OKLAHOMA CITY — In these NBA Finals, a team is four wins away from getting the last laugh.
Ask anyone on the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers if they’re still fueled by doubters, and the answer is probably going to be an immediate ‘’yes.’’ Thunder star and NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander went 11th in his draft. Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton went 12th in his. Both sides have undrafted players in their rotation.
Here they are: The NBA Finals, which start Thursday night in Oklahoma City. The Thunder have, by far, the NBA’s best record this season. The Pacers have the league’s second-best record since Jan. 1, including playoffs. And both teams have rolled through the postseason, going 12-4 in the first three rounds.
‘’I’ll continue to tell you guys in certain moments that it doesn’t matter what people say, but it matters — and I enjoy it," Haliburton said. “I think the greats try to find external motivation as much as they can and that’s something that’s always worked for me.’’
It’s not like more motivation is needed. Not for the next couple of weeks, anyway. Indiana is chasing its first NBA title. Oklahoma City — technically — is also seeking its first; the franchise won a championship when it played in Seattle in 1979. These are teams that combined to win 49 games just three seasons ago, and now they’re the last two standing.
‘’Staying true to who we are is the reason why we’re here," Gilgeous-Alexander said. ‘’We’d be doing ourselves a disservice if we changed or tried to be something we’re not once we got here. We’ve had success doing so. If we want to keep having success, we have to be who we are. It’s organic. It’s nothing we have to think about or force. It’s just who we are, no matter the moment.’’
The Thunder are enormous favorites in the series, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, and understandably so. They’re 80-18 including the regular season and postseason, plus went 29-1 in the regular season against the Eastern Conference and have more double-digit wins — 61 and counting — than any team in any season in NBA history.
‘’We’ve got a lot of work cut out for us,’’ Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. ‘’A lot of our guys have been through a lot of situations where they’ve been underdogs in the past. It’s simply going to come down to us being able to play our game at the best possible level. We’re going to need to take care of the ball because these guys turn people over at an historic rate, and we’re going to have to make some shots.’’
