Immediate Game One reactions, plus thoughts for rest of series
Oh my goodness. What a shot by Haliburton. Why am I even surprised right now? The Pacers are specialists at coming back from leads that seem impossible, and Halliburton is the most clutch player in the NBA right now. These playoffs have just been crazy, and these NBA Finals are going to be even more crazy and fun to watch. Anyone who says otherwise is either insane or just doesn't like basketball. Watching that game made me remember why I started watching basketball in the first place with the constant action and the flow of the game. In this article, we are going to be breaking down the game, what went wrong for the Thunder, and thoughts for Game 2 and the rest of the series.
The Thunder were up 14 with 8:58 left in the game. That is just crazy because this team just doesn't blow leads at all. They haven't lost at home to an Eastern Conference team since, you guessed it, the Indiana Pacers last season. They went 27-1 against the Eastern Conference in the regular season, cruising past every team besides the Cleveland Cavaliers. At the start of the game, the Thunder seemed to have everything under control. It was as if they had played in a million of these games before. They were forcing turnovers, getting stops, and getting buckets. But, the Pacers never went away, even with their jitters at the start of the game. They kept poised through the stretch, and their experience in close games showed here as they somehow pulled through.
The Pacers started to truly come back with around seven minutes left. Yes, that's right. Just two minutes after Alex Caruso made the lead 14 points, the lead was already only four points. You can thank Obi Toppin and Myles Turner for that, as they both hit insanely clutch threes down the stretch for the Pacers. Speaking of Toppin, he had such a good game today, and was a huge reason that they won the game. Sure, everyone is going to look at Tyrese Haliburton's huge game winning jump shot, but not a lot of people will realize that Obi Toppin had 17 points with five threes, and the highest +/- on the team with a +13.
After the first couple of minutes, it looked like he might only play 5 minutes this game because of how bad he was playing. Toppin had three quick turnovers, which included a dropped pass and twice where he dribbled baseline and then threw the ball into the backcourt. But after he shook the nerves off, he was a key factor for the Pacers and showed why he deserves to play. Also, the Pacers decision to help way too much when guys like SGA or Jalen Williams would drive seemed to cost them tonight, as they gave up tons of open threes to guys like Luguentz Dort and Alex Caruso. When they went on that run at the end of the game, they started to help as much and decided to trust their guys to guard and it paid off in the end.
As for the Thunder, there was really no main reason why they lost this game, other than they just couldn't make shots down the stretch. When the Pacers came back in those last final minutes, it seemed as if the only way they could score was from the foul line. Even the last shot of the game, with your MVP having the ball with ten seconds left and getting a good look, it just has to go in. Those are the shots that the MVP has to make. I'm not trying to discredit Shai either, because he was fabulous tonight. Some of those drives and shots that he made were just incredible. He played extremely aggressively tonight, perhaps to try and show the Pacers that they were going to have a world of trouble trying to guard him. In his first finals game ever, he nearly dropped forty points and shot the ball 30 times.
Other than Shai, there weren't a lot of bright spots for the Thunder though. Alex Caruso played really well too, with very good on ball defense and eleven huge points for them, including an and-one on Obi Toppin in the crunch time that could've put the game away. But, there were also some duds for the Thunder. Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams were two players that I thought played terribly tonight. Chet only had six points and six rebounds, and went 2/9 from the field. It seemed as if he would blow by the defender, but then get forced into a tough shot or kick it out. Also, Jalen Williams may have looked like he had a good game for those checking the box score and seeing that he had 17 points, four rebounds and six assists. But, he started off really slow as his mid-range shots never really started to fall this game, and even though he started to get it going in the third and fourth quarter, he still made some really dumb decisions.
For Game 2, the Thunder need to come out and send a message if they want this series and the momentum back in their favor. No need to let the Pacers hang around for the entire game, especially now that you have a first-hand account on what they can do once the fourth quarter hits. They NEED to finish off all these turnovers that they are creating. They can't force 25 turnovers and only score 11 points off those turnovers. These other players also need to come in and make an impact just like the Pacers have. The thing that everyone has been talking about for the Pacers besides the clutch moments is how good their bench has been this postseason, and you can't really see that for the Thunder. Players like Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe need to combine for 15 points, not eight. These little differences and things that they usually do so well are reasons why they didn't pull ahead tonight and win this game.
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