Windhorst after Game 1: OKC didn’t choke, ‘I think they got walked down’ | SC with SVP

Windhorst after Game 1: OKC didn’t choke, ‘I think they got walked down’ | SC with SVP

they trailed the entire game never led until it mattered most zeros on the clock down by as many as 15 in the fourth and Shay Gilis Alexander the MVP in his first Finals game had 38 needed this for a three-point lead no the rebound coralled by the Pacers toppen hands to Hallebertton kase Wallace guarding and Hallebertton gets him leaning just a bit and pulls with a clean look and it rattles home as the Pacers bench explodes hallebertton has done it again here’s how it sounded we’ll begin with the great Mike Breen on the mic with a chance to win it final seconds no fouls to give hallebertton looking hallebertton driving pulls off jump shot it’s good it’s good with 3/10 of a second remaining tyrese Hallebertton does it again [Music] one down one down [Applause] baby in any language just people yelling not people in this building they fell silent after the atmosphere changed dramatically brian Winhorse is with me and I’ve heard so much about what this place was like and it lived up to it it’s it’s a great spot and this is an excellent team and they led and they were absolutely suffocating in the first half and then they lost you’re shaking your head with a knowing smile what What is it what is it about this Pacers team that continues to allow this to happen i’m telling you you’d think I was making this up before the game i talked to some people at the Pacers and they said “God this is a good team we’re playing.” Uh-huh they do so many things well Shay is a beast there’s no way to stop him the way we’re going to win is we’re going to have to play from behind and we’re going to have to make him feel a little bit of heat down the stretch because we get more comfortable and they tend to tense up a little bit and then we’re going to need to chip away and chip away and then we’re going to get down to the end and we’re going to give Tyrese a chance and if we get that we’ll be happy i mean Scott they called it down to practically the spot on the court and now on one hand you’d say well that’s just you know good luck you know just somebody talking out the side of their neck but this is how they’ve won they’ve won three games almost exactly like this and this is this is how they are comfortable playing right and the the Thunder this has been said before in the playoffs nobody won by more points in during a regular season than anybody in the history of the league than they did they outscored their opponents by by more points i’m going to give you an assist i’m going to give you an assist thank you there you go it’s a little assist from me to you all right you can put it on your stats throw it up winhor playoffs they outscore everybody you know their their number got a little wonky because they lost by 40 in the one game in the last round to Minnesota but they do have a little bit of a thing where they they play a little tight and the Pacers felt like if they could get into that zone that they could win and that’s what happened i think you saw the Pacers just get more comfortable on offense in the second half and and I pointed this out when they actually shot the ball they made a lot of buck made a lot of buckets they’re the best shooting team in the playoffs highest scoring team in the playoffs they made 18 threes in this game when they stop turning the ball over every other time they touched it which they did in the first half they’re actually able to compete in this game i think that bodess well for them because I don’t assume they’re going to turn it over like that in the first half because that’s as good a defense I think as I’ve ever seen okay so I would also say that they did something that they don’t normally do which was they went to Andrew Nemhart andrew Nemhart had controls of the offense down the stretch yes Hallebertton makes the big shot but Hallebertton wasn’t making a massive impact like he normally does right and by the way you look at Nemhart’s box score doesn’t look like he had a dominant game he had six assists right but he they went to him nemhart’s the Hallebertton is going to have the historic highlight the hero of this game is Andrew Nemhart nemhart’s guarding that’s what Dora said guarding Shay at one end and he’s running their offense at the other and that got them confidence that stop turned the ball over they calmed down and he never his face was exactly the same and he’s he’s getting into it with with uh with Shay he’s he’s he’s he’s showing the medal that’s because this team has done that they were totally comfortable in this environment and there’s something to be said for that and there you know they’re still the underdog I think but now they’ve planted a seed they’ve planted a seed that you know it’s almost like when you watch the Pacers when the Pacers come out and start playing the Thunder they know that the Thunder play really tough defense right they’ve studied it they’ve they’ve tried to mimic it in practice they’ve been told it you know they’ve you know but they but they’re not really ready for it and they’re turning the ball all over the place because the pressure that they get isn’t something that you can mimic well you can’t necessarily mimic what it’s like to have the Pacers walking you down and so the Pacers had to deal with learning what it’s like to play against the Thunder defense and they struggled and the Thunder just had to learn what it’s like to get walked down by one of the great walkdown teams we’ve ever seen and didn’t allow that lead to balloon cartoonishly the way it has so often that’s right because typically what the Thunder do they get up by 15 they put their foot on your throat and they’re up by 35 mhm they never let it get past what is where it was 156 they kept pulling it back but I really did think the Thunder were going to handle their business you know Shay hits the three at the end of the the third quarter i thought that was I thought that was monstrous and then the turnover to where Williams takes it in for the dunk and it’s 15 and it feels like we’re the avalanche is on in all honesty you could have had Lou Dord at this desk at the end of the game because that was who I was expecting to talk to the defensive play that he makes it’s that’s a historic defensive play that could go on the finals real that’s how great that defensive play is um I didn’t think it was a choke i think they got walked down and that if you’re looking forward in this series that’s what you got to be thinking about and that’s what the Pacers knew coming in and it’s one thing if I’d say it but I’m telling you Scott the guy practically gave me the script on how they thought the game was going to go and I’m not going to forget that i’ve read stuff about believing something could be true thinking something could be true and knowing something’s going to be true right like this this Indiana Pacers team knows that it can do this because they did it against everybody in the playoffs and now they’ve done it here i mean you still got to win three more games against a team that’s won 180 but now the Thunder got to win four or six i does has your has your view of what this series has changed as a result of what just happened yeah because I spent the last week saying well you know the Knicks probably should be a 2-2 in that series know even though the Knicks are you know down 3-2 it should be the Knicks up 3-2 because you you spike a game that you have it doesn’t always come back to bite you but boy it can come back to bite you yeah but the point you just made is it’s not that Oklahoma City vomited on itself and gave this away it’s that they got walked down by a team that continues to walk teams down at some point people are going to write stuff on cards that gives them a chance but I didn’t tonight until it was over and then I talked to the guy that won it well he did lead for 310 of a second that is true it was the most important 310

Brian Windhorst joins SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt to recap the Indiana Pacers’ 111-110 comeback win over the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 1 of the 2025 NBA Finals.

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