OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma City is a historic favorite in the NBA Finals. The Thunder are -9.5 point favorites to win Game 1 and -700 to win the series, according to our partners at BetMGM. Good luck finding a pundit who picked Indiana to win the series.
The Pacers are good with that. They have fully embraced their underdog role.
“If we were to win a championship, I don’t want to win any other way,” Tyrese Haliburton said on the eve of Game 1. “I don’t want to go around or over. I want to go through. You want to go through the best team, the best challenge. This is the best challenge. This is the best team in the NBA. It’s been the best team in the NBA all year.”
Oklahoma City has been the NBA’s best all season, winning 68 games with a historic +12.7 net rating — more than 10 points better than Indiana. The Thunder charged through the “varsity” Western Conference to reach the NBA Finals.
Which is why nobody is giving the Pacers much of a chance. However, to a man, Indiana players feel like they have been here before.
“I feel like that’s been the norm for us throughout the playoffs,” T.J. McConnell said. “That’s okay. We’re not really worried about the external noise. We know what we have to do to win. We have to do it together. Anything outside of that we’re not concerning ourselves with.”
“I don’t think we expect anyone to pick us. It’s been that way the whole playoffs, the whole season,” Pascal Siakam said, echoing the same idea. “Think nothing for us changes. We just continue to be ourselves, focus on us. It’s always been us against everyone. Doesn’t change.”
Indiana enters the Finals with confidence, having seen a team that plays like Oklahoma City every single day in practice. The Thunder will not surprise the Pacers.
“The fact that they play similar to us, I mean, we’ve been seeing that every day since training camp, you know what I mean?” Myles Turner said.
Pacers fans and even players may feel overlooked, but they are used to that.
“I don’t think any of us care how overlooked we are,” Andrew Nembhard said. I don’t think we pay attention to what media thinks about what our projections are going to be. We have a close-knit group and we look inward. We believe in ourselves.”
At every step, the Pacers have proved the doubters wrong. They believe they can do that one more time.
