NBA Finals 2025 - 7 plays defining the Thunder-Pacers series - ESPN

An unexpectedly competitive, but expectedly entertaining, NBA Finals have transformed from a best-of-seven to a best-of-three, as the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder alternated wins in the first four games.

Recently, they've even alternated winning styles, too. The Thunder led most of Game 3, but the Pacers surged ahead with a big fourth quarter, and Oklahoma City pulled the same comeback trick in Game 4.

Through four games, the two teams are separated by just six points, and they could be headed for the first Finals Game 7 since the clash between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors in 2016. In advance of a pivotal Game 5 (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC), here are seven plays that have defined the tactics and narratives of the 2025 Finals, explaining how the series reached 2-2 and where it might be headed.

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Let's start in Game 3, when the Pacers took one of their favorite tactics to the extreme. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's pick-and-rolls have set the stage for a delightful game-within-a-game in the Finals. The Pacers harried him in Game 1, so Oklahoma City tweaked its screening tactics in Game 2, setting more picks high up the court to open space for the league MVP.

Then, Indiana responded, denying Gilgeous-Alexander the ball. If he doesn't have possession, it doesn't matter where the Thunder would prefer to screen for him. Through Game 2 of the Finals, Gilgeous-Alexander had brought up the ball on 61% of the Thunder's possessions when he was on the court, according to an analysis of GeniusIQ tracking data.

But against Indiana's intense full-court pressure in Games 3 and 4, that percentage dropped by half, as SGA brought up the ball on just 30% of the Thunder's possessions in each game.