INDIANAPOLIS — When the Oklahoma City Thunder left the court at Gainbridge Fieldhouse Wednesday night, as an arena erupted in celebratory glee behind them, they walked into a 2-1 deficit in the NBA Finals. What was supposed to be a coronation for the team that has dominated this season, with 68 wins and its Most Valuable Player in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, may end up crowning the Indiana Pacers instead.
The Thunder now find themselves at an inflection point in this series, and in their arc. It is one that emerging perennial contenders have found themselves in before. It can be a bump on the way to glory or a sign it might be delayed.
The Golden State Warriors faced a 2-1 hole to the Memphis Grizzlies in the second round of the 2015 NBA Playoffs. The Warriors recovered to stampede to the first NBA title of the Stephen Curry era.
The LeBron James era Miami Heat blew a 2-1 series lead in the finals in 2011 — Rick Carlisle again played a part. The next year, the Thunder lost Game 3 on the road in Miami and could not recover. That team — with a young Kevin Durant, James Harden and Russell Westbrook — went out in five as James won his first championship. That Thunder team never returned to the finals. The Celtics coughed up a 2-1 series lead in the 2022 finals, only to win a title two years later.
In some ways, the Thunder have been here already. The finals have followed the same script as their second-round series against the Denver Nuggets. A tight loss, with last-minute fumbles, in Game 1. A blowout win in Game 2. Another close loss on the road in Game 3.
“We’ve been in that exact same kind of predicament,” Thunder forward Jalen Williams said. “This Game 3 was a better Game 3 than the ones we had, so we’ll take that. Run with it. But yeah, I mean, it’s very pivotal. Obviously, you don’t like being down in the series, but we have been here before, so we’ll use that experience and work to get better from it.”
The third game of the series, in particular, has been a bugaboo for the Thunder this postseason. They went down 29 to the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round before scrambling back to win. They also lost Game 3s against the Nuggets and the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The consistency is remarkable, if not confounding. The Thunder were a buzzsaw this season, with the league’s best defense and third-most efficient offense. The postseason has been far more difficult, predictable as that might be.
The Pacers have put the Thunder on the back foot, exposing some problems and pressing on others. Indiana has given Oklahoma City fits with its physicality and pace. The Pacers’ unrelenting style of play, the way they push teams to the brink for 48 minutes, has led to two late-game breakdowns by Oklahoma City.
Wednesday, the Pacers came in droves. Tyrese Haliburton returned to his top form with 22 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds as the maestro of this golden orchestra. Bennedict Mathurin came off the bench with 27 points as Indiana and forced eight free throws. TJ McConnell was a feisty sprite, and was the catalyst for key stretches in the second and fourth quarters where the Thunder unraveled. Obi Toppin gave the Pacers 28 critical minutes as an energy big. The Pacers were fiery, fast and unrelenting — the formula Oklahoma City has used to success all season.
“They were aggressive,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “They were high in the pick-and-rolls. They were, like coach said, more aggressive, more forceful. Starts with me. But we got to apply that pressure back, especially if you want to beat a team like that on the road. You got to be the more forceful team, for sure.”
The Thunder must now adjust, as they did after their series-opening loss. Their depth was nullified Wednesday as head coach Mark Daigenault rolled out, essentially, an eight-man rotation. Whether that caused or just correlated with a fourth quarter where they were outscored by 14 points is uncertain, but the Pacers demand fresh legs for the final stretches of any game they are in.
Gilgeous-Alexander played 42 minutes, more than he has in any game this postseason but that Game 3 loss in Denver. He seemed to struggle at times and was reactive at others. Still, he scored 24 points on 20 shots, but his six turnovers took a toll.
That Nuggets series looms large as a teaching point for the Thunder. It was the first crack in the armor for a juggernaut, but they recovered, even if it took a draining seven-game series to do so. It gave them a lesson of how to respond to a pivot point like the one they face now and how to approach it.
“You got to go in and play for your life in Game 4,” Alex Caruso said. “But you get a little bit of confidence from knowing you did it. But two different series, two different teams, you got to come in with a different kind of mindset on the road here versus in Denver, where they’re a little more slow and methodical, and here they’re pushing the pace and taking advantage of mistakes.”
Now comes the hardest part for the Thunder. All season long they were the ones who knocked, and pushed teams to the point of no return. In Game 4, they stand at their own pivot point. The talk about the franchise that could serve as a potential parity-breaker has dissipated, at least for the moment. Their journey has taken them to Friday night in Indianapolis, to Game 4, to a place where others before them have been before. Which way will the Thunder go?
