Everything you need to know about the 2025 NBA Finals between Thunder, Pacers

New York Times

04-06-2025

Just catching up ahead of the start of the NBA Finals this week? We've got you covered.
With two small-market teams set to face off for the Larry O'Brien Trophy, there remains a good bit of the NBA-viewing public who perhaps didn't see much of the Oklahoma City Thunder or Indiana Pacers on national TV this season. So, allow us to bring you up to speed on what you might have missed.
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Here's everything you need to know about the Thunder and Pacers, courtesy of The Athletic NBA staff's coverage.
+ Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is not just an elite scorer; he's so, so smooth with it. Watching him get buckets is almost therapeutic. Right before our eyes, SGA has blossomed into a historic scoring machine His handle is silkier than one of his half-buttoned shirts. He doesn't wow you with dribble moves, but he handles the rock so fluidly. His moves and counters. The improvisational way he manipulates leverage and shifts into spaces. And it's all punctuated with a midrange jumper that ol' heads would call butter. He's the new Kevin Durant in that sense. You know how KD makes putting the ball in the basket feel like breathing? How it feels so automatic as to be inevitable? SGA is of that ilk. Smooth for no reason. He scores like cats walk. Like Les Twins dance. Like Penelope Cruz says, 'Nespresso.' (Read more from Marcus Thompson II)
+ NBA titles aren't won without star talent populating the top of the roster. The Thunder have it. But 68-win teams aren't built without layers of depth and a firm identity. The Thunder also have it. They are a ferocious, turnover-hungry bunch engulfing the league on the defensive end. That starts at the point of attack, where Oklahoma City has developed, drafted and traded for the three-headed monster of Lu Dort, Cason Wallace and Alex Caruso — three of the league's best on-ball bulldogs who go about their business differently but torment opponents together over 48 relentless minutes. 'It's endless,' Caruso said. 'An endless wave.' (Read more from Anthony Slater)
+ A unique approach has taken SGA to the pinnacle of basketball. Most high school recruit rankings plopped him somewhere in the 30s before he headed to Kentucky in 2017. He wasn't drafted until the end of the lottery the next year. The LA Clippers dealt him to the Thunder as part of the Paul George trade after only one pro season, when he showed promise, but no one predicted he would become one of the NBA's preeminent franchise centerpieces. His in-season workouts are more routine than those summertime sessions, going through usual warm-ups with Oklahoma City's coaches before games, practices or in open gyms. But the offseason is when Gilgeous-Alexander's process stands out because no one of his level does it like him: with the same group of loyal friends who never sniffed the NBA and with a slew of live defenders at all times hustling until their hearts feel like they'll give out just to gang up on a slithery scorer. (Read more from Fred Katz)
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+ Nikola Jokić, a second-round pick (No. 41) in the 2014 NBA Draft, probably has the most unforeseen rise to league MVP. But Gilgeous-Alexander, who edged out Jokić to prevent the center from winning his fourth MVP, has an atypical path compared to giants like Durant, Russell Westbrook or James Harden, all drafted top four by Thunder general manager Sam Presti. Nobody was labeling Gilgeous-Alexander a future star when the Thunder acquired him. Including himself. (Read more from Anthony Slater)
+ In his nearly two-decade run since — Sam Presti is the NBA's third-longest tenured lead basketball decision-maker behind only Gregg Popovich and Pat Riley — some of his shrewdest transactions have been of a certain variety. He generates financial flexibility, absorbs a contract (often a respected veteran) and generates an asset along with it. The first of those maneuvers came at the expense of Steve Kerr, and when tracing the ramifications of it, might be the greatest example of how the smaller moves can help generate a domino effect that produces the birth and rebirth of a contending franchise. (Read more from Anthony Slater)
+ Coming up short with Team Canada in last summer's Olympics played a part in fueling SGA for this special Thunder run. 'I think losing that game (to France) really showed me like, 'Now I have to wait another four years for this.' (And) that showed me like, you don't ever want to take things for granted, because nothing in life is promised,' he told Sam Amick in April. 'Like (Thunder) coach (Mark Daigneault) said a couple weeks ago, this group that we have today could be the best group of players I ever play with. You think, 'Oh, we're all 25 or under, so we have a whole runway in front of us.' But you never know what happens.' (Read more from Sam Amick)
+ SGA was joined at the All-Star Game this season by third-year teammate Jalen Williams. As much as Presti, coach Mark Daigneault and the Thunder's front office warmed to Williams and used a third lottery pick of the 2022 draft on him, it's hard to believe any could've predicted an ascension to these heights this rapidly, Anthony Slater wrote in January ahead of Williams' All-Star selection. (Read more from Anthony Slater)
+ The Thunder bet big last summer, using a chunk of salary-cap space to sign a second center, Isaiah Hartenstein, in what they felt could be a successful twin-tower approach when combined with third star Chet Holmgren. The Thunder entered the playoffs confident their double-big approach could work against any type of lineup, 'or any team,' Daigneault said. But for it to turn into one of the swing factors in the Western Conference, lifting the Thunder franchise to its first finals since 2012, there was an internal feeling that it must turn from great to elite on the defensive end. (Read more from Anthony Slater)
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+ At 40, Daigneault is already considered one of the NBA's best head coaches. Here's why he likes to tell people that if you replayed his life 100 times, this outcome only happens once. (Read more from Anthony Slater)
+ SGA's trainer reflected on what can be learned from the league MVP: 'From day one, he already had a routine. He was already working. Everyone else was trying to dunk or do crazy moves. He had a paper that he wrote drills on and over in the corner of the gym, just working on his routine.' (Read more)
+ Which front office is the best in sports? In 2024, the answer to that question was the Oklahoma City Thunder, at least according to their front-office peers. Here's why. (Read more)
+ Is SGA a 'free-throw merchant?' No, says Eric Nehm. Watch the video below.
+ Tyrese Haliburton might be on top of the world now, but he remembers the day he couldn't look in the mirror. Those around him didn't know how much pain he was holding in. 'I was really trying to run away from what was going on and I think that point was for me to be like, 'Yo, I don't feel like myself. I don't feel all right. This s—, it's bad.' ' Haliburton said. 'I (was) struggling to look at myself in the mirror. I'm struggling to show up to work and get to the gym. I'm trying to avoid coming to work.' Here's how the Pacers star rediscovered his joy. (Read more from Jared Weiss)
+ As an exasperated league continues its never-ending quest to stamp out tanking, here come the Indiana Pacers rising from the debris of mediocrity, right on cue. (Read more from Jason Lloyd)
+ To anyone who has watched the Pacers play lately, their Finals berth is no surprise. They play a relentless, fast-paced, full-court style where they pressure the ball in the backcourt and, on offense, throw it ahead as soon as possible. They have two stars in Haliburton and Pascal Siakam, a competent and reliable bench and role players who seem to have been carved out of a marble slab by Michelangelo to fit perfectly around Haliburton and Siakam. But to the more casual follower — yes, the Pacers are a surprise. (Read more from Joe Vardon)
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+ This is the moment for which Pascal Siakam was brought to Indianapolis. With the trade, Siakam, twice an All-Star in Toronto and again this season with the Pacers, brought leadership and championship experience to a young, gutsy team. Siakam was meant to be a perfect complement to Haliburton. And he delivered. 'Well, if you have the right player to build around, it can happen much faster than you think,' head coach Rick Carlisle said. 'Getting Tyrese made it very clear what our identity as a team needed to be. We needed to be a fast-paced team with shooting, and we had some good shooting at the time. The Siakam trade took things to another level.' (Read more from Eric Koreen)
+ Haliburton's college coach Steve Prohm reflected on what makes the All-Star a special leader: 'Tyrese's personality, his smile, his demeanor allowed him to connect with anybody from any walk of life. Because of his presence, because of his personality, he empowered other guys to be better.' (Read more)
+ In his second head coaching stint here with the Pacers, with All-Star and Olympian Tyrese Haliburton the focal point, Rick Carlisle is seeking a second NBA title to go with the one he got in Dallas in 2011. 'If your desire in life is to lead and to teach, NBA head coaching is the ultimate crucible,' Carlisle said. (Read more from David Aldridge)
+ When Pacers wing Aaron Nesmith became the first player ever to make six 3-pointers in the fourth quarter of an NBA playoff game, doing so all in the final 4:46 of Game 1 against the Knicks without a single miss, his high school coach saw something he recognized. Something they'd rehearsed. 'His brain was supposed to shut it down and say, 'Oh, let's get ready for the next one,'' John 'JP' Pearson said. 'He doesn't. He is a different breed.' (Read more from Jay King and Shakeia Taylor)
+ It's understandable that one would nap on the Pacers, especially after a snoozer of a trade deadline. They were swept by the eventual champion Boston Celtics in last year's Eastern Conference finals; like Boston, the Pacers chose continuity in the 2024 offseason. Here's why no one should feel like they snuck up on any team during this year's playoffs. (Read more from Law Murray)
+ Haliburton heard the haters — and learned to channel those feelings. It started with cutting out the distractions and sources of anxiety. He deleted X from his phone in an attempt to go cold turkey on immersive doomscrolling. He started going back to church, recognizing he was getting caught up within himself and wanting to look at the positives in life. '(Fans) can't wait for a team to be doing bad so people can dunk on you on Twitter, you know what I mean? The s— is so stupid,' Haliburton said. 'It's just part of it. People want to see us not do well so they can talk s—.' Now that Haliburton is in a better place. Maybe he can crack his phone open, see a bunch of trash emojis and crack a smile. They can talk all they want, but he's ready to clap back on his terms, one drive at a time. (Read more from Jared Weiss and Sam Amick)
+ Haliburton is no longer the overlooked Wisconsin native with the funny-looking jumper. He's the face of the Pacers, with hopes of doing what Reggie Miller once did: Leading Indiana to the NBA Finals. It's a heavy burden, but Haliburton is deeply motivated by those who question his legitimacy — especially those he respects. 'Why haven't you won yet?' he remembers Jeff Van Gundy asking him during the FIBA World Cup last year. It's a question that enraged and fueled him. (Read more from James Boyd)
• Game 1: June 5, 8:30 p.m., at Oklahoma City
• Game 2: June 8, 8 p.m., at Oklahoma City
• Game 3: June 11, 8:30 p.m., at Indiana
• Game 4: June 13, 8:30 p.m., at Indiana
• Game 5*: June 16, 8:30 p.m., at Oklahoma City
• Game 6*: June 19, 8:30 p.m., at Indiana
• Game 7*: June 22, 8 p.m., at Oklahoma City
* if necessary
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