OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma City Thunder coach Mark Daigneault called the Indiana Pacers an acquired taste.
“We haven’t played them a ton,” Daigneault said. “They’re not in the West obviously. They play a very distinct style on both ends.”
After wasting an opportunity to win Game 1, the Thunder were left with a bitter aftertaste against the never-quite Pacers.
The Thunder devoured the Pacers in Game 2 Sunday, June 8, evening the NBA Finals with a 123-107 victory.
While the Pacers stole home-court advantage, they haven’t played great and it’s starting to become an issue as the series moves to Indianapolis for Games 3 and 4.
“Another bad first half,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “Obviously, it was a big problem, and we just played poorly. A little bit better in the second half but you can’t be a team that’s reactive and expect to be successful or have consistency.”
At this stage, the Pacers cannot rely on their ability to complete a comeback. They need to start better, and now, it’s on Carlisle and his staff to figure that out. Indiana trailed by as many as 23 points, and while the comebacks have been compelling, it’s not a recipe for playoff success.
“We’re going to have to be a lot better on Wednesday,” Carlisle said.
The Pacers have led for just one minute and 53.3 seconds of the 96 minutes in two games and their biggest lead is three points. It’s tiresome to play from behind for that long.
The Thunder were more physical, dominated the paint for the second consecutive game and limited Tyrese Haliburton to a quiet 17 points, 12 of which came in the fourth quarter when Oklahoma City had control of the game and was not in the mood to blow another double-digit lead.
How did the Pacers handle Oklahoma City’s physicality?
“Not well,” Carlisle said.
“They were the best in the league during the year at keeping people out of there (paint). They are great at it. We have to find ways to get the ball in there, and you know, it’s just there are so many things that have to go right on a set of two possessions to get the ball into the heart of their defense.”
Throughout the season and especially the playoffs, the Thunder’s top-ranked defense finds a way to take away or limit the opponent’s strengths. They did it against Denver and Minnesota in the Western conference semifinals and finals.
“Our offense is built from the inside-out, and we have to do a better job getting downhill,” Haliburton said. “They collapse and make plays from there. I thought we could improve a lot there. But yeah, they are flying around. They have got great point-of-attack defenders and great rim protectors. We can do a better job, watch the film, and see where we can get better going into Game 3.”
What about Haliburton’s performance?
“There’s a lot more to the game than just scoring. … People shouldn’t just look at his points and assists and judge how he played, or judge how any of our guys played just on that,” Carlisle said. “That’s not how our team is built. We are an ecosystem that has to function together. We’ve got to score enough points to win the game but who gets them and how they get them, not important.”
Pascal Siakam found no consolation in getting a split and grabbing home-court advantage in the series.
“You want to win every game you play, so we are not happy with how the game went today, and that’s it,” he said. “We’ve just got to turn the page, focus on Game 3. That’s the biggest game of the year.”
This series is much closer to being a 2-0 Thunder lead than a 2-0 Pacers lead, and between Game 1 and 2, Carlisle compared a playoff series to a book.
“Each game in this series is going to look different,” he said. “A playoff series is a series of seven chapters, and each one takes on a different personality.”
If the Pacers don’t find a way to start the next chapter better than they have, the book is going to close quickly on their championship aspirations.
Follow NBA columnist Jeff Zillgitt on social media @JeffZillgitt