Finals Game Two: Live and Learn

Game One of the NBA Finals saw the Oklahoma City Thunder on the verge of possibly beating down the Indiana Pacers and racking up yet another dominant win in this run. They were up by as much as 15 points, they were owning the game all night, and the Pacers didn't have the answers, until the fourth quarter happened. Indy chipped away at OKC's lead, bit by bit, until it was down to one possession. Finally, the masterpiece: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander turning the ball over, and it ends up in the hands of Tyrese Haliburton, and he does it again.

So what started out as another potential dominant OKC win ended up becoming another Indy road comeback, and as a result, it was 1-0 for the road team. Entering Game Two, the Thunder--the very team with the best record in the entire Association--had their backs to the wall. They needed this. They saw what Indy did to the Bucks, Cavaliers, and the Knicks. The Thunder could not be the next statistic.

The first quarter in this game appeared to be closer than Game One was, but it ended with the Thunder up six. OKC turned it up some more, thanks to a good start by Chet Holmgren for the most part. Similar to Game One, the Pacers couldn't find the right stuff in the first half, and as a result, the Thunder were up 59-41 at halftime. Once again, OKC had a huge halftime lead. They had a huge halftime lead in Game One, but we all know how that ended. As the famous saying goes, "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

And as we would see in the second half, the Thunder learned from history.

The third quarter was close, but definitely looked like OKC took it over. This was definitley not the same second-half Thunder we saw in Game One. The Thunder kept their feet on the gas this time. They didn't let up. Their lead actually reached 20+ points at some point. It went down a bit, but definitely not enough for the Pacers to even think of gaining ground. The Thunder remained resilient, continued their strong play, and took Game Two.

The Thunder won Game Two, 123-107, and the NBA Finals is all even at one. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander added 34 more points in this series, giving him an overall total of 72, which breaks Allen Iverson's record for the most total points in his first two NBA Finals games (Iverson had 71 combined points in the first two games of the 2001 Finals). For the second straight game, no Pacer had 20 points, but unlike Game One, Haliburton was the lead scorer with 17, though he had a very slow start to this game. Pascal Siakam had a double-double in Game One, but in this game: 15 points, 7 rebounds.

The Thunder needed this one badly, because they could ill afford to head on the road down 2-0. For the 42nd time in NBA history, the NBA Finals is 1-1 after two games. Winning Game Three in this exact scenario is absolutely important. Out of the previous 41 winners of Game Three following a 1-1 Finals, 33 of them go on to win the series. That's 80.5% of the time, the highest percentage of the three main championship series (NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Final, World Series).

Game Three is Wednesday in Indianapolis.

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