2025 NBA Finals Overview: Thunder VS Pacers Storylines, including Star PG Matchup and Paul George History

2025 Nba The final match is defined because the Indiana Pacers will take it Oklahoma City Thunder With match 1, June 5. The two teams are tested in combat and will now compete with the chance of being crowned champions.

The pacers arrived here by beating the New York Knicks In six games in the Eastern Conference final, while the Thunder withdrew the Minnesota Timberwolves Also in five games to claim the West. The Thunder are heavy favorites out of the door (-700 according to the Draftings), but the Indiana played as outsider for most of these qualifying series, it will therefore not be a different feeling for them.

It may not be the match that everyone was waiting for, but it will certainly be an exciting series between two tactical teams that have proven that they can win everything. While we quickly look at the start of the NBA finals, here are three first scenarios that will have an impact on this series.

It will be the main attraction of the series. Haliburton has just crossed the Eastern Conference proving to everyone – mainly his colleagues players from the NBA who voted him as The most surfed player in the league – that he should be considered one of the best guards at the moment. He does not always exercise his notation capacity, because he is more likely to have his teammates involve and accumulate assists than a night of score at high volume, but we saw in match 4 against the Knicks (32 points, 15 assists, 12 rebounds, four interceptions, zero reversals) that he is certainly capable of doing the two without sacrificing the quality of the game.

But now Haliburton will face his most difficult defensive test against a OKC team that will deploy a number of defenders to disturb his flow. Alex Caruso rendered unbearable life for Anthony Edwards In the finals of the Western Conference, the use of a level of physicality which could also disturb Haliburton, although the Pacers have a much better ball movement than the Timberwolves, which may not be as effective.

On the other hand, the Pacers will also have their hands full by trying to slow down SGA, who was recently appointed MVP of the League and MVP of the Western Conference finals. He caused headache for Minnesota, using its length and its high IQ to decide in the paint and execute difficult finishes or go to the free throw line. There is no Jaden McDaniels in this Indiana team, but we have just seen Aaron Nesmith hunt Jalen Brunson And he has done sufficiently sufficient work, although he will certainly have to reduce the average of four faults throughout the playoffs while trying to defend Gilgeous-Alexander. Fortunately, if Nesmith has big troubles, Andrew Nembhard Can slip, in fact, Nembhard can get the first crack at SGA as the main defender before adjustments.

This series will start with the way these two All-Star guards occur, and if the other playoffs have been an indication, we should be in reserve for exciting performances of these two guys.

The depth could decide the series

These are two teams with a certain quality depth. Thunder has the advantage in terms of quantity, because the ninth guy in his rotation is probably better than the eighth or seventh Rotation player of Indiana. So, on paper, thunder will have an advantage here, but that is not always translated into production on the ground.

We have seen Jalen Williams play like the stars that he is against the Timberwolves, but in the second round against the Nuggets He had a hard time being an effective offensive threat. Thunder can turn to someone like Chet Holmgren To pick up things if Williams has trouble, and we saw Caruso having an abnormal game of 20 points, but OKC needs Williams to be consistent. It is a team with great depth, but it still needs its two star players to operate at this level almost every evening.

The Pacers do not count as much on one or two players to score a majority of their points, even if most nights, this could be the case with an attack on the Haliburton team and the final of the Eastern MVP Conference Pascal Siakam.

But the five stars of Indiana on average on average two -digit points, and it is the third highest of score benches in the playoffs. The Pacers have proven that everyone is wrong in this race in the final and looks impressive through large sections, but they will need guys like Nesmith, Nembhard and Myles Turner be effective.

Turner will above all be an X factor for the Pacers, and he will have to take advantage of the time -off opportunities if Holmgren is the one who kept it low. If it is Isaiah Hartenstein On Turner, Indiana can spread the ground and open the painting for Haliburton to go to the edge. The Pacers will need Benédict Mathurin to be better defensively when he is on the ground and does not make mistakes without a car or forced shooting. Indiana will need their players to explain how they played against the Knicks, because even if the Thunder can escape by relying on the two or three guys top to win four games, this is not how the Pacers have reached the NBA final.

A common thread

In addition to being the last two standing teams, OKC and Indiana have some other things in common. The two teams live in small markets within the League, making this NBA final a victory for the little guys. They are both anchored by young All -Star guards and the two front offices are led by guys – Sam Presti for the Thunder, Kevin Pritchard for the Pacers – who began to work under RC BUFORD in the department of scouting with the San Antonio Spurs. But there is also another large connector between these two teams which has practically led to the NBA final: Paul George.

It is not that George has just played for both teams, which he did. This is the fact that the two teams negotiated The stars in front for the assets which, directly – and indirectly – led them to constitute teams from the NBA finals.

George and the Pacers

For the Pacers, it was not directly to exchange George who brought them as if by magic where they are, but it was certainly the first domino to die for. Indiana exchanged George in July 2017 at Thunder Victor Oladipo And Sabonis Domantas. It was the end of what was an exciting era of pacers basketballs where George led Indiana to two appearances in the final of the Eastern Conference, but after seven years with the franchise which wrote it 10th in the general classification in 2010, George entered the last year of his contract and had not intended to decide a sign with them, so Indiana did a year earlier back.

Sabonis and Oladipo were a surprising success for the Pacers, leading to five appearances in playoffs, although they never managed to get out of the first round. After this five-year section, the Pacers missed the playoffs two years in a row and during the 2021-22222 season in the middle of what was preparing to be another losing season, the Pacers decided that it was time to put the branch on the Sabonis era in Indiana. In February 2022, the Pacers sent Sabonis to Sacramento Kings For a Package centered on Haliburton, which we now know was an exciting success for Indiana. If it was not for the pacers exchanging George to the Thunder, in particular for Sabonis, they would not have obtained Haliburton, which was the core of the success of this team and the cornerstone of the franchise in the predictable future.

George and the Thunder

For thunder, it’s a little more cut and dry. After George was exchanged in OKC, he spent two seasons of stars 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 LakersBut in the summer of 2019, after Kawhi Leonard I just finished directing the Raptors In a championship, he mainly said to Mower He would sign with them if they were going to get Leonard. Thus, the Clippers put a blow for the Thunder, which included the sending of Gilgeous-Alexander, five future first round choices and two exchanges of choice.

Not only did the Clippers gave the Thunder their center franchise in SGA – and the future MVP winner – but one of these recovery choices – the choice of first round in 2022 that the Clippers sent in this agreement – ended up becoming Jalen Williams, who won All -Star, All -NBA and All -Defensive Honors this season. This agreement also marked OKC Be mannthat they have since exchanged, and they have always had the choice of first unprotected round in 2026 at their disposal to continue to strengthen a list which is now four victories from an NBA championship.

No one could have predicted that things could have happened This Well for the Thunder and the Pacers of Trading George, but it is a funny thought that the commercial value of George has helped to build two contenders for the title over the years.