INDIANAPOLIS — Be who you are, Mark Daigneault likes to tell his players. Lean into the identity that won 68 regular-season games and spurred a run to the NBA Finals.
It’s easier said than done, though behind exhales and faces resting in palms, it might not even be so easily said anymore.
The Thunder faces a 2-1 deficit through three games, with a Game 4 Friday in Indianapolis to determine whether it can even the series. And each time Oklahoma City’s grip has slipped, it’s because it’s been anything but itself.
“We were a little out of character in a lot of ways yesterday,” Daigneault said of his team’s Game 3 defeat. “I think that happens in a playoff series. Four games, five games, six games, seven games is a long time. You’re going to get a range of games and experiences in that.”
Two of the Thunder’s lowest assisting games of the season (by far the two lowest assisting games of these playoffs) have come in the Finals, with 13 assists in a Game 1 stunner and just 16 in Wednesday’s 116-107 loss.
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OKC was hardly the poster child for 3-point volume or efficiency this season, but it wasn’t behind on the league’s trends either. And yet, its 3-point attempt rate in these Finals would’ve ranked 30th in the regular season.
And the turnovers. Those precious turnovers are slowly becoming a bitter old friend. When the Thunder has managed to force them, like its maniacal first half in Game 1, it hasn’t capitalized. Since then, the Pacers are scoring more off turnovers, and even forced as many as 19 Thunder giveaways Wednesday.
Steals on inbound passes are so rare that there likely isn’t any easily available data to track them, which means something in a league that analyzes everything from arm hair to body language to DARKO. Two hands might suffice to track those plays, and yet McConnell snatched three in one game.
A slap in the face has never left the Thunder more red.
It will deny that its intentions ever lied in forcing turnovers, preferring to lean into disruption, but the Thunder built its season on them. That it appeared to even unravel the ball control freaks that the Pacers are in Game 1 was why so many viewers remained steadfast in their belief in the Thunder defense.
Now the most firm part of OKC’s identity is becoming unrecognizable.
“Just not having any let-up defensively,” All-Star Jalen Williams said of possible Game 4 adjustments. “That’s our identity. We’ve kind of (strayed) away from it a little bit. I think when you’re scoring at a good rate, sometimes it can drop off a little bit. That’s something that we’ve looked at.
“I don’t want to say ‘competing’ because that sounds like you’re out there not trying. Defensively locking in on a lot of the little things, not (letting) them get comfortable and make those bigger runs late in the game.”
Desperation is easier felt than acted on. The Thunder knows its season, its glorious title run, is in jeopardy. It knows what a 3-1 deficit means in the Finals, and the microscopic list of teams that have returned from it (spoiler alert, it’s just one).
This dominant group feels its body parts being pinned down. The reasons that the Thunder entered these Finals as a sure favorite have dissipated. The solution is the easiest thing to say yet.
“I think just the competitive greatness for this team has to be at an all-time high,” veteran Alex Caruso said.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had a conviction in his voice Thursday. Not that he’s ever unsure — rocking shorts with pants legs that flop like two hoodies — but his words came from a place of understanding. Like the Thunder’s place against the wall has set into his bones. Like there’s an acknowledgment that these Pacers are not the Denver team that forced seven games, a series that unfolded in eerily similar fashion.
“There’s a maximum four games left in the season,” SGA said. “It’s what you worked the whole season for. It’s what you worked all summer for.”
Eighty-two games, a summer, a postseason spent hurdling humps and putting the notions of youth on their back. Remember the team that won 68 games, most of them by way of bludgeoning?
Oklahoma City’s hopes lie in whether it remembers that team, too.
“At the end of the day,” Gilgeous-Alexander said, “we have to be who we are and who we’ve been all season. I think we got back to that in that series. If we want to give ourselves a chance in this series, it has to be the same thing.”
Joel Lorenzi covers the Thunder and NBA for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joel? He can be reached at jlorenzi@oklahoman.com or on X/Twitter at @joelxlorenzi. Sign up for the Thunder Sports Minute newsletter to access more NBA coverage. Support Joel’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
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