2024-25 NBA Thread

[WilyWestbrook0]

Ugh.

The Pacers always seem to find ways to win no matter who they play.

They are just heartbreakers for fans of their opponents.

No lead is ever safe. They are too good defensively with pressure and too good at hitting big shots.

[pwaldo]

The Thunder really choked that one away. Like I said they don't get nearly enough help scoring wise for the #2 and #3. Chet's stats were pretty horrible for the game. 6 points and 6 rebounds? That's not going to cut it in the NBA Finals. I know this team won 68 games but they don't give off historic 68 games won vibes IMO. There are a bunch of teams that lost NBA Finals over the the years that I would easily take over the Thunder. Not taking anything anyway from the Pacers but the have faced the Grizzlies, Nuggets, Wolves, and now the Pacers. That should have been an easy road to a championship but they are making this a grind. They clearly are ahead of schedule and need better play out of their #2 and #3 scoring options or they could actually lose this thing to the Pacers.

[WilyWestbrook0]

The Thunder really choked that one away. Like I said they don't get nearly enough help scoring wise for the #2 and #3. Chet's stats were pretty horrible for the game. 6 points and 6 rebounds? That's not going to cut it in the NBA Finals. I know this team won 68 games but they don't give off historic 68 games won vibes IMO. There are a bunch of teams that lost NBA Finals over the the years that I would easily take over the Thunder. Not taking anything anyway from the Pacers but the have faced the Grizzlies, Nuggets, Wolves, and now the Pacers. That should have been an easy road to a championship but they are making this a grind. They clearly are ahead of schedule and need better play out of their #2 and #3 scoring options or they could actually lose this thing to the Pacers.

Yeah Chet was frankly trash last night for the entirety of the game; I have nothing good to say about his performance. JDub was also very bad until the 4th quarter when he showed some signs of life but he will need to be more consistent as well.

The Thunder did lose game one to the Nuggets, so they're not toast yet, but as you said they need to start looking more like a true title team again. Their youth and inexperience are still really showing; all the other teams with their total of wins in years past were more experienced, and it shows. That said, the Pacers really are truly remarkable at coming back from deficits. They've done it against every other playoff team this year, so it's really amazing how they keep doing it. I'm at the point where I won't be surprised if they win it all. They aren't intimidated by anyone and they seem to have the poise and clutch ability to win consistently no matter who they face.

[pwaldo]

Yeah I could attribute the dud game from the young players on the Thunder to them being overwhelmed by the "big game" and all that but it isn't like the Pacers and that veteran either. The Pacers are just playing 100% while the Thunder aren't playing anywhere close to that. If they would they would blow by so many teams but they just play so underwhelming to me. Like I said it is the expectation game because if you said they would be in the NBA Finals 2 years ago any fan of the team would be happy with that but the way the things went this regular season and with the Celtics going and so many others it just seemed like the Thunder were going to cake walk this thing. I still wouldn't bet against them but they just made things a lot more difficult than it should have been. A lot of people were predicting an easy 4 game sweep for the Thunder championship.

[WilyWestbrook0]

Excellent start from Chet in that first quarter. If he can play like that, OKC can tie this series.

[WilyWestbrook0]

Chet off to a great start again, but Thunder down at the half after a surprisingly terrible performance from their bench. They made T.J. McConnell look like Steve Nash out there, gave up too much to Mathurin, and couldn't score anything at the other end. Also a lot of sloppy TOs from JDub and Cason Wallace.

[WilyWestbrook0]

At some point credit has to be given to Indiana as a great basketball team that can play both sides of the ball in high pressure environments.

The Thunder are not a team prone to turnovers, but tonight they had a ton because the Pacers have played great pressure defense ALL playoffs. I watched them do it against the Cavaliers, who were almost as good record-wise as the Thunder this year, and they did it again tonight.

OKC's big three all got 20+. They weren't the issue. The Pacers shut down everyone else except Dort who had some threes. They completely took out OKC's renowned bench.

I'm just going to give the Pacers their due. They've beaten everyone. It's time to stop merely dragging their opponents and giving them some credit for beating everyone.

[pwaldo]

Chet off to a great start again, but Thunder down at the half after a surprisingly terrible performance from their bench. They made T.J. McConnell look like Steve Nash out there, gave up too much to Mathurin, and couldn't score anything at the other end. Also a lot of sloppy TOs from JDub and Cason Wallace.

Yeah I turned it on and after a few minues he already had 10 points in the first quarter. He didn't really have a monster game but everyone on the Thunder stepped up...except for the bench. I don't really know how good the Pacers defense is but the Thunder do have a consistent scoring problem. When it is going poorly for them a bunch of the guys can't make their own shot and they struggle. Also Chet needs to stop attempting to shoot 3s. He was like 0 for 6 or something. Can't have that from a giant.

The Thunder haven't really looked sharpe all post season. They were killing it in the regular season but the coach just isn't making the right adjustments or like the first game just does random/stupid starting lineup changes. If they do end up winning a championship they are basically backing into a win versus dominating and taking it like the Pacers have done all post season. As of right now the Pacers just basically "deserve" it more based on how they have played all throughout the playoffs. The Thunder not so much. Maybe it is a case of a coach that has NBA championship winning experience just eating the unxperienced coach alive? I always thought Rick was a better coach than he got credit for but the NBA has been crazy weird with nba head coaches for awhile now.

[WilyWestbrook0]

Yeah I turned it on and after a few minues he already had 10 points in the first quarter. He didn't really have a monster game but everyone on the Thunder stepped up...except for the bench. I don't really know how good the Pacers defense is but the Thunder do have a consistent scoring problem. When it is going poorly for them a bunch of the guys can't make their own shot and they struggle. Also Chet needs to stop attempting to shoot 3s. He was like 0 for 6 or something. Can't have that from a giant.

The Thunder haven't really looked sharpe all post season. They were killing it in the regular season but the coach just isn't making the right adjustments or like the first game just does random/stupid starting lineup changes. If they do end up winning a championship they are basically backing into a win versus dominating and taking it like the Pacers have done all post season. As of right now the Pacers just basically "deserve" it more based on how they have played all throughout the playoffs. The Thunder not so much. Maybe it is a case of a coach that has NBA championship winning experience just eating the unxperienced coach alive? I always thought Rick was a better coach than he got credit for but the NBA has been crazy weird with nba head coaches for awhile now.

100% agree on Carlisle. He's one of the very best in the league this century. That 2011 Mavs title showed how he can get a team to play together, just like the Pacers are doing now as a similar underdog. He's brilliant offensively and also gets his teams to compete on defense. I like Daigneault and Atkinson, but he's completely outcoached them this playoffs. Glad that Daigneault went back to the double bigs lineup. I can sort of understand why he went to Cason but Cason just doesn't have the experience on offense and the Pacers are too big for his ball pressure to impact as much as it does other teams, even though the Pacers have a great backcourt too. I think Cason plays much better off the bench like Alex Caruso does, being a spark plug. That said, this game is still real close and the lineup hasn't been enough to make a huge difference yet, so we'll see what else can be done.

[WilyWestbrook0]

The Pacers have vastly better ball movement on offense than OKC does.

OKC does way too much iso and doesn't make the extra passes to open shooters like Indiana does. Those extra passes lead to much better shots. And they have more guys in the right spots. Their offense just looks so much more organized and smooth than OKC's ever does.

Some OKC fans are talking about Topic and how he can bring some needed ballhandling to the team next season. SGA looked gassed and no one else can really bring up the ball well. JDub has a ton of TOs and guys like Caruso and Wallace aren't primary ballhandlers either. This is one series ironically where Josh Giddey would have still helped. Caruso was amazing in the Nuggets series and he's still been ok in the Finals here, but he doesn't have Giddey's ballhandling and passing skills.