OKLAHOMA CITY — For better or worse, the Oklahoma City Thunder experienced a painfully familiar moment when the final buzzer sounded on Thursday night.
The Indiana Pacers secured Game 1 of the NBA Finals, grabbing their first lead of the night thanks to Tyrese Haliburton’s 21-foot pull-up jumper with just 0.3 seconds left. The Thunder lost a 15-point lead in the fourth quarter, falling 111-110 at home.
This was only Oklahoma City’s second home loss in the playoffs and mirrored the pattern of their previous defeat at the Paycom Center. In that earlier game, the Denver Nuggets erased a 13-point deficit in the fourth quarter to win the Western Conference semifinals opener, taking the lead on Aaron Gordon’s three-pointer with 2.8 seconds remaining.
“It stings,” Thunder forward Jalen Williams said, summing up the feeling of losing the Finals opener. “But we’ve been through this before.”
Oklahoma City, which boasts the second-youngest roster in NBA Finals history, can look back at its collapse against Denver as proof that this squad can recover from a heartbreaking series-opening loss. After losing Game 1 to the Nuggets, the Thunder bounced back to dominate Game 2 by 43 points and eventually won the series in seven games.
“Who you lose to and how doesn’t really matter,” said Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who scored 38 points—the third-highest in a Finals debut, per ESPN Research. “Obviously, it hurts — a last-second shot, the crowd energy — but at the end of the day, we lost Game 1.
“We’ve lost Game 1 before. The important thing is that we came back stronger. That’s our goal.”
The Thunder are 4-0 after losses this postseason, winning the subsequent games by an average margin of 20.5 points. During their 68-win regular season, Oklahoma City only lost back-to-back games twice.
Coach Mark Daigneault encouraged his players to “get ourselves to zero,” Thunder lingo for not letting emotions from a game linger—whether winning or losing.
“The playoffs push you to your limits,” Daigneault said. “They put you against the ropes—both in games and in series. Getting this far means you have to endure. It’s an experience you can lean on. The biggest lesson we’ve learned is that every game is a fresh start. The most important game is always the next one, no matter the outcome. We wished we had won tonight, but tonight is a beginning, not the end.”
The Thunder knew about the Pacers’ ability to come back before they fell victim to it in Game 1.
This postseason, Indiana has come back from at least a 15-point deficit to win five times—the most for any team in a playoff run since 1998, according to ESPN Research.
“You have to tip your hat to them,” Daigneault said. “They’ve made plays all playoffs long. It’s part of who they are. They believe in themselves and never think they’re out of it. They play with great confidence, especially when their backs are against the wall. They showed that tonight.”
Thursday’s game also extended one of the most remarkable clutch performances in recent NBA history. Haliburton hit his fourth go-ahead or game-tying shot in the final five seconds of a game this postseason. He made the shot over Oklahoma City guard Cason Wallace, who’s known as an elite on-ball defender.
“You don’t want the best player on the other team taking a game-winner in the last seconds,” said Alex Caruso, Oklahoma City’s oldest player and the team’s only NBA champion. “You want to control the game late so it doesn’t come down to that.”
The Thunder failed to do so in the Finals opener.
Oklahoma City’s top-ranked defense dominated the first half, holding Indiana to 45 points and forcing 20 turnovers. But the Thunder only turned those turnovers into nine points, allowing the Pacers to stay close.
After halftime, Indiana found its rhythm. The Pacers limited turnovers to just five in the second half while scoring 66 points, shooting 51.1% from the field and 10-of-20 from three-point range.
Still, Oklahoma City had chances to seal the win. The Thunder missed their last three shots after the Pacers cut the lead to one possession. This included two misses by Gilgeous-Alexander—a contested layup with 1:07 left and a fadeaway jumper one possession before Haliburton’s game-winner.
“The series isn’t about winning one game; it’s about winning four,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We’ve got four games to win; they have three. That’s the reality. We have to get to four before they do if we want the championship.
“It’s simple, really. We lost Game 1. We have to improve.”
