nice spoiler

OKC deserve the title.

Indiana massive overachievers this season. But to be fair, Haliburton has been on fire since he got voted Most Overrated.

Honestly could see OKC sweep or get it done in 5.

Yeah OKC sweep wouldn't be surprising. I think the Pacers will get one though. They can get hot from 3 and like to take them from the corners which is the OKC weak point. They play a similar pressing d and will make OKC a bit more uncomfortable than they've been at that end

Siakam is going to have a much tougher time against the OKC D than he did against New York though. Expect them to swarm him any time he puts the ball on the floor like they did with Randle. Will force someone else to step up to help Hali and I'm not sure anyone else can consistently as a creator.

OKC 4-2 is my guess

Indy have been very clutch this playoffs. Hoping they stay that way. If they steal one of the first 2 in OKC, that could set the stage for a 6 or even 7 game series

Haliburton with ice in his veins buries the game winner and the Pacers go up 1-0

Pacers again. Hali in the clutch AGAIN!

Somehow despite 24 turnovers they just hung around and made their open looks and come back...again!

OKC shot poorly and particularly their 2nd and 3rd stars in JDUB and Chet who went a combined 8-28. SGA was huge but missed some he would normally make too.

I still think OKC will make the right adjustments and are the clear favourites for the series, but this has certainly ensured its not a beat down that many of us were predicting.

Loved seeing Siakam play such a big role for the Pacers too. 19 and 10 and some crucial baskets on broken plays.

Bring on game 2!

Thunder led that game for 47:59.7 minutes
Pacers led for 0:00.3 minutes

Insane

Thunder take game 2 with relative ease, tie the series 1-1

Stoked to be wrong on this series.

Pacers go up 2-1 and for the first time look like they're legit in it to win it.

Its not even as if they shot the lights out (9-27 on 3s). They played great D, forced a lot of turnovers and kinda played at their own game.

Great to see. Game 4 will now be massive.

Whoever wins game 4 will likely win the series

Huge.

Trying to think of a more unlikely champion ever, without a true superstar leading the way, although Halliburton has had truly remarkable shots to keep them going.
And could have a huge knock on effect if OKC loses, do they go after Giannis even though it sounds like he's currently content in Milwaukee? And it is reported Kd to the Spurs is a done deal, so that reunion seems unlikely.

Durant to the Spurs was aggregated over the last few days from the Simmons podcast segment "I wouldn't be surprised if...."

That somehow turned into Spurs deal is done.

I’m careful about the world of misleading aggregation these days

I dont think we need to start looking at what OKC does next yet.

I know it seems weird but to me I think they're still the favourite.

I think LV is right though, whoever gets game 4 probably goes onto win the series.

Rumours are crazy this time of year. I dont think Giannis is going anywhere. I think KD could go *anywhere*

Would be great to see the Pacers get it, but I'm also thinking OKC pull through from here. That their win so far was comfortable reminded me of the Nuggets series where it went the distance, but Denver's wins felt like more of an effort while OKC had both the blow-outs.

I think the advantage Indiana has is a bit more veteran presence and the experience of Siakam in finals. I think Pacers 4-2 because of this and OKC maybe still having to fall over at a final hurdle in order to get over it next time.

Either way it's great to see two teams who have endured and built from smaller markets. Both play attractive styles. Both play good defence without making it a bore. Two very similar teams.

Pacers fall apart late in game 4 and OKC come through to tie it 2-2

Kinda felt like the Pacers finally felt the pressure. They had it there with a chance to go up 3-1 but SGA showed his true class. Think that might be the series, but again, we've all counted out the Pacers before

Game 5 went a lot like game 2 and a lot more like we expected from this series. OKC leads 3-2 and have won two games comfortably, and are 1-2 in the 3 games that were super close.

Pacers do an incredible job of making up for a lot of mistakes. I dont know how they got it back to 2 in the 4th, but then it all went to crap once Siakam was subbed and they lost contact.

I would like the Pacers to force game 7 as we so rarely get those in the finals, but the Thunder are clearly the better team here. SGA has been great all series, Williams has been a great number 2 for the last few games after stuttering a little early. And they just have enough other role players step up game to game. This one was Wallace and Wiggins. Other times its been Caruso and Dort.

Haliburton definitely seems hampered but he's also just been really passive. Siakam is a good number 2, but in trying to be the lead guy with Hali taking a step back, he's forcing too much and causing too many loose turnovers.

Once again I'm stoked to be wrong. Pacers are damn good. They cleaned up their turnovers in this one and were able to capitalise. No easy baskets for OKC and good looks at the rim regularly for themselves. Even though they didnt shoot great themselves, they hit the offensive glass when they needed to and forced the Thunder to keep working in the half court.

For OKC it felt a lot like their game 3 loss to the Timberwolves, and we all know what they did after that so I think its clear they're still favourites. But they're also super young and that pressure now of a do or die game at home could get the better of them.

Siakam has been great when it mattered for the Pacers. His championship experience has really helped keep them in games and steady them when they've needed it. While JDub and SGA have been the two best players in the series, they've gone missing at times when their team needs them to take over.

The Pacers keep getting good performances from guys like Toppin and TJ to make up for Hailiburton being below par.

It feels like now if the Pacers can win this, Siakam will be finals MVP, save for a Haliburton monster game whch doesn't look like coming.

Just incredible.

Having said all that, I STILL think OKC will close this out but so happy we get to see one more game!

Game 7, absolutely brilliant