Oklahoma City spent most of the regular season alone atop the Western Conference standings and just kept adding to its lead. Indiana didn't spend a single day atop the Eastern Conference standings and was still under the .500 mark in early January.
Different paths, same destination.
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It will be the Thunder and the Pacers squaring off when the NBA Finals start in Oklahoma City on Thursday night, a matchup of two clubs that weren't exactly on similar paths this season.
“When you get to this point of the season, it’s two teams and it’s one goal and so it becomes an all or nothing thing,” Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said. “And we understand the magnitude of the opponent. Oklahoma City has been dominant all year long — with capital letters in the word ‘dominant.’ Defensively, they’re historically great and they got all kinds of guys that can score. It’s two teams that have similar structures, slightly different styles."
The deep dives into the other side were beginning in earnest on Sunday, a day after the Pacers finished off their Eastern Conference title by ousting New York in six games. Indiana was taking a day off before getting set to return to work on Monday; the Thunder were practicing in Oklahoma City.
“We always talk about human nature in our locker room and the human nature way of thinking about it is ‘four wins away, four wins away.’ You kind of lose sight of the fact that you’ve got to win one to get to four,” Thunder guard Jalen Williams said Sunday. "You've got to stack wins. So, that’s how we’re looking at it. Let's get prepared for Game 1 now and just go from there. And I think that does make it a little easier now that we know who we’re playing.”
The Pacers lost their 14th game of the regular season in early December; the Thunder lost 14 regular-season games this season, total. That would make it seem like this was an unlikely finals matchup.
But since Dec. 13, including regular-season and playoff games, the Thunder have the NBA's best record at 61-13. The team with the second-most wins in the league over those last 5 1/2 months? That would be Indiana, going 52-21 over that span.
“We had expectations to be here and this isn’t a surprise to any of us because of what we wanted to do,” Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton said. “And I think obviously there’s a turning point there in December or January or whatever the case may be. But I just thought we did a great job of just being as present as possible, not living in the past, not worrying about what’s next, just worrying about what’s now.”
What's now is the NBA Finals. The Pacers were a middle-of-the-pack pick to start the season, with 50-1 preseason odds to win the title, according to BetMGM Sportsbook. The Thunder were only 9-1 entering the season, behind Boston and New York out of the East — and Denver and Minnesota, two teams that the Thunder eliminated in this season's West playoffs.
“We've learned a lot,” Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein said. “We've had to learn how to handle a lot of situations. I think that's going to help us now.”
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