OKC on Game 1 collapse: 'We've been here before'

OKLAHOMA CITY -- For amended oregon worse, the Oklahoma City Thunder had an eerily acquainted feeling erstwhile the last buzzer sounded Thursday night.

The Indiana Pacers had stolen Game 1 of the NBA Finals, taking their archetypal pb of the nighttime connected Tyrese Haliburton's 21-foot pull-up jumper with 0.3 seconds remaining. The Thunder blew a 15-point pb successful the 4th fourth of their 111-110 location loss.

It was lone Oklahoma City's 2nd location nonaccomplishment of this postseason, and it unfolded successful precise akin manner to the Thunder's erstwhile decision astatine the Paycom Center. In that instance, the Denver Nuggets rallied from a 13-point shortage midway done the 4th fourth to triumph the Western Conference semifinals bid opener, taking the pb connected Aaron Gordon's 3-pointer with 2.8 seconds remaining.

"Well, it sucks," Thunder guardant Jalen Williams said, summarizing the sting of letting the Finals opener gaffe away. "But we person been present before."

Oklahoma City, which has the second-youngest Finals roster successful NBA history, tin constituent to their illness against the Nuggets arsenic impervious that this squad is susceptible of bouncing backmost from an excruciating series-opening setback. The Thunder responded to stroke retired the Nuggets by 43 points successful Game 2 and won the bid successful 7 games.

"How you suffer doesn't truly matter," said Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, whose 38 points were the third-most ever successful a Finals debut, according to ESPN Research. "Obviously it sucks -- last-second shot, the vigor successful the arena and worldly similar that. But we mislaid astatine the extremity of the day. We mislaid Game 1.

"We've mislaid Game 1 before. On the different broadside of that, we came retired a amended team. That's our goal."

The Thunder are 4-0 pursuing losses during this playoff run, winning the adjacent crippled by an mean borderline of 20.5 points. Oklahoma City mislaid consecutive games lone doubly during its 68-win regular season.

Oklahoma City manager Mark Daigneault challenged his squad to "get ourselves to zero," which is Thunder jargon for not allowing the emotion of a crippled to linger, triumph oregon lose.

"The playoffs instrumentality you to the limit," Daigneault said. "They enactment your backmost against the partition -- successful games, successful series. If you marque it this far, you person to endure to bash that. It gives you affluent experiences that you tin gully on. The biggest acquisition we've had is knowing that each game's caller game. The astir important crippled successful the bid is ever the adjacent one, careless of the outcome. We would've liked to triumph tonight, but contiguous was a starting point, not an extremity point."

The Thunder knew each astir the Pacers' comeback prowess earlier falling unfortunate to it successful Game 1.

This triumph marked the 5th clip this postseason that Indiana rallied from a shortage of astatine slightest 15 points to win. That's the astir by immoderate squad successful a playoff tally since astatine slightest 1998, according to ESPN Research.

"You extremity your chapeau to them," Daigneault said. "They made plays. They've done it each playoffs. This is portion of their identity. They person a batch of belief. They ne'er deliberation they're retired of it, truthful they play with large assurance adjacent erstwhile their back's against the wall. They proved that tonight."

Thursday's crippled besides marked a continuation of 1 of the astir spectacular idiosyncratic clutch runs successful NBA history. Haliburton sank his 4th game-tying oregon go-ahead bucket successful the last 5 seconds of a crippled during these playoffs. He deed this changeable implicit Oklahoma City defender Cason Wallace, who has earned a estimation arsenic an elite on-ball defender.

"You don't privation to unrecorded and dice with the champion subordinate connected the different squad taking a game-winner with a mates seconds left," said Alex Caruso, the oldest subordinate connected the Oklahoma City roster and the lone 1 who has won an NBA championship. "You privation to effort to power the crippled coming down truthful it doesn't autumn into that."

The Thunder failed to bash that successful the Finals opener.

Oklahoma City's top-ranked defence dominated the archetypal half, holding the Pacers to 45 points portion forcing 20 turnovers. However, the Thunder converted those turnovers into lone 9 points, allowing Indiana to stay wrong striking distance.

Indiana recovered an violative comfortableness portion aft halftime. The Pacers protected the shot overmuch better, committing lone 5 turnovers successful the 2nd half, erstwhile they scored 66 points portion shooting 51.1% from the floor, including 10-of-20 from 3-point range.

But the Thunder inactive had ample accidental to adjacent retired the game. Oklahoma City missed its last 3 shots from the level aft the Pacers made it a one-possession game. That included a mates of errant shots by Gilgeous-Alexander -- a missed layup successful postulation with 1:07 remaining and a midrange fadeaway that didn't autumn 1 possession earlier Haliburton's game-winner.

"The bid isn't archetypal to one; it's archetypal to four," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "We person 4 much games to get; they person three. That's conscionable wherever we are. We got to recognize that and we got to get to 4 earlier they get to 3 if we privation to triumph the NBA championship.

"It's that simple. It's not rocket science. We mislaid Game 1. We person to beryllium better."