NBA Finals: Biggest storylines from Thunder vs. Pacers

The 2025 NBA Finals between Oklahoma and Indiana are set for tip-off on June 5th. The Thunder rolled through the Western Conference as most predicted, but they’ll face an unlikely opponent in the Pacers, who got hot at the end of the regular season and used that momentum to come out of the Eastern Conference.

Whichever team wins, it’ll be a momentous achievement. The Pacers have never won an NBA Championship in franchise history. The Thunder won one in 1979, but as the Seattle Supersonics, and while the NBA recognizes them as one franchise, Oklahoma City doesn’t claim the title.

Thunder vs. Pacers overview

The Thunder and the Pacers are both led by two young stars in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Tyrese Haliburton, respectively. But this isn’t viewed as an even matchup. Oklahoma City is the heavy favorite entering the best-of-seven series following a dominant regular season and playoff run, according to FanDuel.

Game schedule (ABC and ESPN+)

• Game 1: Pacers at Thunder (June 5th, 8:30 p.m. ET)
• Game 2: Pacers at Thunder (June 8th, 8 p.m. ET)
• Game 3: Thunder at Pacers (June 11th, 8:30 p.m. ET)
• Game 4: Thunder at Pacers (June 13th, 8:30 p.m. ET)
• Game 5*: Pacers at Thunder (June 16th, 8:30 p.m. ET)
• Game 6*: Thunder at Pacers (June 19th, 8:30 p.m. ET)
• Game 7*: Pacers at Thunder (June 22nd, 8 p.m. ET)

*If needed

Biggest storylines

This year’s NBA Finals might not be the sexiest matchup, but it’s still stuffed with compelling storylines. Here are some of the biggest:

Will Gilgeous-Alexander complete all-time season?

The 2023–24 campaign was a season of almosts for Gilgeous-Alexander, who finished second in MVP voting to Nikola Jokic, third behind Luka Doncic and Jokic for the scoring title, and endured a loss in the conference semifinals to the Dallas Mavericks.

The 26-year-old has made the rest of the NBA pay for those disappointments this year. Gilgeous-Alexander has put together one of the best seasons in recent memory, collecting accolade after accolade despite regularly losing his top teammates to injury:

If Gilgeous-Alexander can add a title, it would put him in contention for one of the most impressive seasons ever. Only five regular-season MVPs have gone on to win a title in the same year, and they’re all all-time greats — Shaquille O’Neal (2000), Tim Duncan (2003), LeBron James (2012, 2013), and Steph Curry (2015).

Moreover, if he wins the NBA Finals MVP, too, he’d be the first player since O’Neal — and just the fourth in history — to claim that award, the regular-season MVP, and the scoring title in the same season.

To put it simply, history is on the line for Gilgeous-Alexander.

Can Haliburton and Co. overcome Thunder’s dominant defense?

The Thunder are rightfully big favorites, as they sustained a dominant level throughout the season while the Pacers only took off at the start of 2025. So, how do the Pacers come out on top? Their offense has been electric all year, but it now faces its toughest test in an overwhelming Thunder defense.

The Thunder and the Pacers played twice in the regular season, and Oklahoma won both, dominating the second matchup 132–111. In those two games, the Thunder forced poor performances out of Haliburton, who averaged just 11 points and 5.5 assists, far below his season averages of 18.6 points and 9.2 assists.

But the Pacers have taken their fast-paced style to a new level in the postseason, with Haliburton continuing to pull the strings as a traditional pass-first point guard. They rank second in points per game (117.4) and first in assists per game (28.1), three-pointers made (214), and three-point percentage (40.1%).

The Thunder were unrelenting against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the conference game, not giving an inch in their signature style and creating turnovers. So the pressure is on Haliburton to create as many chances for his teammates as possible, especially for Pascal Siakam, and from beyond the arc in particular.

A small-market NBA Finals

If the NBA were to dream up a championship matchup to bring in the most attention and money, Thunder-Pacers would be near the bottom of the list. Indiana is the NBA’s ninth-smallest media market, while Oklahoma City is the third smallest. 

Before the playoffs, the NBA was likely hoping to see LeBron James and Doncic lead the Los Angeles Lakers to a Finals appearance. Or the New York Knicks, who fell to the Pacers in the conference game, make it for the first time since 1999. Instead, it’s the smallest combined market NBA Finals in modern league history.

Should that matter to you? Absolutely not. The NBA Finals’ viewership has been in decline recently, regardless, falling from 20.38 million viewers in 2017 with the Golden State Warriors-Cleveland Cavaliers to 11.3 million in 2024 with the Boston Celtics-Mavericks. Thunder-Pacers will likely continue that downward trend.

But the league needs new mainstream stars. James is seemingly trying to play forever, but he and other era-definers Steph Curry and Kevin Durant will be gone soon. While Thunder-Pacers might not get the casuals hyped up, it could be a star-making Finals for the likes of Gilgeous-Alexander and Haliburton.

NBA’s unprecedented parity

Historically, dynasties have dominated the NBA landscape. The Warriors are the most recent example, with four titles since 2015. Before that, the San Antonio Spurs and Lakers ran the 2000s. And most famously, Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls won six championships in the 1990s.

But the NBA is firmly in the parity era. Regardless of which team wins the 2025 NBA Finals, the league will welcome its seventh different champion in the last seven years.

• 2024 — Boston Celtics
• 2023 — Denver Nuggets
• 2022 — Golden State Warriors 
• 2021 — Milwaukee Bucks
• 2020 — Los Angeles Lakers
• 2019 — Toronto Raptors

For comparison, the NFL has had only seven different Super Bowl champions since 2013, with the New England Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs winning three titles apiece and the Philadelphia Eagles earning two over that span.

This parity is a direct result of the NBA introducing new rules in 2023, limiting how much the salary cap can rise each year to just 10%. It also set two financial aprons above the salary cap, which impose restrictions on teams once they spend over a set amount of money above the soft cap and luxury tax.

Clubs are now less likely to be able to form superteams, like the Warriors did by signing Kevin Durant in 2016, the move that motivated the NBA’s rule changes. Whether this parity will be good for the NBA remains to be seen, but for now, fans can enjoy fresh NBA Finals matchups seemingly every year.

Thank you, Paul George

The Thunder and the Pacers share a lot of similarities, with young rosters that play at a high pace and are centered around star point guards. But they don’t have much historical connection. One major thing that does connect the two franchises and how they built their winning rosters, though, is Paul George.

George was drafted by the Pacers at No. 10 in 2010 and quickly became the face of the franchise as he led Indiana to multiple conference game appearances. But George decided to leave in free agency in 2017, so the Pacers decided to cut ties first, sending him to the Thunder for Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis.

Indiana eventually shipped off Sabonis in 2022 to the Sacramento Kings for Haliburton, who has since developed into one of the league’s best players. Meanwhile, assets gained from sending Oladipo to the Houston Rockets were eventually used to acquire Siakam from the Raptors.

Two years after acquiring him, the Thunder sent George to the Los Angeles Clippers, who wanted to pair him with Kawhi Leonard, for a king’s ransom that included Gilgeous-Alexander and multiple first-round picks. Oklahoma City then used one of those selections to draft All-Star Jalen Williams in 2022.

Essentially, the secret recipe to making this year’s NBA Finals is apparently getting rid of Paul George.