{"id":77542,"date":"2025-06-05T01:34:05","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T01:34:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/77542\/"},"modified":"2025-06-05T01:34:05","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T01:34:05","slug":"nba-finals-2025-thunder-are-quite-aware-of-chance-at-immortality-but-are-more-focused-on-game-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/77542\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Finals 2025: Thunder are quite aware of chance at immortality, but are more focused on Game 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

OKLAHOMA CITY \u2014 The NBA Finals feel like new blood, and new blood usually means an unpredictable series, but the Oklahoma City Thunder are overwhelming favorites<\/a> over the Indiana Pacers.<\/p>\n

Pick a metric.<\/p>\n

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Whether it\u2019s the 68 regular-season wins that put them in hallowed territory or the all-time net rating, the Thunder are four wins from putting together one of the more complete and dominant seasons in NBA history<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[NBA Finals preview: Pacers-Thunder key matchups, schedule, X-factors and prediction]<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that the Indiana Pacers are some slouches. These two are the best teams in the NBA since Jan. 1 \u2014 but there appears to be such a gap between them, it must be acknowledged.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re historically great on both sides of the ball,\u201d Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton said. \u201cThey have the MVP. I mean, there’s so many different things that you could go up and down the list of why they are so great and what they do, and why they’re such a great team.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Last year\u2019s Boston Celtics broke the math, and it was easy to see. They took the most 3s and knew you couldn\u2019t keep up. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown were seasoned and hardened through the fire of playoff failure, supplemented by so many veterans that the romp through last season and the postseason almost felt ordained.<\/p>\n

\"Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams speaks to the media Wednesday ahead of Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Indiana Pacers in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo\/Nate Billings)<\/p>\n

(ASSOCIATED PRESS)<\/p>\n

These Thunder don\u2019t overwhelm you in that way, but the power is unrelenting. The Thunder defense is as close to dominant as any team the league has produced in this millennium, and as Haliburton mentioned, the Thunder employ the NBA\u2019s Most Valuable Player in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.<\/p>\n

Having been off for nearly a week, time could\u2019ve allowed the Thunder to reflect on how great they\u2019ve been to this point.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHonestly, not really. I\u2019ve been so focused on Game 1,\u201d Gilgeous-Alexander said. \u201cBeing the best version of myself for this group and trying to make sure we\u2019re clicking on all cylinders on the biggest stage for our careers, that\u2019s been the front of my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander mentioned he tries to take his mind off basketball during his idle time, so he\u2019s not inundated with thoughts and information and attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s all I\u2019m really worried about, when I do worry about basketball,\u201d he said. \u201cI haven\u2019t taken the time to look back, see all the things we\u2019ve done. But I will when it\u2019s all over, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haliburton\u2019s words aren\u2019t mere platitudes, it just feels like he acknowledges how the series is viewed from 30,000 feet.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe know the odds are stacked against us, but you know, it is what it is,\u201d Haliburton said. \u201cWe want to be here. We want to play against the best, and this is the best. So we’re looking forward to challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pacers knocked off the favored New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference finals, and before that, the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers. This isn\u2019t new, the public viewing the Pacers as the lesser team for the third straight round.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we focus on ourselves,\u201d Pacers forward Pascal Siakam said. \u201cI think I don’t think we expect anyone to pick us up. And that’s been like that the whole playoffs. It’s been like that the whole season. So I think for us, nothing really changes. It\u2019s always been us against anyone, so it doesn\u2019t change.\u201d<\/p>\n

But these Thunder are different. They have basically the same odds to win it all as the 1986 Boston Celtics and 2004 Los Angeles Lakers as betting favorites, two totally different squads. The Celtics were arguably the best of the Larry Bird-led teams, as he won the last of three straight MVP\u2019s, and they waxed the Houston Rockets in six games.<\/p>\n

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The 2004 Lakers were a drama-filled mess, and yet most believed they would run over the Detroit Pistons. Instead, it was a five-game win by Detroit \u2014 and the Lakers were lucky to win one.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City doesn\u2019t fit either bill, but the dominance is closer to the Celtics \u2014 it\u2019s just those Celtics had been champions twice over by that point. These Thunder are still searching for their first title since moving to Oklahoma City in 2008-09.<\/p>\n

Thunder forward Jalen Williams can\u2019t recall exactly when, but he believes it was midseason when he realized the type of run this team was on. Again, they were the top seed in the West last season, tied with the Denver Nuggets for 57 wins, but this year has been an all-around thrashing of the competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot having bigs, Hart and Chet were out the majority of [this] season,\u201d Williams said, remarking of a stretch when starting center Isaiah Hartenstein had missed time early in the season and a few games around January, along with Chet Holmgren missing significant time with a hip injury from November to early February. Yet, they were 40-9.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think for us to be as successful as we were during that. I think was a big moment for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut at the same time, it’s a very, like, weird position you get put in because you want to … you want to look back at the regular season, but you really don’t get any regular-season awards. I think just the playoffs come up so fast, you can’t really look back at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams has elevated to being an All-NBA third-teamer as well as a second-team defender. His growth has raised the ceiling to something immeasurable in a short period of time. Even he can\u2019t fully chart his own growth \u2014 well, he can in a way, attributing so much of this to a growth spurt in college that took him from being a guard to a wing.<\/p>\n

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Going from 6-foot-1 to 6-6 means one has the best of both worlds. He can defend his position or switch onto guards without much trouble \u2014 and he\u2019s always been used to defending bigger players, so the added height was a bonus.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I was short for a long time,\u201d Williams said. \u201cObviously, the taller you are, you can guard more positions. I think I was in a really good position where, as a rookie, I was able to do like, trial and error and do a bunch of stuff like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo when I get to these moments now, I’ve had more years under my belt. So I learned how to guard bigger guys, learn how to guard smaller guards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haliburton isn\u2019t exactly small, but he\u2019ll see Williams and his bag of tricks at some point this series.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re gonna win a championship, I don\u2019t wanna win any other way,\u201d Haliburton said. \u201cI don\u2019t wanna go around or go over. I wanna through the best team. They\u2019re well-coached. There\u2019s no shortcuts with this team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OKLAHOMA CITY \u2014 The NBA Finals feel like new blood, and new blood usually means an unpredictable series,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,75,366,193,187,188,194,126,949,364,78,77,150,6,4815,11,191,475,179,279,2084,209,278],"class_list":{"0":"post-77542","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-boston-celtics","10":"tag-chet-holmgren","11":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","12":"tag-denver-nuggets","13":"tag-detroit-pistons","14":"tag-houston-rockets","15":"tag-indiana-pacers","16":"tag-isaiah-hartenstein","17":"tag-jalen-williams","18":"tag-jaylen-brown","19":"tag-jayson-tatum","20":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","21":"tag-nba","22":"tag-nba-history","23":"tag-nba-playoffs","24":"tag-new-york-knicks","25":"tag-oklahoma-city","26":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","27":"tag-pascal-siakam","28":"tag-season","29":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","30":"tag-tyrese-haliburton"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}