The NBA Finals are all square after two games, with the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder splitting victories as the series shifts to Indianapolis for Game 3 on Wednesday night.
"The goal now is to get to three wins," Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said Tuesday during a workout at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. "It’s like a clean slate – 1-1, basically 0-0. First team to three takes it."
Gilgeous-Alexander powered Oklahoma City to a bounce-back win in Game 2, answering Tyrese Haliburton’s dramatic Game 1 floater – his fourth game-winner of these playoffs. The reigning MVP has poured in 72 points over the first two games, setting a record for a Finals debut.
Haliburton played through discomfort in Sunday’s loss, hounded by Oklahoma City’s swarming defense that worked to funnel the ball to Pascal Siakam and Indiana’s secondary scorers.
Haliburton said Tuesday he does have a "lower-body thing" affecting him but plans to be on the floor when Indiana hosts an NBA Finals game for the first time since losing to the Los Angeles Lakers in 2000.
Pacers coach Rick Carlisle, going for his second NBA title as a head coach, has consistently reminded his young team not to dwell on the good, bad or ugly from the first two games as they embrace the opportunity of playing on their home floor.
"Everything that's already happened doesn't matter, other than the score of the series," Carlisle said. "We have to move forward."
The Pacers led for 0.3 seconds in Game 1 and a total of 1 minute, 56 seconds of the possible 96 minutes in the first two games of the series.
They're looking for a boost from being at home – and answers for slowing down Gilgeous-Alexander, who expects a fresh mix of defensive looks from Indiana after two full off days since Oklahoma City's 123-107 win Sunday night.
"A series is so tricky. It definitely is a feeling-out," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "But there's also so many adjustments made to where it's almost hard to predict and try to determine what they're going to do with you. You kind of just have to be ready for everything and just try to be as sharp as you can. That's how I kind of see it."
The Pacers overcame a 15-point deficit in the fourth quarter of Game 1 to steal one in Oklahoma City, 111-110.
Getting to the rim has been a tall order for Indiana. The Pacers have been outscored by 20 points in the paint. Resolve has been a defining trait in the team’s postseason success – they’re 4-0 in the playoffs following a loss.
To gain control of the Finals, Carlisle is stressing the importance of limiting turnovers without taking their foot off the gas. Haliburton tied his playoff high with five turnovers in Game 2 and entered the fourth quarter with just five points.
"You try to address those things as best as we can. Tyrese has been historically great with ball security," Carlisle said. "This team that we're playing now presents unprecedented challenges because they've been turning everybody over through the entire playoffs. We're going to have to have really great spatial awareness with everything that we're doing. You can't play too careful against Oklahoma City or otherwise you'll never get a basket."
Oklahoma City's defensive approach is likely to remain the same in Game 3 – unless the Pacers prove they can handle the on-ball pressure. How Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault executes his plan is anyone's guess.
He used more than 700 lineup combinations during the regular season – more than any team in the league – and found unique groups to gain an edge on the boards in Game 2.
"We have a group of guys that are just ready to play," Thunder guard Jalen Williams said. "Everybody is kind of waiting for their opportunity. We have so many different lineups throughout the course of the year that nobody is shocked when Mark wants to go small, change this around or do that."
Daigneault doesn’t take credit for mixing it up, nor is he concerned with being predictable. The only advantage he wants the Thunder to have at the end of the game is more possessions than the opponent. From his vantage point, that’s the path to a 2-1 series lead on Wednesday.
"The general battle we're trying to win is the possession battle. There's different ways to do that," Daigneault said. "In the first game, we were able to win it with turnovers, which tends to be the way we can win it when we're smaller. In the second game, we obviously rebounded better in those units, which is an advantage when we're bigger.
"We have optionality. Every game is different."
The series stays in Indiana for Game 4 on Friday night before shifting to Oklahoma City for Game 5 on Monday. If necessary, Game 6 is scheduled for Thursday, June 19, in Indianapolis.
"It's like our sixth man," Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard said of playing at home. "Brings us energy, keeps us together. It's going to be exciting."
