PRESSURE’S ON OKC 👀Expectations for Pacers-Thunder Game 3 of NBA Finals 🔥 | SportsCenter

PRESSURE’S ON OKC 👀Expectations for Pacers-Thunder Game 3 of NBA Finals 🔥 | SportsCenter

screwing Migza here with NBA veteran Quinton Richardson there and David Dennis Jr our NBA analyst here now Q I’m going to start with you because not a lot of people saw the Pacers winning game one especially with how the first half started turning the ball over left and right and then in the second half flipped the script and we saw that jumper that Tyresese Hallebertton hit with 3/10en of a second so what are you going to be looking for with the Pacers in game two i’m gonna be looking for them to not turn the ball over 20 times in the first half they can’t there’s no way you can expect to win games when you’re return when you’re turning the ball over in a way that you haven’t done the whole season long and so for me they have to do a better job of taking care of the ball which they did in the second half but they were lucky i feel like they they reap the benefits of of OKC not turning around and taking those turnovers and scoring on them so for me they’re really going to have to take care of the ball and do do a overall effort have a better overall effort of taking care of that ball because the next time OKC I think they will score off those turnovers yeah I’m going to take it on on the flip side here and talk about OKC and the fact they did not convert over on those turnovers i can’t think of a time where I’ve seen a team have 19 turnovers in that first half on the road the most we’ve seen in a half in the finals in decades and not be down 20 25 points a lot of credit goes to the Indiana Pacers and their transition defense but OKC has got to be better at converting those turnovers into points cuz what we saw in the second half was a Pacers team that was ready and better equipped for that defense they only had six turnovers and the Thunder only scored twice uh two points on those turnovers they’ve got to figure out if you’re the Thunder how to score and put that pressure on the Pacers whenever they turn the ball over yeah and to your point OKC becomes the first team to force 25 turnovers in a game one in the NBA finals and still lose the game so we’ll see if they can make an adjustment there because in game two we know both teams will be making adjustments so Q what are you looking for specifically for in that OKC side i’m looking for them to get Chad Homegrren going early man Chad was only two for nine in that game he didn’t have a great game he didn’t have great impact on the game i felt like that he would play better i feel like he needs to play better for them to have a better chance to go ahead and handle their business but for him he was he was MIA for me i was looking for him to come out and have a big impact on the game and going two for nine only getting six rebounds he missed a lot of stuff like he was missing some of those shots in those turn off of those turnovers they had in the first half which allowed them to stick around so I feel like they need to figure out a way to get him off early so they have a better chance tonight tomorrow night yeah one of the ways to get uh Homegrren off early in those in in the start there is you start that lineup again you go back to that Hardenstein and Homegrren lineup i was surprised that was one of the more surprising developments that they did not have that lineup to start the game and they never went to it that lineup got you to the finals and what you’ll see what what you’re seeing there is you’ll see that lob action between the two that twoman game that’ll help homegr but also they’re going to get on those boards they were outrebounded by uh by 17 rebounds in that game and there was a crucial rebound late that they missed uh that Seakum had on the putback get those two guys back in the game i think they overthought a little bit by not having them in the game in game one they should be able to be back there in game two you want to hop in on this i I I agree with I agree with you 100% right there Double D i felt like there was no need that was their starting lineup the whole season i felt like they flinched first by just starting off the series by doing that without being forced to or anything they just gave them that i feel like they definitely should have stuck to their guns and had their starting lineup out there yeah we’ll definitely keep our eye on that and as we’re here in Connecticut I know Q is going to be enjoying himself at his pool going to go out there have a barbecue i know he out there having a good old time grilling and everything i ain’t seen the sun in Bristol in like three weekends since I’ve been here what’s going on man well we know we’re all going to watch the game Sunday on ABC regardless now despite the loss the Thunder still double digit favorites in game two so remember tomorrow 8 Eastern on ABC thanks guys so how called game on Thursday but you know the Thunder have been historically great rebounding after losses okc 4-0 in the playoffs following a loss winning that next game by an average of 20 in fact they’re 16-2 overall this season after a loss that is the fourth best record in NBA history joining me now to talk about it senior escape writer David Dennis Jr and of course our NBA analyst Quinton Richardson and double D I’ll start with you because you know everything we know revolves around SGA when you talk about the Thunder he had 38 points in game one but it took him 30 shots though to get there and including missing the big one at the end what do you make of the lack of efficiency by the MVP yeah I know it sound it may seem strange to say when you have a guy who put one of the best finals debuts that we’ve ever seen from a point standpoint but I like the way that the Indiana Pacers defend him nesmith Nimhart Matan SGA was just five for 20 against those guys i like the way that they’re physical on him especially Nimhart sga dominated that matchup in the regular season uh but he struggled against him in this game and I think that actually SGA needs to be a little bit more aggressive i know he put up those 30 shots a little bit more aggressive a little bit more decisive with the ball especially in the fourth quarter if Jaylen Williams is going to struggle like he did if Chad is going to struggle like he did SGA needs to hold the ball a little bit more get a few more of those shots up and he needs to be better against that Nimhard matchup especially where he saw some success in the regular season yeah yeah D i agree with all of that for me man it’s Chad Hungren you just spoke on it him and Jub didn’t have the best of games i mean Cadet Homegrren is a guy that in this league he’s viewed as a guy that’s supposed to be an upcoming star he has a lot of expectations on him i didn’t feel like he played his best two of nine was was was was very small for him i I felt like he didn’t play defensively impactful enough i felt like overall just completely they need to start out and try and figure out a way to get him involved early get him some early shots to go in you can see he wasn’t finishing around the rim a lot of the turnovers they had in that first half he was on the other end not scoring and not converting and and scoring off those turnovers so Chad Hungren has to be a lot lot better you see that 6.6 rebounds 22% chad is much better than that i expect more from him and I I think he will be better and the Thunder got to put him in better position to get those points off too i think that they go them going away from that homegrren Hardenstein lineup in that game hurt him offensively too he gets some of those easy lobs that get him going you got to play him more than 24 minutes in that game also that affects his rhythm too you know that that was a salient point because Hartinstein and Homegrown were not on the floor at all at all in the whole game at all in in in that that was a mistake to me they should have went they they shouldn’t have went away from that i agree totally with David they they won all season with that lineup and to start the finals off when they weren’t forced to do that i thought they blinked first so Q you know the Pacers are going to look to get greedy get another win uh in game two tomorrow night uh Indiana isn’t exactly coming off the cleanest performance in game one what do they need to fix besides what the 25 turnovers i mean they got to start faster that’s it right there you can’t I mean clearly they’ve done it several times throughout this playoff they’ve shown that they have the they could be the comeback kids they they you know they they cardiac kids and coming back and all that but you can’t completely you got to get rid of that you got to start faster you can’t keep getting down and think you’re going to come back that can’t be something that you late that you rest your hat on and say “Hey we’re okay we never give up we never quit to the triple zeros.” Like that’s cool in theory but you can’t continue to go out there and put yourself at a disadvantage night after night after night because at some point it’s going you’re going to come up short you’re going to get tired you can’t play perfect all the way or you’re going to miss a shot you got to start the games earlier and you got to start faster with a good start the way to do it is to carry on that momentum that they have from the second half i want to see the second half Pacers start that game cuz what they were doing was being more decisive with the ball they were finding the mismatches they were finding those back screens and those corner threes the Pacers were 10 for 16 and corner threes in that game a 60 better than 60% once they started to settle down a little bit find some of those weakness get some of those mismatches offensively putting the ball in Nimhart’s hands instead of Hallebertton they just found some way down the stretch to execute better if they can do that in game two this will be a lot closer than a lot of people think game two of the finals tomorrow night 8 Eastern double D q thank you yeah Hie called game on Thursday but you know the Thunder they have been great rebounding after losses okc is 4-0 in the playoffs after a loss winning the next game by an average of 20 they’re also 16-2 overall this season after a loss that is the fourth best record in NBA history and waking up with us early is Oklahoma in Oklahoma City is our NBA reporter Tim Bonds and so Tim by the time game two tips off the Thunder had two full days to prepare what kind of adjustments should we expect from OKC well Brian a lot of times in this situation the first adjustment they should expect is the play better adjustment right and I think for a lot of the second half of this game if you look at the way the Thunder played a lot of this comes out of them just executing a lot better their offense wasn’t that crisp in the second half they missed a bunch of threes they could hit and really they need to carry over the way they played in the first half as you see there the Pacers had 20 turnovers in the first half of this game and remarkably the Thunder a team that generally gets 20 30 points off turnovers in games only had 11 points off the 25 turnovers they created in this game that’s almost an unfathomable fathomable thing for a team like Oklahoma City to do so if they can go into game two get back to the pace they were to play with defensively in the first half speed the Pacers back up get them uncomfortable and most importantly take advantage of those opportunities to score in transition that alone should do a lot of the work to get the Thunder back even in this series but you know Tim it’s interesting the Pacers are 7 and0 in games one and two this postseason they are the first non seed to reach that since seating really began in 84 indiana stands though as a 10 and a half point underdog once again there now going into tomorrow night so what can the Pacers use from that game one comeback as momentum going into uh against the Thunder here in game two well Brian I still trying to figure out what’s going on with the Pacers in these playoffs i watched the conference finals every game with the Knicks and Pacers that series had a bunch of crazy endings obviously the Pacers had the crazy endings against the Cavs and the Bucks earlier in the playoffs and this is a team that just relentlessly keeps coming after you as the game goes along we saw that in the second half of game one and they did start to settle down in the second half they only had those five turnovers they shot the ball well as you could see here and they did settle into the game so look in game two the Pacers are already playing with house money they won game one they’re at minimum going to go home with home court advantage we saw in the second in the conference finals Pascal Seakum had 39 points in game two really none of the Pacers besides him did much in that game but he was able to carry them to a win whether it’s Pascal Seakum or Tyrese Hallebertton I’d expect that the Pacers are going to find a way to go up 2 in this series they’re going to need one of those two guys to have a massive game in game two but look all the pressure is on Oklahoma City we saw them come back after blowing game one against Denver and smoking the Nuggets in game two i think the general expectation of why the line is where it is is because Oklahoma City will come back as you showed in that graphic earlier and play great after a loss like they have all season but the Pacers have repeatedly through these playoffs shown that when they’re expected to let go of the rope let a team back into it they put their foot on the gas and that’s what’s going to make this game tomorrow really fascinating to see how it plays out yeah game two of the NBA finals is tomorrow night 8 Eastern on ABC tim Bontams thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Quentin Richardson and David Dennis Jr. join SportsCenter to break down what adjustments they expect to see from the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers in Game 3 of the 2025 NBA Finals. Then, Tim Bontemps joins to share his perspective on the Pacers’ ability to come back in late-game scenarios.

0:00 Limiting turnovers will be key in Game 2
1:57 Chet Holmgren was missing in action
4:05 SGA & Chet need a bounce-back performance
7:06 Indiana Pacers need a faster start
8:40 OKC is 4-0 after a loss this postseason
9:20 Tim Bontemps on Thunder’s strategy
10:47 The Pacers are relentless with comebacks

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