Déjà vu hit the Oklahoma City Thunder like a storm when the final buzzer sounded Thursday night.
The Indiana Pacers snatched Game 1 of the NBA Finals, taking their first lead of the night in dramatic fashion — a cold-blooded 21-foot pull-up jumper by Tyrese Haliburton with just 0.3 seconds left on the clock. The Thunder let a 15-point fourth-quarter lead vanish in a brutal 111-110 home loss.
It marked only the second home loss of the postseason for Oklahoma City, and eerily, it played out just like the last one. In that previous defeat, the Denver Nuggets clawed back from 13 points down late in the fourth to steal Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals, thanks to Aaron Gordon’s clutch three-pointer with 2.8 seconds remaining.
"It sucks,” said Thunder forward Jalen Williams, bluntly capturing the heartbreak of the moment. “But we’ve been here before.”
Armed with the second-youngest Finals roster in NBA history, the Thunder can lean on their previous stumble against Denver as proof that this squad knows how to bounce back. After that gut-punch opener, OKC responded with a 43-point demolition in Game 2 and went on to win the series in seven games.
"How you lose doesn’t matter,” declared Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who dropped 38 points — the third-most ever in a Finals debut, according to ESPN Research. “Yeah, it hurts — last-second shot, energy in the building — but a loss is a loss. It’s just Game 1.”
He added: “We’ve been here before — and we came out better. That’s the goal.”
The Thunder have been flawless after losses in this playoff run — 4-0, winning by an average margin of 20.5 points. They only dropped back-to-back games twice all season en route to 68 wins.
Head coach Mark Daigneault challenged his squad to hit the mental reset button, telling them to “get ourselves to zero” — Thunder-speak for not letting emotions linger after a game, win or lose.
"The playoffs push you to the edge," said Daigneault. “They pin your back to the wall — during games, during series. If you make it this far, you’ve endured. That’s where growth happens. The biggest lesson we’ve learned: every game is a brand new game. The most important game? Always the next one. This wasn’t an end — it was just the beginning.”
The Thunder were already well aware of Indiana’s comeback DNA — and still got bit by it.
Game 1 was the fifth time this postseason that the Pacers erased a 15-point deficit to snatch a win. That’s the most by any team in a single playoff run since at least 1998.
“Tip your hat to them,” Daigneault admitted. “They made plays. That’s who they are. They believe. They never think they’re out. They play with confidence — even when the walls are closing in. They earned that win.”
Thursday night also added another chapter to Tyrese Haliburton’s clutch legend. He nailed his fourth game-tying or go-ahead shot in the final five seconds during these playoffs — this time over Cason Wallace, one of the league’s most tenacious on-ball defenders.
“You never want the other team’s best player pulling up for the win with seconds to go,” said Alex Caruso, OKC’s veteran leader and the only Thunder player with a championship ring. “You’ve got to control the game before it comes to that.”
But Oklahoma City didn’t.
Their top-ranked defense was smothering in the first half, holding the Pacers to just 45 points and forcing 20 turnovers. But those takeaways led to only nine points, and that let Indiana hang around.
After halftime, the Pacers flipped the switch, giving up just five turnovers in the second half while exploding for 66 points on 51.1% shooting — including 10-of-20 from deep.
Even with the momentum shift, the Thunder had every chance to shut it down. But they missed their final three shots with the game in reach, including two tough looks by Gilgeous-Alexander — a missed layup in traffic with 1:07 left and a midrange fadeaway right before Haliburton’s dagger.
“This isn’t a one-game series — it’s first to four,” Gilgeous-Alexander reminded. “They need three more. We need four. That’s where we stand. We’ve got to beat them to four if we want that trophy.”
“It’s simple. Not rocket science. We lost Game 1. Now we have to be better.”
Description:
"The Oklahoma City Thunder suffered a heartbreaking 111-110 loss to the Indiana Pacers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, blowing a 15-point lead and falling to Tyrese Haliburton’s buzzer-beater. Despite the setback, the young Thunder squad is confident in their ability to bounce back, just as they did earlier in the playoffs. With strong leadership from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and a top-ranked defense, Oklahoma City looks to even the series in Game 2."
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