Oklahoma City Thunder Sports 1 was better basketball team for about 45 minutes NBA Final against Indiana PacersThrough the entire first half, Thunder executed the elite accuracy, shown on the grandeur of the NBA stages as to why this team was liked as Crown Champion. The rescue was wandering. Shay Gilgius-Alexander Every “MVP” was chanting. The OKC generally looked at Indiana’s sharp-throttle, frantic crime as if they forgot how to play basketball completely.

But regardless of how effective a team is, it does not seem when they are playing against pacers. Get back from a 15 -digit deficit, Tieres haliburton Indiana A Give a Go-Foreword Jumper with 0.3 seconds in the game to give 111-110 wins To take a 1-0 series lead on Thursday in Game 1. Current fans usually became silent inside the Packom Center as they became the latest victims of Heliberton and Indiana late sports heroes.

This is an incredibly difficult pill to swallow the thunder, but a lot of time cannot be spent in Thursday’s necklace. Oklahoma City will have to convert the page to game 2 on Sunday and learn from the mistakes they also want to increase this series. As the OKC game tries to shake the spirit of 1 off, there are three keys for them to bounce back and flip the script on Indiana.

1. Convert turnover into digits

If Thunder had not blowing the game under stretch, its biggest story would have been about OKC’s strong ball pressure and Indiana’s unpublished for it. Through the first half, the pacers performed 20 turnover, an absurd number that looks fake if you don’t watch the game. But the first two quarters were shining with shining examples of how stressful it can be to play against a protective unit that appoints a group of players who could serve as the entirety of an all-defensive team.

Indiana could not only score in her Hafcourt crime, and at any time she tried to create a scoring opportunity, there were one or two OKC defenders who were ready to swipe on the ball. This is the type of team-wide defensive performance that would give bad dreams to opponents, the game went in favor of OKC. But even all theft, deflection and general anarchy protected the thunder, they took only 12 points lead to Haftime. This is because despite forcing the pacers to turn the ball 20 times in the first half, the OKC only scored nine points from those turnover.

Thunder coach Mark Dagnelt said after the loss, “I felt that our adaptation on the turnover in the first half causes us a little harm.” “Like, we did not find the kind of juice for the squeeze that we do normally when we turn on the teams. We can take a look at it.”

There were a lot of turnover dead-balls, which means an aggressive dishonesty was called, the ball was out of the boundary, or a player stepped out, so it limited the OKC from getting out in infection to get easy marks. But still, Thunder shot the ball 19 times compared to pace, and still could not make capital on it. It has to be converted to game 2, as pacers are customly a low turnover team, so when you get an opportunity like the first half presented on Thursday night, OKC has to take advantage of it. Indiana took better care of the ball in the second half – only five turnover – and the concluded minutes managed to make a run and win the game for a long time.

2. Holmagren and Williams need to find a rhythm

This was a teamwide issue, but for the reason that Thunder struggled to convert on those turnover, it was that the crime was just spit for most of the game. He shot about 40% from the ground, and when he had a good shooting night from the 3-point range, there was most of the reasons for this. Luguintz dort And Gilgius-Alexander, who combined to go deep to 8–15. The remaining team left 3–15. Jalen Williams Gone 1 for 4 and went 6–19 from the ground at night. The level of incompetence is not going to bite it against a pacers team that performs well in clutch situations.

The same goes to Holmagraine, who made only two of them on low shot volumes (nine attempts). All of the Holmagren’s shots were correct on the rim, he was not just able to convert. Credit Indiana protects, especially Miles Turner Who did a big job to save Holmagrain without fouling – an issue that was against him Nix,

Turner has the advantage of strength against Holmagren, so he originally stoned the thunder big man throughout the night. And when the Holmagren became elevated for a shot, the Turner was there to challenge it.

Holmagren said, “I think we are really getting good cracks, looking good, getting benefits.” Especially himself, just did not eliminate those plays. Got slow and see how I can convert those people. ,

Thunder has to find out how to create different opportunities for Holmagraine because trying to go straight to the turn is not the answer. It is probably the answer to the turner to pull away from the basket and force him to rescue in space, and it worked on one of the two shots Holmagren on Thursday night.

Turner still managed to recover well despite Holmagraine receiving an angle on the big man of pacers, but Holmagren were able to finish through contact, something that they would have to do in this series.

For Williams, it was not that he was taking bad shots; He did not just knock them. The same goes to the team for a lot. Pacers deserve some credits, but in that first half, OKC was actually struggling to hit some wide open looks. Therefore, going into the game 2, they need people such as Williams and Holmagrain to find more stability, so Thursday night does not repeat again.

3. The short ball cannot be answered

Daigneault raised some eyebrows when it was announced that Thunder would be switching a one in its initial lineup, Kaisan Wallace For Isaiah HeartensteinIt was a chess trick from the Thunder, who selected a small lineup out of the gate for a better matchup against an Indiana team, which has the ability to thank the floor 5-wide to the floor for the Turner’s ability to shoot 3S. Having a floor on the floor rather than heartenstein also gives the OKC more speed and faster to struggle with pace’s fast-paced crime.

While it was understood on paper, and for a large part of the game, it Did Work, thunder was completely amazed on glass, in which +17 benefited in Indiana.

“I felt that Kaisan was happening [Wallace] There is actually defensively, giving us another circumference man for Haliberton and Nembhard, this was the idea, “Daigneault said.

In the first half, in addition to the dort, being the one and Alex Caruso, There was an impact on Indiana, which was struggling to achieve things aggressively. But towards his flip, pacers were capable of hunting mismatched with vallace Pascal SiakamThose who had no issue attacking Versus in the post.

Hartenstein not exhaling for a long time for a long time also means that Siakam can either throw his weight more around when the glass is crashed, then leading to the points of the second opportunity:

Or was not a big lean under the rim to grab a rebound for this drama when Gilgas-Alexander is caught sleeping, which allowed Siakam to cut the backdoor for an easy putback:

Siakam was not able to exploit mism He A lot for daigneault to leave that small balls. In fact, Thunder’s closing lineup excluded both Holmagrain and Heartenstein, in which Wallace and Caruso took their place. But if the OKC continues with that strategy in this series, Passers can see Siakam to feed the ball and let him go to work against small defenders.

Fortunately, Thunder is great in responding after losing a game to this postsen. They do not lose back-to-back games at any point in the playoffs, and have lost several games in a row only twice during the regular session. This tells us that OKC will make the necessary adjustment to respond in a major way for game 2.