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 run

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