OKLAHOMA CITY – The Indiana Pacers enter the NBA Finals as a decided underdog against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Game 1 is set for Thursday night.
Expert predictions for the Pacers are grim, ranging from basically “get out the brooms” to “Thunder in five” or “Thunder in six.” On the national stage, many are ready to hand the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy to Oklahoma City, no questions asked.
The Pacers have been here before. Remember the second-round series against the Cleveland Cavaliers? That team won 64 games and finished with the second-best record in the NBA.
The Pacers dispatched them in five games. Looking back at the expert picks, it was almost unanimous: Cavs in the Eastern Conference Finals. Sweep. Five games. Six, maybe, if the Pacers are lucky.
Even when the Pacers advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals, New York Knicks fans expected their team to win Game 6 to bring the series back to Madison Square Garden for a decisive Game 7.
The Pacers didn’t have to travel back to the Big Apple.
Oklahoma City is a different beast. They rampaged through the regular season to win a league-best 68 games and lost only once to an Eastern Conference team, compiling an eye-popping 29-1 record.
The only Eastern Conference team to top them in the regular season? The Cavs (the Milwaukee Bucks also beat Oklahoma City in the NBA Cup championship, but that game doesn’t technically count in the regular season).
Oklahoma City beat Indiana in their two previous meetings. In the first game on Dec. 26, Indiana led most of the way before OKC came back in the second half to win 120-114. Gilgeous-Alexander scored 45 points. The Pacers led by 12 at halftime.
In the second meeting on March 29, the Thunder took control in the second quarter and didn’t look back. They won 132-111; Gilgeous-Alexander dropped 33 points.
The Thunder lost back-to-back games only twice in the regular season (once in November and once again in April) and rattled off winning streaks of 15 games and 11 games during two different stretches.
They have the league MVP in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, a polished scorer who won the league scoring title. They also have the NBA’s top defense, a soul-crushing unit that feasts on turnovers. They’re deep and tenacious.
The Thunder lost only 14 games during the regular season. Indiana lost 32, more than twice as many. On paper, it’s a mismatch, pure and simple.
The Pacers are more than happy to play the underdog.
“We enjoy being the underdogs,” said forward Aaron Nesmith during NBA Finals Media Day on Wednesday. “We’ve been the underdogs ever since I’ve gotten here for the last three years. Every game in the playoffs, it felt like nobody wanted us to win. We’re here and nothing’s new. We’re going to attack it with the same mindset.”
He added, “Whenever people doubt you, you always use it as fuel.”
“I don’t think we expect anyone to pick us,” said forward Pascal Siakam. “It’s been that way the whole playoffs, it’s been like that the whole season. I think, for us, nothing really changes. We just continue to be ourselves, focus on us. It’s always been us against everyone.”
“We’re not really worried about the external noise,” said veteran guard TJ McConnell. “We know what we have to do to win, and we have to do it together. Anything outside of that, we’re not going concerning ourselves with.”
“It’s simply going to come down to us being able to play our game at the best possible level,” said head coach Rick Carlisle. “We’re gonna need to take care of the ball because these guys turn people over at a historic rate. We’re gonna have to make some shots.”
Nesmith’s ankle
Nesmith said he’ll be ready to go for Game 1 of the NBA Finals after injuring his ankle during the Eastern Conference Finals.
The forward rolled his right ankle in Game 3 against the Knicks. He returned for the last seven minutes of the game and played the rest of the series. Nesmith said he did everything he could to stay available.
“It was cold tub, game-ready, hyperbaric chambers, it was red light therapy. It was manual wave, it was shock wave,” he said. “Anything you could name, we kind of threw it at the ankle, but there was no chance I was missing that game.”
Nesmith played 32 minutes and scored 16 points in Game 4 to help the Pacers take a 3-1 series lead. He logged only 16 minutes in the Game 5 loss. Saddled with foul trouble in Game 6, he scored 10 points in 20 minutes.
Closing out the Knicks in six games was especially valuable to Nesmith, who had several days of rest between the end of the Eastern Conference Finals and the start of the NBA Finals.
“I needed it. I was looking forward to these days off. I took them and I’ll be ready,” he told reporters.
Haliburton on ‘Pops’
When Tyrese Haliburton and the Pacers take on the Thunder, John Haliburton will be in attendance.
Haliburton’s “Pops” landed in hot water when the Pacers closed out the Bucks in the first round. After his son hit the game-winning layup in overtime, John Haliburton got into a confrontation with Milwaukee star Giannis Antetokounmpo.
That led the front office to ban the elder Haliburton from Pacers games. He wasn’t allowed to come back to Gainbridge Fieldhouse until Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals. However, instead of watching from his typical seats, he watched from a suite.
While he wasn’t allowed to attend games against New York, John Haliburton will be allowed to see his son play in the Finals in OKC.
Tyrese Haliburton said the coverage surrounding his father was, at times, “ridiculous” and a little “over the top.” But he’s happy to have him back in his corner.
“I love my Pops dearly and really thankful that he’s going to be in the building and with me on this journey,” he said.
Haliburton and his father have a very close relationship. He shared a story Wednesday about how his father got laid off while Haliburton was in elementary school. Even though they lived close to school, Haliburton had his father drive him there every day, giving them a chance to connect with each other daily.
Eventually, John Haliburton worked third shift. Because his father slept during the day, they bonded together in the mornings before school by watching SportsCenter.
“Me and my dad are really close, and obviously that’s well documented,” Haliburton said. “I’m excited that he’s going to be in the building and the NBA’s allowed him to be back.”
Carlisle on Thibodeau
A few days after the Pacers closed the deal against New York, the Knicks fired head coach Tom Thibodeau. The move came as a surprise to Carlisle, who initially didn’t believe the news. He wondered if “artificial intelligence” had deceived him.
“I thought it was one of those fake AI things, you know,” Carlisle said. “There’s no way. There’s no way possible. And I know how the players feel about him, too. Teams and ownership can make these decisions unilaterally, and it’s their right to do that.”
Carlisle has known Thibodeau for years. He also knows New York is a tough market with a ravenous, vocal fanbase.
Thibodeau led the Knicks to the playoffs four times in five seasons. He went 226-174 as the Knicks’ head coach. And while New York fell short against the Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals, it was the first time the franchise had gotten that far in 25 years.
Carlisle believes Thibodeau will be back drawing up X’s and O’s very soon.
“I don’t think he’s going to have any problem finding his next job,” Carlisle said. “It’s just going to depend on when he’s ready to jump back in again. I have great respect for Thibs.”
NBA Finals schedule
The Pacers and Thunder play in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday at the Paycom Center. Tip is set for 8:30 p.m. The game airs on ABC.
Here’s the rest of the schedule:
- Game 2: Sunday, June 8, 8 p.m.; Pacers at Thunder, Paycom Center
- Game 3: Wednesday, June 11, 8:30 p.m., Thunder at Pacers, Gainbridge Fieldhouse
- Game 4: Friday, June 13, 8:30 p.m.; Thunder at Pacers, Gainbridge Fieldhouse
- Game 5: Monday, June 16, 8:30 p.m.; Pacers at Thunder, Paycom Center (if necessary)
- Game 6: Thursday, June 19, 8:30 p.m.; Thunder at Pacers, Gainbridge Fieldhouse (if necessary)
- Game 7: Sunday, June 22, 8 p.m.; Pacers at Thunder, Paycom Center (if necessary)