INDIANAPOLIS — As doors opened to the media inside the Oklahoma City Thunder’s locker room, on one end, veterans Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein sat dejected. On the other, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams carried on a jovial, non-basketball-related conversation, as if the loss had never happened.
It did happen. In Game 6 of the 2025 NBA Finals on Thursday — the Thunder’s first close-out chance of the series — they submitted arguably their worst performance of the season, losing 108-91 to the Indiana Pacers.
Was this the immaturity of youth? After all, Oklahoma City — led by the 26-year-old Gilgeous-Alexander and 24-year-old Williams — is the youngest finalist since 1977. Or was it the right mindset to let go of this game almost as soon as it happened? Impossible to know. Only the Thunder could explain their mental approach.
And on that, they could not agree.
Thunder players looked on from the bench during the fourth quarter as the Pacers rolled in Game 6 of the NBA Finals. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
(Maddie Meyer via Getty Images)
“I can’t speak for my whole team,” said Williams, who finished a game-worst minus-40. “The human element didn’t creep in for me until we got blown out. I didn’t start thinking about Game 7 until we walked off the floor — really, like, when the game was really out of reach. I think we had the right mindset coming into it.”
Gilgeous-Alexander, on the other hand, felt comfortable speaking on behalf of the Thunder.
“Definitely in the back of our minds, for sure,” said Gilgeous-Alexander, who committed a season-high eight turnovers, of the the weight of the chance to clinch a title. “We didn’t play like it at all. That’s why the night went the way it did. We got exactly what we deserved, what we earned. We have to own that.”
About the only thing they could agree on was another thing Gilgeous-Alexander said: “We sucked.”
That they did. Oklahoma City failed to eclipse 100 points in a game just three times during the regular season — and never scored fewer than 98. In the playoffs, the Thunder had been held below 100 points only once, in a 92-87 victory in Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Denver Nuggets.
In other words, it is incredibly difficult to throw the Thunder off their game.
But that is precisely what the Pacers did. The Thunder scored 89 points per 100 meaningful possessions, according to Cleaning the Glass. Their previous low this season was 94.8 (in that aforementioned Denver game). This was quite literally their worst offensive effort of the year. And the other end was no better.
“Our defense wasn’t very good,” Williams conceded.
“I don’t feel like we competed at the level we usually do,” Oklahoma City’s Lu Dort added.
The question, then, is why? Why did OKC, when it needed its best effort, put forth its worst?
“They outplayed us for most of the 48 minutes,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said. “That’s the story of the game. They went out there and attacked the game. From our standpoint, it was uncharacteristic. It was disappointing. It was collective. It wasn’t one guy. Just we were not where we needed to be on either end of the floor for much of the game. We have to be a lot better before Game 7.”
The Thunder are one of only seven teams ever to win 68 games in a regular season, and they owned the second-best net rating (+12.8) in NBA history, trailing only Michael Jordan’s 72-win 1995-96 Chicago Bulls.
The Pacers, meanwhile, are a fourth seed. They should just be happy to be here. TJ McConnell is a major factor in this series. Tony Bradley is playing meaningful minutes for them. Tyrese Haliburton, Indiana’s most valuable player, is playing through a right calf strain that had him questionable to even participate.
This should not be a fair fight. Except it is. This is going to a Game 7 that nobody predicted. The Thunder entered this series among the heaviest betting favorites ever in the NBA Finals. What gives?
“I don’t think it’s a one-sentence answer,” said OKC big man Chet Holmgren, who scored four points on nine shots. “But at the end of the day, there really is no explanation, no excuse. We have to be better.”
Read the full article here