How the Pacers guarded SGA — and how OKC can respond
The adjustments that will swing Game 2 after the Pacers miraculously won Game 1.
In Game 1 of the Finals, the 2025 Indiana Pacers did what the 2025 Indiana Pacers have been doing all playoffs: They won a game they seemingly had no business winning.
It was a thoroughly strange game. The Pacers couldn’t stop coughing up turnovers, but made up for it by shooting 46 percent from three and limiting the Thunder’s second and third best players, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren, to a combined 8-for-28.
The Pacers won a game in which they turned the ball over 18 more times than their opponents and trailed by 15 in the fourth quarter. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 38 points. And yet, the heavy underdogs are ahead 1-0.
The question is what the Pacers figured out in Game 1, and how OKC can respond. Most interesting to me was how Indiana went about trying to stop the Thunder’s offense.
The Pacers’ strategy on defense, put simply, was to force SGA to take a lot of difficult jumpers.
SGA took 30 shots in Game 1. He made 14 of them, but only had three assists and his most important teammates didn’t really look in rhythm. Indiana to some extent succeeded in baiting SGA into hero ball.
At the core of this strategy was keeping a help defender at the rim to take away SGA’s layup attempts. The Pacers know that Andrew Nembhard can slide with SGA, stay attached, and avoid fouls, so they wouldn’t over-help when SGA operated in the midrange.
Instead, they came over aggressively at the rim.
Indiana stuck closer to shooters on the wings and instead helped off the corners. The most important player for them on any given possession is the low man — the guy hanging around the rim to contest layups.
In the above clip, Obi Toppin is the low man. Pascal Siakam, guarding Lu Dort in the corner, joins in too to disrupt.
Notice how OKC has Isaiah Joe start near the paint and run away — a roll-replace action that is an OKC staple. The goal is pull away help defenders. But Indiana was prepared for that. They’re focused on helping from the corners.
This strategy compensated for SGA’s success getting into the paint at will. It preys on two OKC weaknesses:
SGA tends to use long strides and decisive finishing deep in the paint. That means he doesn’t often slow down to manipulate these help defenders and punish this help with passes.
The Thunder like to keep a guy — often a guard — in the dunker spot, hanging around the baseline rather than the corner. Indiana used this to their advantage and shrunk the area around the rim.
As a result, this was one of the biggest plays of the game:
SGA attacks Tyrese Haliburton and gets into the paint with an advantage. Good! But Siakam makes a fantastic play to block him at the rim.
And there are no easy passing reads here. Toppin shrinks to Caruso in the dunker spot. Haliburton is peeling away to Dort in the bottom corner. This is a shot SGA can make, but Indiana will win some of these battles. That’s what they’re relying on.
One way that the Thunder can adjust is by keeping a guy in both corners more often. They have to make it tough for Siakam, Myles Turner, and Toppin to hang out by the rim. That doesn’t mean they have to stay stationary, either. They can mix in off-ball actions, or cut from the corner at the right time:
The Pacers’ rotations get tougher here as Caruso starts in the corner, then cuts as SGA drives and draws Siakam.
(Caruso, by the way, was open enough to tip the rebound of an SGA miss out to Joe for a three on this play.)
SGA can also pull Siakam out to the perimeter more often.
Haliburton ends up as the low man defender here as Siakam gets dusted at the three-point arc. SGA, as he did all game, got right past the guy defending the screen-setter.
The Thunder can further pounce on this advantage on the perimeter. Indiana looked prepared for OKC’s favorite “ghost” and “flat” screens — where they act like they’re going to set a screen, only to flare out without making contact. OKC should make contact on screens and force mismatches.
Ultimately, though, the Thunder don’t have to wildly change what they’re doing on offense. They got a lot of good looks, including late in the game. SGA may only have had three assists, but he spotted passes to the corner at times:
OKC knows what they want to do on offense. SGA can get to his spots. They’ll need the others — especially Williams and Holmgren — to come along for the ride.
Indiana, too, has cards they can play. They can mix in zone, which they surprisingly didn’t try in Game 1. They can double SGA more, or work to contain him with two guys on the perimeter.
All playoffs, the Thunder have responded emphatically to losses. We’ll see what they have in store for Game 2.