The Oklahoma City Thunder fanbase experienced a familiar and bittersweet feeling as the final buzzer sounded last Thursday night.
The Indiana Pacers clinched the victory in the first game of the NBA Finals, securing their first lead of the match thanks to a 21-foot shot by Tyrese Haliburton with only 0.3 seconds remaining on the clock. The Thunder saw a 15-point lead evaporate in the final quarter, losing at home with a score of 111-110.
This was only the second home defeat for Oklahoma City this postseason, and the development of the game was very reminiscent of their previous fall at the Paycom Center. On that occasion, the Denver Nuggets came back from a 13-point deficit in the middle of the last quarter to win the first game of the Western Conference semifinals, taking the lead with a three-pointer by Aaron Gordon with 2.8 seconds left to play.
Oklahoma City, which features the second-youngest roster in NBA Finals history, can take the collapse against the Nuggets as proof that this team can recover from an initial setback in the series. The Thunder responded by defeating the Nuggets by 43 points in the second game and winning the series in seven games.Well, it sucks,” summarized Thunder forward Jalen Williams, speaking about the bitter defeat in the start of the Finals. “But we’ve been through this before.”
Jalen Williams
How you actually lose doesn’t matter,” commented Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Thunder superstar whose 38 points were the third-most in a Finals debut. “Obviously it sucks, a last-second shot, the energy in the arena and things like that. But at the end of the day, we lost. We lost Game 1.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
The Thunder have a 4-0 record after losses this postseason, winning the following game by an average of 20.5 points. Oklahoma City only lost consecutive games twice during their 68-win regular season.
Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault urged his team to “get to zero,” which is the Thunder’s jargon for not letting the emotion of a game linger, whether winning or losing.The playoffs take you to the limit,” Daigneault said. “They put you against the wall, in the games, in the series. If you get this far, you have to endure to do it. It gives you rich experiences that you can take advantage of. The biggest experience we’ve had is understanding that every game is a new game. The most important game of the series is always the next one, regardless of the result. We would have liked to win tonight, but tonight was a starting point, not an ending point.”
Mark Daigneault
This is the fifth time this postseason that Indiana has overcome a deficit of at least 15 points to win. That’s the most by any team in a playoff run since at least 1998.
The game on Thursday also marked the continuation of one of the most spectacular individual streaks in NBA history. Haliburton made his fourth shot that tied or gave the lead in the last five seconds of a game during these playoffs. He made this shot over Cason Wallace, the Oklahoma City defender, who has earned a reputation as an elite on-ball defender.“You have to tip your hat to them,” Daigneault said. “They made plays. They’ve done it throughout the playoffs. This is part of their identity. They have a lot of confidence. They never think they’re out of it, so they play with great confidence even when they’re against the wall. They showed that tonight.”
Mark Daigneault
The Thunder failed to do it in the first game of the Finals.You don’t want to live and die with the other team’s best player making a game-winning shot with a couple of seconds left,” said Alex Caruso, the oldest player on the Oklahoma City roster and the only one who has won an NBA championship. “You want to try to control the game until the end so it doesn’t come down to that.”
Alex Caruso
Oklahoma City’s number one defense dominated the first half, limiting the Pacers to 45 points and forcing 20 turnovers. However, the Thunder converted those turnovers into only nine points, allowing Indiana to stay within striking distance.
