the Pacers isolation defense is in regards to Shai, not OKC as a whole…it’s about their ability to defend or possibly try to contain SGA…that is why I brought up Donovan Mitchell averaging 34 ppg and Brunson averaging 31 ppg on 50% shooting/63% TS against them and why I mentioned their isolation defense which has been by far the worst in these playoffs

if Shai is able to get whatever he wants with ease, that’s when OKC starts looking like their regular season selves