NBA Finals Game 1 Takeaways: Pacers Shock Thunder on Haliburton’s Game winner

Melissa Rohl

FOX Sports NBA writer

The NBA final is here, with no. 1 seed Oklahoma City Thunder and the no. 4 Seed Indiana Pacers Squaring off with the hope of lifting their very first Larry O’Brien trophy at the end of the long-awaited series.

This is the first final of the Pacers since 2000, when they eventually fell on the Lakers In six games. De Thunder made the final for the last time in 2012 and lost LeBron James and the Miami Heat In five games. This is what is striking about game 1 and what to expect from game 2:

Game 1: Pacers 111, Thunder 110

What stood out for the Thunder: Oklahoma City learned a very important lesson in game 1 of the final. No. Lead. Is. Safe. In return for. The. Pacers. Ever. The Pacers, who had several historical comebacks this late season, again pulled the unlikely and rushed back from a 15-point backlog in the fourth quarter to take their first lead of the game with 0.3 seconds after after Tyrese haliburton Made a 21-foot pull-up jumper to anesthetize the Thunder and their sold-out crowd in Paycom Center. This was the ultimate wake-up call for the Thunder, which kept control for more than 47 minutes, behind a 38-point performance of Shai Gilgeous-AlexanderThose twice as many points scored as any other player on the field. But Haliburton, who made this late season for himself with three buzzers and go-ahead buckets on the way to the final, made the Thunder his newest victim.

What stood out for the pacers: Although Haliburton’s late game Heldhafters have already become Playoff survival, it would be nice if he and his team were not in that position. The pacers had no less than 25 turnover, while the Thunder only had seven. They also had 16 fewer field goal attempts than the Thunder. For a large part of the game, the Pacers struggled to generate a lot of attack against the swarming Thunder defense, without a player on Indiana even scored 20 points. Although the Thunder only led 15 points, it seemed as if their lead was twice as large for a large part of the competition – until the fourth quarter when the comeback kings did what they do best.

What to expect in Game 2: For the Thunder they have clearly realized that they have to play all 48 minutes against this Pacers team, which made it very clear that they never resign. They cannot allow the pacers to go on heating late in the game, such as when they went on a 12-2 fourth quarter to reduce their 15-point shortage to just four points. If the pacers are at a striking distance, the opposite team is in trouble. As far as the pacers are concerned, while Haliburton is again the hero of the play -offs, he only scored 14 points. He must be much more aggressive for the pacers to prevent him from having to trust a buzzer beater. In the meantime, the Pacers have done an excellent job to dominate the boards, where they had an advantage of 56-39. If they can get less sales and Haliburton gets going early, they can be in a different position in game 2.

Melissa Rohlin is on NBA Writer for FOX Sports. She previously covered the competition for Sports Illustrated, De Los Angeles Times, the Bay Area News Group and the San Antonio Express-News. Follow her on twitter @melissarohl.

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