Thunder’s Game 1 Loss is a Blessing in Disguise

The Oklahoma City Thunder returned to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2012, as heavy favorites over the Indiana Pacers to win the Finals.

The Thunders elite defense showed up, forcing 25 turnovers in the game.

Unfortunately, they werent able to capitalize on it by scoring only 11 points on those turnovers.

In addition, the Pacers epic comebacks returned in Game 1 of the Finals, as they outscored the Thunder 12-2 in the last three minutes of the game to give the Thunder its second Game 1 loss of these playoffs.

Tyrese Haliburton made a game-winning contested jumper with just .3 seconds left in the game to take a 1-0 series lead and give the Pacers homecourt advantage.

While, this loss sucks for the Thunder now with how they lost it, a Game 1 loss could actually be a good thing for them and help them to win the NBA Finals.

Theres always the possibility that it could result in a snowball effect that could end up being OKCs doom.

Nevertheless, lets explore why it might be a blessing in disguise.

Thunders Game 1 Loss is a Blessing in Disguise The Thunder Have Been in This Situation Before The Thunder losing Game 1 of the Finals the way they did is going to be a tough pill for Thunder fans to swallow.

Two results can happen from this Game 1 loss for the Thunder.

Either this loss will consume them and they wont be able to respond, or this loss will motivate them and help them respond to win the Finals.

The good news is the Thunder have responded from losses all year and in the playoffs, as they have only lost two consecutive games in a row twice all year, and none of those happened in the playoffs.

In addition, the Thunder have been in this position before in the Nuggets series, which brought out the best in this young OKC team.

This is exactly why the Thunder wanted to play the Nuggets in the second round to prepare them for moments like this.

They responded again, and again in that series, and ended up winning Game 7 to advance.

The Thunder are going to have to take the lessons they learned in that series and apply them in the Finals to have a chance to get out of this early hole they put themselves in.

This Thunder team is a resilient group, and there should be no doubt that they can respond after another heartbreaking loss in the playoffs.

The Thunder Can Play Much Better A reason Thunder fans should be encouraged with the OKCs ability to respond is that they can play way better than they did in Game 1.

There are a ton of things the Thunder can improve on.

The first one is taking advantage of the turnovers you can force on the Pacers.

Indiana is very good at taking care of the ball, and the Thunder were able to force them into 25 turnovers.

However, they couldnt capitalize on those as they only scored 11 points off those turnovers.

This can not continue moving forward in this series.

The second thing is shooting the ball better.

The Thunder shot 36.7% from three, which is a respectable number in the playoffs; however, they only shot 39.8% from the field, which just isnt good enough.

The third thing is that Shai Gilgeous-Alexanders co-stars need to play better.

Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren are coming off of great performances in the Western Conference Finals, but they struggled in Game 1 of the Finals.

Williams scored 17 points on a poor 32% shooting night, while Holmgren added six points.

Gilgeous-Alexander played like an MVP , scoring 38 points, but he cant do it alone and needs help.

How Much Better Can the Pacers Play? Finally, the Pacers played pretty well all night, except that they turned the ball over 25 times.

Outside of that, there wasnt anything the Pacers did that was bad, and now the question becomes, how much better can the Pacers play? The Pacers played the best they could play on this Thunder team and still needed a late-game comeback to just win by one.

The Pacers shot the ball extremely well, shooting 46.2% from three, and they won the rebounding battle.

You can point to Haliburton and Pascal Siakam in playing better, but it will be hard for them to get things going against the Thunders elite defense.

Outside of limiting the turnovers, there isnt a clear thing you can say the Pacers need to improve to play better, which should be another encouraging sign that the Thunder can get right back in this series.

The Last Word With multiple days in between games, this loss is going to sting and sit in Oklahoma for a while.

However, this team is a resilient group and has responded all year after a loss, and there should be no doubt that it can happen again.

Game 2 is essentially a must-win for the Thunder, and if they can get a win to tie the series 1-1, they will be right back in it.

Then it is the old saying in the NBA to just steal one game on the road, just like the Thunder did in the Nuggets series.

After that, they return home for a pivotal Game 5.

Unfortunately, with the Game 1 loss, this is the most likely path for the Thunder to win the Finals, as they did the same thing against the Nuggets; they will have to do it again.

This article first appeared on Last Word On Sports and was syndicated with permission..

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