Pacers look to steal another road win against Thunder in Game 2

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma City Thunder have been in this position before.

So, have the Indiana Pacers.

The teams meet in Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Sunday in Oklahoma City after the Pacers pulled off a stunner in Game 1.

Indiana opened the series with a 111-110 victory Thursday, when Tyrese Haliburton’s last-second shot put the Pacers ahead for the first time in the game.

The Thunder dropped the first game of their second-round series against Denver in similar, heartbreaking fashion on Aaron Gordon’s late shot. Oklahoma City stormed back to win Game 2 by 43 points.

Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 38 points in Game 1, the third-most for a player in his NBA Finals debut.

But Gilgeous-Alexander said the first game — both good and bad — was in the rear-view mirror.

“I let the game go as soon as I learn the lessons from it, as soon as I watch film. I take what I need to take from it, and we do as a group,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “After that, I let it go, because the lessons are learned. There’s nothing else you can do. The team has the same demeanor.”

Each time the Thunder have lost in these playoffs, they have come back to win the next game.

The average margin of victory in those rebound victories is 20.5 points per game, though one was decided by two points and another by five.

Oklahoma City lost back-to-back games just twice during the regular season.

“The playoffs take you to the limit,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “They put your back against the wall — in games, in series. If you make it this far, you have to endure to do that. It gives you rich experiences that you can draw on. The biggest experience we’ve had is understanding that every game’s a new game. The most important of the series is always the next one, regardless of the outcome.”

The Pacers have won their first game in each round.

Each time, Indiana has come back to win a tight Game 2.

In the last two rounds, the Pacers won the first two games of their series on the road as they have become accustomed to thriving in the underdog role.

“That’s been our thing the whole year, even at the beginning of the playoffs,” Indiana’s Obi Toppin said. “Everybody got the other team winning every single game. We just go out there and always do what we do.”

Haliburton said the Pacers have drawn motivation from last season’s playoff run, where they beat the Bucks and Knicks in the first two rounds before they were swept by the Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals.

“You come into the year with all the talk around how it was a fluke,” Haliburton said. “You have an unsuccessful first couple months and now it’s easy to for everyone to clown you and talk about you in a negative way, and I think as a group we take everything personal. … I feel like that’s the DNA of this group.”

Oklahoma City forced 25 turnovers in Game 1 — 20 in the first half — but scored just 11 points off those turnovers, helping open the door for Indiana’s comeback from a 15-point fourth-quarter deficit.

“We can’t turn the ball over that much,” Haliburton said. “We have to do a better job of being in gaps, rebounding, all over the floor.”

–Field Level Media