The 2025 NBA Finals matchup is set, as the Indiana Pacers will take on the Oklahoma City Thunder with Game 1 tipping off on June 5. Both teams are battle-tested and will now face off against each other with the chance of being crowned champions.
The Pacers got here by beating the New York Knicks in six games in the Eastern Conference finals, while the Thunder took out the Minnesota Timberwolves also in five games to claim the West. The Thunder are heavy favorites out of the gate (-700 according to DraftKings), but Indiana has been playing as the underdog for most of these playoffs, so this will be no different feeling for them.
It might not be the matchup everyone expected, but it’s sure to be a thrilling series between two tactical teams that have proven they can win it all. As we quickly look ahead to the start of the NBA Finals, here are three early storylines that will impact this series.
This is going to be the main attraction of the series. Haliburton just walked through the Eastern Conference proving to everyone — mainly his fellow NBA players who voted him as most overrated player in the league — that he should be considered one of the top guards right now. He doesn’t always exert his scoring ability, as he’s more likely to get teammates involved and rack up assists than a high-volume scoring night, but we saw in Game 4 against the Knicks (32 points, 15 assists, 12 rebounds, four steals, zero turnovers) that he’s certainly capable of doing both without sacrificing quality of play.
But now Haliburton will face his toughest defensive test against an OKC team that will deploy a number of defenders to disrupt his flow. Alex Caruso made life unbearable for Anthony Edwards in the Western Conference finals, using a level of physicality that could similarly bother Haliburton, though the Pacers have far better ball movement than the Timberwolves did so that may not be as effective.
On the flip side of that, the Pacers will also have their hands full trying to slow down SGA, who was recently named league MVP and Western Conference finals MVP. He caused headaches for Minnesota, using his length and high IQ to slice into the paint and execute tough finishes or get to the free throw line. There’s no Jaden McDaniels on this Indiana team, but we just saw Aaron Nesmith chase around Jalen Brunson and he did an adequate enough job, though he’s certainly going to need to cut down on averaging four fouls throughout the postseason while trying to defend Gilgeous-Alexander. Fortunately, if Nesmith gets in foul trouble, Andrew Nembhard can slide over, in fact Nembhard may get the first crack at SGA as the primary defender before adjustments are made.
This series is going to start with how these two All-Star guards perform, and if the rest of the playoffs have been any indication we should be in store for some exciting performances from these two guys.
Depth could decide the series
These are two teams with some quality depth. The Thunder have the edge in terms of quantity, because the ninth guy in their rotation is probably better than Indiana’s eighth or seventh rotation player. So on paper the Thunder are going to have an edge here, but that doesn’t always translate to production on the floor.
We saw Jalen Williams play like the All-Star he is against the Timberwolves, but in the second round against the Nuggets he struggled to be an efficient offensive threat. The Thunder can turn to someone like Chet Holmgren to pick things up if Williams is struggling, and we’ve seen Caruso have an anomalous 20-point game, but OKC needs Williams to be consistent. This is a team with great depth, but it still needs its two All-Star players to operate at that level nearly every night.
The Pacers don’t rely as much on one or two players to score a majority of their points, even if on most nights that might be the case with a tag-team attack of Haliburton and Eastern Conference finals MVP Pascal Siakam.
But all five of Indiana’s stars average double-digit points, and it’s the third-highest scoring bench unit in the postseason. The Pacers have proven pretty much everyone wrong in this run to the Finals, and have looked impressive through large stretches, but they’re going to need guys like Nesmith, Nembhard and Myles Turner to be effective.
Turner especially is going to be an X-factor for the Pacers, and he’ll need to take advantage of mismatch opportunities if Holmgren is the one guarding him down low. If it’s Isaiah Hartenstein on Turner, Indiana can spread the floor and open up the paint for Haliburton to get to the rim. The Pacers will need Bennedict Mathurin to be better defensively when he’s on the floor and not commit carless mistakes or forced shots. Indiana will need their role players to carry over how they’ve played against the Knicks, because while the Thunder may be able to get away with relying on the top two or three guys to win four games, that’s not how the Pacers have gotten to the NBA Finals.
A common thread
Aside from being the final two teams standing, OKC and Indiana have a few other things in common. Both teams reside in small markets within the league, making this NBA Finals matchup a win for the little guys. They’re both anchored by young All-Star point guards and both front offices are led by guys — Sam Presti for the Thunder, Kevin Pritchard for the Pacers — who got their start working under R.C. Buford in the scouting department with the San Antonio Spurs. But there’s also one other big connector between these two teams that practically led to both making it to the NBA Finals: Paul George.
It’s not that George just played for both teams, which he did. It’s the fact that both teams traded the All-Star forward away for assets that directly — and indirectly — led to them building NBA Finals teams.
George and the Pacers
For the Pacers, it wasn’t directly trading George that magically got them to where they are, but it was certainly the first domino to fall. Indiana traded George in July of 2017 to the Thunder for Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis. It was the end of what was an exciting era of Pacers basketball where George led Indiana to two Eastern Conference finals appearances, but after seven years with the franchise that drafted him 10th overall in 2010, George was entering the final year of his contract and did not intend to re-sign with them, so Indiana dealt him a year earlier to get something in return.
Sabonis and Oladipo were a surprising success for the Pacers, leading to five playoff appearances, though they never managed to make it out of the first round. Following that five-year stretch, the Pacers missed the playoffs two years in a row and during the 2021-22 season in the midst of what was brewing to be another losing season, the Pacers decided it was time to pull the plug on the Sabonis era in Indiana. In February 2022, the Pacers sent Sabonis to the Sacramento Kings for a package centered around Haliburton, who we now know has been a rousing success for Indiana. If it hadn’t been for the Pacers trading George to the Thunder, specifically for Sabonis, they wouldn’t have gotten Haliburton, who has been the nucleus of this team’s success and the franchise cornerstone for the foreseeable future.
George and the Thunder
For the Thunder it’s a bit more cut and dry. After George was traded to OKC, he spent two All-Star seasons with the Thunder but he always wanted to play in Los Angeles. When he was with the Pacers, George originally wanted to play for the Lakers, but in the summer of 2019, after Kawhi Leonard just finished leading the Raptors to a championship, he basically told the Clippers he’d sign with them if they went and got Leonard. So the Clippers ponied up a haul for the Thunder, which included sending Gilgeous-Alexander, five future first-round picks and two pick swaps.
Not only did the Clippers give the Thunder their franchise centerpiece in SGA — and future MVP winner — but one of those draft picks — the 2022 first-round pick the Clippers sent in that deal — ended up becoming Jalen Williams, who earned All-Star, All-NBA and All-Defensive honors this season. That deal also netted OKC Tre Mann, who they’ve since traded, and they still have L.A.’s 2026 unprotected first-round pick at their disposal to keep bolstering a roster that is now four wins away from an NBA championship.
No one could’ve predicted things would’ve panned out this well for both the Thunder and Pacers from trading George, but it is a funny thought that George’s trade value helped build two title contenders over the years.
