OKC is its own script
The first thing that popped to mind when Oklahoma City took its early lead in Game 4 was what the Thunder weren't. OKC is not the 2010-11 Miami Heat.
Those Heat took until Game 6 in 2012 to find a routine with itself, the space to create, the courage to fall back onto something. Oklahoma City has this already, had that all season, a lot of last season, most of this postseason, where the team boasted a 13-6 mark heading into Friday night's Game 4. Thirteen wins in 19 tries against the league's primo stuff, no back-to-backs or getaway games.
OKC's now won 70 percent of those playoff games, earned a best-of three against Indiana for the title with two, potentially, to play in Oklahoma City. Friday's Game 4 Thunder win rarely owned the feel of a familiar NBA League Pass Friday night collaboration, but to each team's credit the Pacers and Thunder worked as if they were in a typical office.
The Thunder saw a way out, a winning way into their own beds early Saturday morning, after what must have felt like an eternity away from OKC. One strong game and one great quarter and we're right back where we started. Oklahoma!
The visitors did not have the home club on a string in Game 4, this was not a long con, Indiana did not play with wool over its eyes before Oklahoma City's comeback. Barely a comeback, anyway, more of a shift. The Thunder saw the way the family (in its eighth day together) was posed in the photo and decided to re-arrange things for a win, the Pacers barely had to move, or stop smiling.
Indiana hasn't contributed its best, splashiest game of the Finals yet. Oklahoma City's unending defensive interest is to be credited for disrupting so much timing, interrupting what counts for pace. Game 4 was in many ways OKC's finest effort of the Finals, blocking the Pacers from swirling into what could have been a rapturous, pile-on performance.
Because the Thunder have been there. They aren't a champion but they are the biggest date on any team's calendar, the two or three or four-fiercest regular season games an opponent plays all year. The 2010-11 Heat had that as well, didn't do much with it, aced several exams but also faltered in the face of test after test. The Thunder, now 82-20 since October, do not resemble Rick Carlisle's 2011 NBA Finals opponent in the slightest.
This doesn't mean Rick Carlisle's 2025 Finals opponent cannot be beaten twice in three games. Twice in a row, if the iron is kind.
The Thunder cannot rely on Kenrich Williams forever. At some point the Young Thunders will require making the small plays the Old Thundah (Kenrich, Alex Caruso) contribute (in either 12 or 32 minutes). Cuts, extra passes, brisk alacrity in desultory times. The ability to leap out from quicksand is for whatever reason only possible through Old Man Strength.
That doesn't mean the kids aren't on it.
The Thunder's prime was warming up at halftime as soon as NBA-possible, literally midway through Game 4, seven minutes remaining in the break. The MVP practiced his entire repertoire on either side of the lane and was shooting free throws by the time Tyrese Haliburton emerged from the locker room, three and a half minutes after Shai.
Haliburton attempted three flat-footed threes before gathering T.J. McConnell to discuss something with the referees, Shai continued executing game-level practice moves at the nail while surrounded by 11 jump-shooting teammates. When Haliburton and Shai passed each other on the way toward their benches they were, to me, the only people in the building.
And only one of them was loose.
This could mean nothing. So Tyrese had to use the bathroom or get extra halftime treatment, maybe the refs asked for the convo and not Haliburton, it ain't like I stood up to ask. But Game 4 gave off the stank of Game 3 against the Knicks, the Pacer loss which drove Reggie Miller mad because the home team seemed a bit full of themselves at the thinnest time. Miller was in a Dale Davis jersey in Game 4 but it didn't work, the Pacers whiffed on so many screens.
Indiana still found its open threes, good threes, but the long ones didn't land. It made sense, a 3-1 mark is unbecoming of this series.
The Pacers' wasted effort should disappoint them, even if a best-of three was always in the cards. Obi Toppin in particular, somehow retaining the legs needed to nail accurately a pair of three-pointers after two complete sprints down the floor, faster than anyone else. A lunging jump securing a rebound, right in the middle of it.
The Thunder put themselves in a position to succeed, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren storing lodes of free throws early on, Luguentz Dort nailing each of his attempts, Caruso's 7-9 night. The game was virtually even with energy leaning in Oklahoma City's direction long before Shai got away with one, well before Scott Foster started missing free throws.
It was a short night, the Thunder with one foot in the plane's cabin. Only one of these teams made certain each and every moment of Friday night was impactful, for the greater goal.
The Pacers are a few made threes away from going up 3-2 on Monday, but they'll rue the direction it took to get there.
Game 5 on Monday in Oklahoma City at 8:30ish PM Eastern on ABC
I PROMISED YOU A BETTER PICTURE
Sorry for the weird glint, I think I left my camera on a weird filter.
As for what's in the box, I didn't see any of the tiles lying around. It's not like they're throwin' them in the noodles.
THING CALLED LOVE
(you ain't some icon carved outta soap/sent down to clean my reputation)
Out of thousands of tunes to play, a John Hiatt song popped out of my shuffle and into my car on my way into Indianapolis on Friday and the Pacers still blew it?
Thank you so much for your subscriptions, the tips with the kind and funny comments, the words which keep me going. We have enough for gas and hotel for the drive to Oklahoma City and for once "we" isn't in reference to my teetering ego, but my better half. We're bringing the wife to Oklahoma City!
I did not park in the Sad Lyft Arby's ahead of Game 4 but rather another lot, where the young man attending said the lot was full but that I could try to find a spot for free. Expecting to pay with a debit tap, I didn't have any cash on me. So I gave him and his cool black Braves hat an unopened pack of 1990 Hoops cards.
I had baseball cards with me but I didn't think he'd want to pull an Andres Thomas or Ozzie Virgil. The lot was still full of cars hours after Game 4, Indianapolis came ready to dance on Friday, whether Jeff Foster was in town or not.
The Pacer crowd, upon exiting earlier in the evening, was somehow more respectful of Game 4's outcome than they were a half-hour before, when they were heard chanting the word "suck" on ABC while Mike Breen curled his toes.
Maybe it was the light of 2-2, anyone's game, or the actual human interaction that dissuades one from acting improperly, or an acknowledgement of the abilities of the opponent. Maybe they stopped selling beer after the third quarter.
