OKC No-Shows G6 to be Ready for G7, Indiana Coasts 108-91
You KNOW it Was a No-Show Because Thunder Weren’t Forcing Turnovers!
As was well-reported on X (formerly twitter) and other media outlets, Indiana didn’t suffer a live ball turnover until well into the THIRD QUARTER of Thursday night’s sixth game of the 2025 NBA Finals. When Oklahoma City CARES, it spends the night hassling and harassing opponents into miscues.
Missing every three-point attempt for a couple of hours wasn’t helping the Thunder’s cause either. Final score doesn’t really capture how one-sided this game was. Thunder’s backups got the best of extended garbage time. Getting the worst from prominent players…Jalen Williams of OKC had a plus minus of -40 in the 27 minutes he was on the floor. Alex Caruso was at -33 in 22 minutes
Not much to recap because it wasn’t much of a game. Tyrese Haliburton was able to return to action and contribute. He may have still been a bit hobbled. Didn’t matter because OKC didn’t bring it’s “A” game, or it’s “B” game, and probably not even it’s “C” game. You’ll see in the stats it’s like the Sacramento Kings (or somebody worse) put on Thunder jerseys for the night then went out for barbecue.
(If you’re a first-time reader, our stat summaries separate the often-random three-point performances from “everything else.” A shortcut stat we developed for “everything else” is “Trey-less Efficiency,” which is points scored on 1’s and 2’s divided by the number of possessions that DON’T end with a made trey.)
*Indiana (+5.5) upset Oklahoma City 108-91
What happened with Treys?
Indiana 15/42 (36%), Oklahoma City 8/30 (27%)
Thunder were awful from long range until garbage time. Indiana was able to get open looks against OKC’s relatively half-hearted defense. Plus 21 points in a game the Pacers won by 17. Very likely that we won’t see a replay of this in G7. Indiana would have to pull off a shocker some other way.
What happened with everything else?
Trey-Less Efficiency: Indiana .74, Oklahoma City .73
Indiana won rebounds 46-41 and turnovers 21-10. OKC won two-point shooting 52-46% and free throws 21/26 to 17/25. Such a non-game for so long that we shouldn’t spend too much time dwelling on the numbers. OKC will bring its elite defense to G7. Ugly efficiency numbers partly because everyone was saving energy for the series finale.
Trey-less Efficiency
G1: Oklahoma City .85, Indiana .68
G2: Oklahoma City .97, Indiana .78
G3: Indiana .98, Oklahoma City .85
G4: Oklahoma City 1.02, Indiana .82
G5: Oklahoma City .94, Indiana .89
G6: Indiana .74, Oklahoma City .73
OKC’s worst game by a mile. I guess…just glance at that and say “this wasn’t really a game” and let it go. Let’s do a worst-to-best number line for both for a sense of what G6 will look like. I’ll stick midpoints in parenthesis.
Trey-less Efficiency Worst-to-Best
Indiana 68-74-(78-82)-89-85
OKC: 73-85-(85-94)-97-102
Simplest way to envision the series, OKC’s worst three performances were in its losses…best three in its wins. Pacers probably have to hold OKC below .90 to have a chance to steal G7…Thunder likely lift the trophy at .91 or more.