OKLAHOMA CITY — It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that the Oklahoma City Thunder played one of their worst games of the entire season in Game 1 of the 2025 NBA Finals. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored a game-high 38 points, and the Thunder’s elite defense forced 25 turnovers. However, the Indiana Pacers, who led for just 0.3 seconds, took a 1-0 series lead and broke Oklahoma City’s home-court advantage.
“It’s always tricky because one-point losses are emotional, and you have to be able to strip away the emotions from that,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said on Saturday. “Understand there’s a lot of things we did well in the game to build a 15-point lead. There’s a lot of things we did well in the game that we certainly don’t want to throw out.
“We have a lot of runway here to improve.”
Improving has been the main point of emphasis for the Thunder on the eve of Game 2 on Sunday night. Whereas the Pacers are playing with house money and enjoying their stay in Oklahoma City, the league’s MVP and his team have kicked things into high gear.
There is a different focus surrounding this team — a mentality where Game 2 is the only thing on their minds.
The Thunder know that they let their first Finals experience slip through the cracks. As a result, a lot of pressure falls on them to not let the Pacers take over and once again seize a road win in the playoffs.
Indiana is now 7-2 on the road after their Game 1 victory on Thursday. Although that game may not feel like a victory given everything that went wrong for the Pacers, Tyrese Haliburton still found a way to stun Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Chet Holmgren in front of what many are deeming the loudest fans in the NBA.
Pressure is mounting. A Game 2 loss would be disastrous. But that wasn’t the Thunder’s mentality on Saturday, as Williams made it clear that the pressure on both him and Holmgren after their early NBA Finals struggles is more of a privilege than anything else.
“I try and think of myself as somebody that’s very uncommon,” Williams started saying. “I don’t ever think that I’m in my
third year because then that allows me to make excuses. I should just go out there and play. Pressure is a privilege. I enjoy being counted on and doing that, and I just think I’ve been counted on since, I feel like, last year just in regard to being there for the rest of the guys.
“And now we’re here in the Finals.”
Jalen Williams speaks on Mark Daigneault’s comments about him and Chet being in unique situations as 3rd year players in the NBA Finals:
“Pressure is a privilege.” pic.twitter.com/a9y8TXKDRS
— Brett Siegel (@BrettSiegelNBA) June 7, 2025
There are positives that Williams and Holmgren, two players experiencing their first NBA Finals in their third seasons, can take away from the Thunder’s Game 1 loss.
Whereas Williams found success at times guarding Pacers forward Pascal Siakam, the Eastern Conference Finals MVP, Holmgren got great looks on the offensive end of the court. Unfortunately for Holmgren, he was just 2-of-9 shooting and struggled to find an offensive rhythm.
All that matters now for the Thunder is fixing their mistakes to pick up a win on Sunday night. Despite all the narratives surrounding this series after yet another fourth-quarter collapse by the Thunder, Gilgeous-Alexander’s mindset remains the same.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s leadership entering Game 2
The Thunder are a young team. This has been well documented for ages, yet it consistently seems to be a narrative surrounding them.
While Alex Caruso is the only player on this roster with NBA Finals experience, that hasn’t impacted this team from achieving their goals throughout the playoffs. Oklahoma City continues to set the standard as the best team in the league, and at the end of the day, Gilgeous-Alexander is still the MVP.
One game doesn’t define their potential success or struggles in this series against the Pacers, and the Thunder entered Saturday’s practice day with the same level of confidence in themselves as they had entering the first game of the 2024-25 season.
The reason for this — Gilgeous-Alexander knows he can expect the same intensity from his teammates whether they win or lose.
“Yeah, I let the game go. As soon as I, like, learn the lessons from it. As soon as I watch film, take what I need to take from it and we do it
as a group,” Gilgeous-Alexander admitted. “There’s nothing else you can do. And then, honestly, the team has the same demeanor… This team makes it easy.”
Throughout the 2024-25 season, Oklahoma City has been a team that bounces back when facing adversity.
This group has yet to lose back-to-back games in the NBA Playoffs, and they only did so twice during the regular season. The Thunder never lost more than two straight games all year.
Gilgeous-Alexander is 26 years old. Williams is 24. Holmgren is 23.
These are the three stars of the team, yet this group plays like a team that has been together in these big moments before. A sense of calmness and resilience always follows this team around, and that is the case entering Game 2 of the 2025 NBA Finals against the Pacers.
Although he is the leader of the team, Gilgeous-Alexander isn’t like others in the league coming off a loss. He knows the best way to motivate his team is to keep his message consistent. Entering Sunday, the 2024-25 NBA MVP has the same mentality as his teammates.
“You don’t have to rile guys up or lock guys in. We all have the same goal in mind, and we all know what it takes to win games.
“That’s what’s on the focus of our mind.”
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