Game 1 ended with every Thunder fan in the building staring at the jumbotron in stunned silence. Tyrese Haliburton’s ice‑cold jumper with 0.3 seconds left stole a win the Pacers had no business taking, and the usually rowdy Paycom Center sounded more like a library after the final buzzer.

Sunday night, Oklahoma City made sure the fans in attendance never found their seats. The Thunder hit the gas early and never looked back on the way to a convincing 123‑107 win that tied the series up.

And if you’ve been watching this squad all season, that response wasn’t surprising. The league’s youngest top seed went 68‑14 for a reason, and on the rare nights they did take a loss, they almost always came back swinging. 18-2 in games following a defeat — undefeated in the playoffs — doesn’t happen by accident.

One Haymaker, Two Stops, Nineteen‑Two Run

OKC came out firing again — no surprise there — and took control early, building up a lead behind strong starts from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams. But even with the Thunder clearly out to make a statement, Indiana managed to hang around for most of the first quarter. They weren’t lighting it up, but they were doing just enough to keep the game within reach.

That all changed midway through the second quarter, when the Thunder put together a sudden burst of energy that flipped the game on its head. Wiggins sparked the run with a couple of confident threes in a hurry, and Caruso followed that with a couple of huge defensive plays. The Pacers went cold, and the Thunder pounced. What had been a manageable six-point lead quickly ballooned into a 19-2 run that felt like a gut punch.

From there, the game never really got close again. Indiana made a little push in the third — Haliburton and Siakam strung together a 10-0 run that trimmed the deficit to 13. —but it never felt threatening. Not with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander calmly rising up for back-to-back middies to slam the door shut before it could creak open.

By the time the fourth quarter rolled around, Rick Carlisle had seen enough. With about four minutes left, he pulled the plug, sent in the reserves, and started planning for Game 3.

The MVP‑Level Metronome

Any conversation about Oklahoma City has to start with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. He’s the engine, the pulse, the guy you just assume is going to be great before the game even tips off — and once again, he lived up to every bit of that billing.

He finished with 34 points, eight assists, five boards, four steals, and even chipped in a block — just another night at the office for Shai. And honestly, it didn’t even feel like he broke a sweat. That’s the thing with SGA — he puts up these monster lines so casually that you almost forget how wild they really are. It’s not flashy or forced. He just goes about his business, and before you know it, he’s quietly taken over the game again.

It wasn’t just the numbers. It was the way he controlled the game. Every time the Pacers started to gain a little traction — whether it was a Siakam bucket or a quick run from Haliburton — Shai would respond like he was flipping a switch. A smooth mid-range jumper here. A drive to the rim, draw contact, knock down two free throws there. He was 11-for-12 from the line, which felt like a momentum changer every time Indiana tried to string something together.

With that performance, Shai also continued one of the wildest streaks in playoff history — he’s now scored 30 or more points in nine straight home playoff games, tying Wilt Chamberlain for the longest such streak ever.

The beauty of SGA’s game is how steady it is. He’s not out there hunting for highlight plays. He picks his spots, plays at his own pace, and rarely forces the issue. Teammate Aaron Wiggins put it best after the game:

“Obviously, everyone sees the points and how easy it may be for him to get 30, 40. When he’s sharing the ball, getting other guys involved, that’s when our team is at our best. Credit to him for playing the game the right way.”

Bench Mob Brings the Ruckus

Mark Daigneault didn’t overthink it going into Game 2. He stuck with the same starting five, keeping rookie Cason Wallace in the lineup alongside Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Lu Dort, Jalen Williams, and Chet Holmgren. Wallace might be the youngest guy on the floor most nights, but Daigneault has trusted his on-ball defense and poise in big spots all postseason long.

It helped that just about everyone in that starting group had something to prove after the way things ended on Friday. Jalen Williams bounced back in a big way, shaking off a tough shooting night from the opener to drop 19 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists. He was decisive when he needed to be, mixing in straight-line drives with smart reads that kept Indiana’s defense chasing. You could tell he took that Game 1 tape personally.

Chet Holmgren was another guy who looked way more comfortable this time around. After scoring just 6 points in the opener, he matched that total in the first quarter alone. He finished with 15 and 6, but more than the stat line, it was his presence — altering shots, spacing the floor with his trail threes, and bothering Siakam at the rim — that stood out.

And then there were the two guys who helped turn a close game into a runaway. Alex Caruso played like a guy who’s been here before. He stayed glued to the ball-handler all night, constantly disrupting the flow, and poured in 20 points on 4-of-8 from deep.

On the other wing, Aaron Wiggins made the most of his expanded role, exploding for 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting, including five threes. Wiggins only played nine minutes in Game 1. He looked like a locked-in starter in Game 2.

Together, Wiggins and Caruso combined for nine of OKC’s 14 made threes and flat-out outscored Indiana’s entire bench, 48-34.

Between the starters stepping up and the role players maximizing their minutes, Daigneault’s rotation choices couldn’t have played out much better. Everyone knew their job. And this time, nobody let off the gas.

Defense Travels

The Thunder finished the regular season with the NBA’s top defensive rating, and they showed why on Sunday night. From the opening tip, they were locked in — active hands in passing lanes, bodies bumping Indiana cutters off their spots, and relentless communication.

Through the first three quarters, Indiana was stuck at 38.7 percent from the field and looked more frustrated than dangerous. The Thunder’s plan was clear: keep Tyrese Haliburton from getting downhill and force everyone else into decisions they didn’t want to make. And it worked to perfection.

Haliburton, who usually thrives at dictating pace and flow, had just three points and five turnovers in the first half. Every time he tried to snake around a screen or push the tempo, there was a Thunder defender waiting.

Pascal Siakam couldn’t find a rhythm either, finishing with 15 points on 3-of-11 shooting. The Pacers, usually a well-balanced offensive group, ended up being the first team since the 2013 Heat to go through the first two games of the Finals without a 20-point scorer.

Game 3 in Indy: It's a Best-Of-Five Series Now

Wednesday night’s Game 3 will be the first NBA Finals game played in Indianapolis since 2000, when Reggie Miller was still bombing threes in Conseco Fieldhouse and Rick Carlisle was drawing up plays as Larry Bird’s lead assistant.

A lot’s changed since then — the building is now Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the faces are new, and the league itself is different — but for Pacers fans, this one is going to feel big. And for good reason. Historically, teams that win Game 3 of a 1–1 Finals end up winning the series 80.5% of the time. Mix that with the fact that teams that win Game 1 win the series 71% of the time, and there's real reason for optimism.

For the Thunder, the formula hasn’t changed much. Keep Haliburton uncomfortable, trust Shai to be the best player on the floor, and keep riding the hot hands that made Game 2 look so convincing. But doing it on the road is never easy, especially in the Finals. They’ll need Holmgren, Hartenstein, and Jaylin Williams to hold their ground defensively without getting baited into silly fouls — something Siakam is particularly good at. And they’ll have to weather the early energy of a crowd that’s waited 25 years for this moment.

Indiana, on the other hand, has to rediscover the edge that carried them through the East. Game 2 was a reality check, but this is still a team that beat Milwaukee, Cleveland, and New York to get here. They need Haliburton to come out looking to score instead of deferring early. They need Siakam to get into the paint, draw contact, and force OKC’s defense to rotate. And they need that second-unit punch — the one that swung games in the first few rounds — to show up again. If they can muddy the game up, pick up the tempo, and knock down the open looks that will be there in the corners, they’ve got every chance to swing momentum back their way.

All stats courtesy of NBA.com.