OKC on Game 1 cave in: ‘We’ve been right here earlier than’

OKLAHOMA CITY — For higher or worse, the Oklahoma City Thunder had an eerily acquainted feeling when the overall buzzer sounded Thursday night time.

The Indiana Pacers had captured Game 1 of the NBA Finals, taking their first lead of the night time on Tyrese Haliburton‘s 21-foot pull-up jumper with 0.3 seconds final. The Thunder blew a 15-point lead within the fourth quarter in their 111-110 house loss.

It was once handiest Oklahoma City’s moment house lack of this postseason, and it opened up in very identical style to the Thunder’s earlier defeat on the Paycom Center. In that example, the Denver Nuggets rallied from a 13-point deficit halfway in the course of the fourth quarter to win the Western Conference semifinals sequence opener, taking the lead on Aaron Gordon’s 3-pointer with 2.8 seconds final.

“Well, it sucks,” Thunder ahead Jalen Williams mentioned, summarizing the edge of letting the Finals opener slip away. “But we have been here before.”

Oklahoma City, which has the second-youngest Finals roster in NBA historical past, can level to its cave in towards the Nuggets as evidence that this workforce can leap again from an excruciating series-opening setback. The Thunder replied via beating the Nuggets via 43 issues in Game 2 and received the sequence in seven video games.

“How you lose doesn’t really matter,” mentioned Thunder famous person Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, whose 38 issues had been the 3rd maximum in a Finals debut, in line with ESPN Research. “Obviously it sucks — last-second shot, the energy in the arena and stuff like that. But we lost at the end of the day. We lost Game 1.

“We’ve misplaced Game 1 earlier than. On the opposite aspect of that, we got here out a greater workforce. That’s our function.”

The Thunder are 4-0 after losses during this playoff run, winning the next game by an average of 20.5 points. Oklahoma City lost consecutive games only twice during its 68-win regular season.

Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault challenged his team to “get ourselves to 0,” which is Thunder jargon for not allowing the emotion of a game to linger, win or lose.

“The playoffs take you to the prohibit,” Daigneault said. “They put your again towards the wall — in video games, in sequence. If you are making it this a ways, it’s a must to bear to do this. It will give you wealthy studies that you’ll draw on. The greatest revel in we have now had is figuring out that each sport’s a brand new sport. The maximum necessary sport within the sequence is at all times the following one, without reference to the result. We would’ve favored to win this night, however this night was once a place to begin, now not an finish level.”

The Thunder knew all about the Pacers’ comeback prowess before falling victim to it in Game 1.

This is the fifth time this postseason that Indiana rallied from a deficit of at least 15 points to win. That’s the most by any team in a playoff run since at least 1998, according to ESPN Research.

“You tip your hat to them,” Daigneault said. “They made performs. They’ve achieved all of it playoffs. This is a part of their identification. They have a large number of trust. They by no means suppose they are out of it, so that they play with nice self assurance even if their again’s towards the wall. They proved that this night.”

Thursday’s game also marked a continuation of one of the most spectacular individual clutch runs in NBA history. Haliburton sank his fourth tying or go-ahead bucket in the final five seconds of a game during these playoffs. He hit this shot over Oklahoma City guard Cason Wallace, who has earned a reputation as an elite on-ball defender.

“You do not wish to are living and die with the most efficient participant at the different workforce taking a sport winner with a pair seconds left,” mentioned Alex Caruso, the oldest participant at the Oklahoma City roster and the one person who has received an NBA championship. “You need to check out to keep watch over the sport coming down so it does not fall into that.”

The Thunder failed to do that in the Finals opener.

Oklahoma City’s top-ranked defense dominated the first half, holding the Pacers to 45 points while forcing 20 turnovers. However, the Thunder converted those turnovers into only nine points, allowing Indiana to remain within striking distance.

Indiana found an offensive comfort zone after halftime. The Pacers protected the ball much better, committing only five turnovers in the second half, when they scored 66 points while shooting 51.1%, including 10-of-20 from 3-point range.

But the Thunder still had ample opportunity to close out the game. Oklahoma City missed its final three shots after the Pacers made it a one-possession game. That included a couple of errant shots by Gilgeous-Alexander — a missed layup in traffic with 1:07 remaining and a midrange fadeaway that didn’t fall one possession before Haliburton’s game winner.

“The sequence is not first to at least one. It’s first to 4,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We have 4 extra video games to get. They have 3. That’s simply the place we’re. We were given to remember the fact that, and we were given to get to 4 earlier than they get to a few if we wish to win the NBA championship.

“It’s that simple. It’s not rocket science. We lost Game 1. We have to be better.”