2025 NBA Finals Preview: What you need to know about Thunder vs. Pacers

NEW YORK — Someone is set to make history in the 2025 NBA Finals.

If the Indiana Pacers win the championship, it would mark the first in the 58-year history of the franchise.

If the Oklahoma City Thunder win it, it would be their first since moving to OKC 17 years ago. The organization won one title — in 1979 — as the Seattle Supersonics.

Both teams have been waiting for this moment, with the Pacers back in the Finals for the first time since 2000 and the Thunder back for the first time since 2012.

After a 68-win regular season, the top-seeded Thunder enter as -750 favorites, according to ESPN Bet. However, the fourth-seeded Pacers have thrived as underdogs this postseason, upsetting higher seeds in the Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks along the way.

Here are five storylines going into the NBA Finals, which begin Thursday night in Oklahoma City:

Something's gotta give

The Thunder-Pacers matchup features the NBA’s equivalent of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object.

Oklahoma City boasts a historically dominant defense that leads all teams this postseason in defensive rating (104.7), steals per game (10.8), opponent field-goal percentage (42.6%) and turnovers forced per game (18.0).

Incredibly, Mark Daigneault’s Thunder are performing better in all of those categories in the playoffs than they did in the regular season, when they still led the NBA in each.

Rick Carlisle’s Pacers, meanwhile, rank second in the playoffs by scoring 117.4 points per game. Their 49.7% field-goal percentage is the best among playoff teams, as is their 40.1% clip on 3-pointers.

An X-factor in this series figures to be how often the Thunder are able to turn the Pacers over.

The Thunder are averaging 23.8 points off turnovers per game this postseason — accounting for 20% of their scoring — while the Pacers are conceding an NBA-low 12.5 points off turnovers.

Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton is among the NBA’s best at taking care of the ball. He committed only 1.6 turnovers per game in the regular season — 71 players averaged more — and is averaging 1.9 turnovers per game in the playoffs.

New era

There are plenty of similarities between the Thunder and Pacers, too.

Both teams were built around young cores through savvy trades and the draft.

Both feature two of the fastest-paced offenses in the NBA.

Both revolve around their All-Star point guards — Haliburton for Indiana, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for Oklahoma City.

And both deploy deep rotations, using as many as 11 men to wear down opponents and keep their own players fresh.

“I think it’s a new blueprint for the league, man,” Pacers center Myles Turner said after Indiana’s conference-finals-clinching Game 6 win over the Knicks.

“I think the years of the superteams and stacking, it’s not as effective as it once was. Since I’ve been in the league, this NBA is very trendy. It just shifts. But the new trend now is just kind of what we’re doing. OKC does the same thing. Young guys, get out and run, defend, and use the power of friendship.”

Star watch

Few teams found much success defending Gilgeous-Alexander, the NBA MVP who led the league with a very efficient 32.7 points per game.

But SGA was particularly dominant in two regular-season games against the Pacers, averaging 39.0 points on 55.6% shooting, 7.0 rebounds and 8.0 assists per game. He totaled 23 free-throw attempts in those games, and the Thunder won both.

Gilgeous-Alexander is among the NBA’s best isolation players, scoring 7.7 points per game on isolation plays in the regular season to rank second in the league.

That presents a challenge for the Pacers, who are allowing 1.25 points per possession in isolation this postseason — the worst among any team.

Andrew Nembhard had six steals in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals and hounded Jalen Brunson, who shot 8 of 18 and committed five turnovers. At 6-4, Nembhard boasts a size advantage on the 6-2 Brunson, but not on the 6-6 Gilgeous-Alexander.

Haliburton, meanwhile, struggled against OKC in the regular season, averaging only 11.0 points — including a four-point dud in December — on 44.4% shooting with 3.0 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game.

Oklahoma City has numerous plus defenders, from Jalen Williams to Lu Dort to Alex Caruso, to throw at Haliburton.

By George

Both the Pacers and Thunder benefited mightily from trading away Paul George.

When Indiana traded George to the Thunder in 2017, they got back Domantas Sabonis and Victor Oladipo.

The Pacers then sent Sabonis to the Sacramento Kings for Haliburton in 2022; while their 2021 trade of Oladipo to the Houston Rockets ultimately resulted in the draft picks that turned into Nembhard and Ben Sheppard.

The Thunder, meanwhile, traded George to the Los Angeles Clippers in 2019 for a haul that included Gilgeous-Alexander, as well as a first-round pick that turned into Williams.

Championship pedigree

While the bulk of both rosters will be playing in the Finals for the first time, both teams employ at least one notable NBA champion.

For the Thunder, that’s Caruso, who emerged as a valuable role player — and started the clinching Game 6 — for the LeBron James-led Los Angeles Lakers in their 2020 NBA Finals win over the Miami Heat.

Known for his tenacious defense, Caruso averaged 24.8 minutes per game in those Finals, though his experience was a unique one, considering that postseason took place in the COVID bubble without fans in attendance.

Still, the Thunder can lean on the experience of Caruso, who is the only player on the roster to even appear in a Finals.

“You don’t have to do anything special. You just have to be who we are,” Caruso said. “That’s worked for us throughout this whole year. So, I’m just continuing to emphasize with the guys, just do what we’ve done all year. Compete at a high level, play together, play as a team. When we do that, we’re pretty good.”

The Pacers, meanwhile, have Pascal Siakam, who was a starter and the second scoring option on the Toronto Raptors team that won the 2019 Finals. Siakam averaged 19.8 points and 7.5 rebounds in 40.2 minutes per game in that series against the Golden State Warriors.

Indiana also has a championship-winning head coach in Carlisle, who won the Finals with the Dallas Mavericks in 2011.

With a series victory, Carlisle would become the 15th head coach to win multiple championships — and the fourth to win a title with multiple teams.

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