However, what won the 68 games and got them to the Finals was their defense, and the Pacers torched that for a long stretch of Game 3. Indiana took better shots and capitalized on them, finishing with a 116 offensive rating (9.5 points higher than the Thunder allowed on average during the playoffs coming into the game).

The Indiana Pacers fell to the Oklahoma City Thunder during Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Sunday, June 8, 2025, in Oklahoma City.

Tyrese Haliburton wasn't able to leave his mark on Game 2 between the Thunder and Pacers in the NBA Finals. Stephen A. Smith has a problem with it.

Over the two games, Tyrese Haliburton has been the screener’s defender on 22 ball-screens for Gilgeous-Alexander, the most of any Pacer. Overall, the Thunder haven’t scored very efficiently (0.73 points per chance) when Haliburton has been put into the action, but they’ve mostly gotten good shots out of it.

Indy's head coach benched his starters with four minutes remaining in the fourth quarter of Game 2 and the Pacers down by 14 points. A big enough deficit to believe the game was out of reach under normal circumstances,

NBA on ESPN and ABC reporter Lisa Salters will miss the Game 2 broadcast of the 2025 Finals on June 8 due to a personal matter.

Preparing for a must-win Game 2, Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault reflected on Game 1's disaster after two nights' worth of sleep. He reiterated the avoidable mistakes his squad made down the stretch.