NBA Finals 2025 - How Thunder avoid a 2-0 deficit against Pacers - ESPN

The Oklahoma City Thunder forced 25 turnovers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, the most in any Finals game this century. Their star point guard scored 38 points, 24 more than their opponent's star guard. They trailed for all of 0.3 seconds of game time.

And yet, the Indiana Pacers went into Oklahoma City, weathered a terrible start and stole Game 1 by a 111-110 score. As the Pacers continue a postseason full of miraculous comebacks, the Thunder are left to wonder what went wrong — and how they can prevent it from happening again in Sunday's Game 2 (8 p.m. ET, ABC).

Oklahoma City is still the better team in this series and therefore remains heavily favored despite the 1-0 deficit. But the Thunder used up a lot of their margin for error in Game 1. Here are their five steps to bouncing back, to both even the Finals and reclaim the advantage beyond.

The Thunder's most important requirement has nothing to do with basketball strategy and everything to do with mentality. They must put Game 1 behind them, despite how it ended; they can't afford to lose Game 2 at home, too, like the New York Knicks did in the Eastern Conference finals after their own Game 1 calamity.

Fortunately, with the calm, collected Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leading the way, the Thunder have experience of this sort. After a stunning Game 1 collapse against the Denver Nuggets in the second round, Oklahoma City entered Game 2 on a mission, scoring 87 first-half points en route to a 149-106 victory. And after losing Game 3 against Denver in overtime, the Thunder showed enough mettle and fortitude to come back on the road in Game 4.

That effort should prove vital in the Finals, because Indiana will be better prepared going forward, as well. In the first half of Game