Thunder- Pacers Game 2 Viewership Hits Stunning New Low
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The 2025 NBA Finals are underway between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers.
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Game 1 of the Finals on Thursday was a doozy. It saw the Pacers mount an incredible comeback in the fourth quarter, which allowed them to steal home-court advantage and take a 1-0 series lead.
There was much hype heading into Game 2, but the Thunder took care of business in front of their home crowd and ran away with the game. While the Thunder and their fans saw a game that didn't come down to a nail-biter, it didn't help the NBA's cause.
Game 2 of the Finals on Sunday averaged 8.76 million viewers, marking the lowest viewership since Game 2 of the 2020 Finals and the only Finals since 2007 where viewership declined after Game 1.
The Oklahoma City Thunder celebrate their 123-107 win against the Indiana Pacers in Game Two of the 2025 NBA Finals at Paycom Center on June 08, 2025 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
The Oklahoma City Thunder celebrate their 123-107 win against the Indiana Pacers in Game Two of the 2025 NBA Finals at Paycom Center on June 08, 2025 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Photo bySports Media Watch shared.
"Sunday's Pacers-Thunder NBA Finals Game 2 averaged 8.76 million viewers on ABC, down 29% from Mavericks-Celtics (12.31M) and the least-watched Game 2 of the Finals since the Heat-Lakers in the fall 2020 "bubble" on the night the president was hospitalized due to COVID (6.78M). Outside of that anomalous circumstance, it was the least-watched since Cavaliers-Spurs opposite the series finale of "The Sopranos" in 2007 (8.55M)."
According to Sports Media Watch, this year's NBA Finals between the Pacers and Thunder mark just the second time in the Nielsen people meter era where neither Game 1 nor Game 2 surpassed the nine million viewer mark.
Although the numbers may not show it, these NBA Finals have been worth watching. Game 2 was not pretty for the casual fan, but Game 1 was an instant classic that saw the Pacers, as they've done all season long, come back and steal that contest.
The series will now shift to Indiana, where the Pacers will look to take advantage of homecourt and feed off the crowd's energy. The Pacers head into Wednesday's Game 3 as the home underdogs.
Per ESPN Bet, the Thunder enter Game 3 as 5.5-point favorites. The Pacers have embraced the underdog role throughout this entire postseason, and by now, it's nothing new to them. Friday will mark Indiana's first NBA Finals home game in 25 years.
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For more Thunder, Pacers and NBA news, head over to Newsweek Sports.
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New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
T.J. McConnell sparks Pacers bench in a Game 3 Indiana needed to win
INDIANAPOLIS – Wednesday, an understudy out-sang Caruso. (David, stop it: no one under 75 gets that.) (No, see: there was this incredible tenor named Enrico Caruso, who has the same surname as Alex Caruso, and the joke is –) (That recording is from 1916! Just stop it!) OK, OK. T.J. McConnell, the Pacers' longtime provider of energy and crowd exhortion off the bench, outplayed Oklahoma City's reserve sparkplug, Alex Caruso, whose impact on games this postseason for the Thunder has been profound, in Game 3 of the NBA Finals Wednesday. In Oklahoma City, Caruso put his fingerprints all over both games, leading the Thunder with his suffocating defense and timely shotmaking. Advertisement But it was McConnell and the Pacers bench that turned the tide in Game 3, in a whirlwind second quarter, when Indiana scored 40 points, shot 61 percent from the floor, made all nine of its free throws and blocked four Thunder shots. Bennedict Mathurin made his case for a fat ol' contract extension this summer with 27 points in 22 minutes off the bench. Obi Toppin was a plus-18 in almost 28 minutes of play. And McConnell was the catalyst for Indy's surge, in both the second and fourth quarters, when the Pacers pulled away from the Thunder and grabbed a 2-1 lead in these finals with a 116-107 victory. McConnell finished with 10 points, five assists and five steals in 15 minutes. That was … historic. T.J. McConnell is the first player in @NBA history to record 5+ steals & 5+ assists off the bench in the Finals 💪 10 PTS | 5 AST | 5 STL — Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) June 12, 2025 Indiana still struggled from deep Wednesday, making just 9 of 27 3-pointers. But, finally, the Pacers were able to consistently get into the paint, after being stymied and turned over during much of the 96 minutes of play in OKC. Tyrese Haliburton was finally able to turn the corner, getting separation and going 9 of 17 from the floor en route to 22 points. Indiana ran off of Thunder makes and got the ball up ahead to Pascal Siakam (21 points). And the Pacers had just 13 turnovers Wednesday, with only one coming in the second quarter. 'It was a concerted effort by all of us to do what we can to get downhill, and don't settle for jump shots,' McConnell said afterward. 'And credit the coaching staff for putting that in our minds, and credit to us for going out there and executing it.' McConnell has made playing hard his calling card throughout a decade in the NBA. 'I was on one team and we had the whole shootaround, all dedicated to T.J. McConnell,' Pacers reserve center Thomas Bryant said. ''Make sure he doesn't get into the paint. Make sure he doesn't spray (the ball, as a passer). Make sure he doesn't get up into us, and we throw away an easy pass, and he gets a layup.' T.J.'s on the top of the scouting reports, man.' Advertisement But McConnell's play was especially edgy Wednesday. Three times – three times!! – he stole Thunder inbounds passes after Pacers field goals. Even though Indiana scored just once on those three extra possessions, the impact on OKC was clear. The Thunder are the ones whose swarming defense demoralized opponents all season. 'Their defense is elite,' McConnell said. 'Just trying to get into the paint as best we can before they swarm and get all their steals is what we need to do. There's still stuff we need to clean up, though.' While Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault shortened his rotation in the second half, Indiana's Rick Carlisle could continue going nine and 10 deep in the second half with his bench giving him efficient production. That difference in playing time explained in part Indiana's ginormous 49-18 edge in bench points, but not all of it. The Pacers have prided themselves on grinding down opponents over 48 minutes in these playoffs, betting on their pace to wilt opponent wills down the stretch. Maybe it was coincidence, but the Thunder went just 2 of 9 from the floor in the last six minutes. And McConnell was everywhere. 'I think his energy is unbelievable,' Haliburton said. 'You guys know he's definitely a crowd favorite. I joke with him, I call him the Great White Hope. He does a great job of bringing energy in this building. And I think people feed off that. And he had a couple unbelievable steals.' McConnell's third inbounds steal followed an Andrew Nembhard jumper that brought Indiana within two early in the fourth. McConnell then jumped in front of Caruso, who was inbounding the ball, and came up with the steal; his layup tied the game at 95 with 8:33 left. Soon after, Indiana took the lead for good, something that's been a problem for the Pacers throughout the first three games of the finals. Meanwhile, the 33-year-old guard kept insisting on more noise from the sellout crowd at Gainbridge, which responded in kind. Advertisement Even though we're just three games into the championship series, this felt like a game Indiana had to have at home if it was to have any chance of winning the franchise's first NBA title. 'I think in a series like this, what's so important is the margins,' Haliburton said. 'You have to win in the margins. It's not necessarily who can make the most shots or anything. It's taking care of the ball, rebounding, little things like that. I thought he does a great job of giving us energy plays consistently and getting downhill and operating. I mean, nobody operates on the baseline like that guy. I thought did he a great job of consistently getting there and making hustle play after hustle play, and sticking with it, and I thought we did a great job of just feeding off of what he was doing.' Oklahoma City has been in this spot before. The Thunder were down 2-1 to Denver in the Western Conference semifinals before rallying to win in seven games. They got hit in the mouth in Game 3 of the conference finals by Minnesota before winning the key Game 4 to take a 3-1 lead over the Timberwolves. They will be the desperate team Friday for Game 4, knowing what falling down 3-1 to the Pacers would mean to their championship hopes. But Carlisle isn't falling for the okey-doke. He has his team Stepford Wifing just about every postgame availability. Always, the Pacers don't want to talk about the good things they just did. They talk, over and over, about what they have to fix. So when you tell T.J. McConnell what is obvious to anyone who's watched the NBA the last few years – that he is a max-effort player – he thanks you for the compliment. But he's already on to Game 4. 'It's the NBA Finals,' he said. 'We've got to bring that energy, all of us. Because if we don't, it's doing a disservice to these fans, and this organization. We've got to continue to bring energy to the highest level.'
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Thunder's Game 3 turnover failings have put playoff run in danger again
INDIANAPOLIS — The last time the Oklahoma City Thunder had any level of control in Game 3 of an NBA Finals suddenly trending against them, they were up 95-91 with 8:45 left and had just forced a missed layup that probably should've ended in a defensive rebound. But Chet Holmgren couldn't grab it in a crowd, Lu Dort accidentally helped tap it over to Andrew Nembhard and Nembhard immediately hit a 16-footer. Advertisement But that wasn't the most deflating part of the sequence. Alex Caruso grabbed the ball as it went through the net. He took one wandering step out of bounds and flung a rushed inbound in Jalen Williams' direction. It made it about four feet before TJ McConnell, standing directly in front of Caruso, leaped up to steal it and then dropped in a layup. A defensive rebound would have meant a four-point lead and possession. But within five seconds, Wednesday's game was instead tied, beginning a fourth quarter snowball that would end in a 116-107 Pacers win and a 2-1 series hole for the Thunder. Had that McConnell leaping steal been an outlier, it wouldn't have been such a postgame talking point. That egregious of an inbound error happens occasionally — maybe a handful of times per season to any given team. But the Thunder were victimized three separate times in Game 3 by the same player on the same type of sneaky steal most often seen in youth basketball. 'Sucked,' Williams said. 'Bad, unforced turnovers.' This game flipped to open the second quarter. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander took his first rest of the night with the Thunder leading 32-24 after 12 minutes. He'd return three minutes later with the Thunder down 37-36. McConnell was the spark plug of that minus-nine stretch. It included two of his three inbound steals. The first came to open the quarter. McConnell set up Pascal Siakam for a layup, baited Cason Wallace into an interception and then pinged an offensive rebound over to Bennedict Mathurin for a layup — again creating four points in a flash. 'I call them pick-sixes,' Caruso said. 'It's a live-ball turnover in your third of the court and they score. It can add up to eight, 10, 12 points, which might be the difference in the game.' The second of McConnell's inbound steals came a couple of minutes later while Gilgeous-Alexander was still on his brief but detrimental rest. He found Aaron Nesmith for a layup and again jumped the passing lane and ripped an unaware Williams before he could gain control of Wallace's pass, throwing it off Wallace out of bounds to generate an extra possession that charged up the arena. Advertisement 'Those plays hurt,' Gilgeous-Alexander said. 'Because they're very controllable. You can take your time. You make mistakes in basketball, no matter the stage. We definitely had opportunities to cover those things up. But you also don't let plays like that happen. It just goes back to being tighter, being more focused, being more forceful all night. Things like that really hurt.' The Thunder only averaged 11.7 turnovers this season, the fewest of all 30 NBA teams. They're only averaging 12.0 in the playoffs, third-fewest among the 16 qualifying teams. They terrorize your offense, but also succeed because of their ball security, beginning with Gilgeous-Alexander, who only averaged 2.4 turnovers this season, fewest among the NBA's top-14 scorers. But that was a major problem in Game 3. Their offense was careless and scattered. Those three McConnell inbound steals counted for three of the Thunder's 19 turnovers. In their previous 18 playoff games, they never committed more than 16. Gilgeous-Alexander had six of those 19 turnovers, more than he'd committed in a game since December. That included the detrimental 'pick-six' type, as Caruso mentioned, a live-ball giveaway that gifts the other team two points and revs up the crowd. Here is the worst of the night from Gilgeous-Alexander. Thunder coach Mark Daigneault was asked postgame whether those live-ball turnovers, particularly the McConnell inbound steals, were inexcusable. 'In terms of inexcusable, everybody is out there competing and trying,' Daigneault said. 'I'm not going to place blame on those plays. I just thought their overall tone was better than ours for the majority of the game. I thought we had some really good stretches, but we just made one too many mistakes and had one too many possessions on both ends of the floor where they were more tied to their identity than we were. Obviously, those (turnovers) are costly plays.' Advertisement The Thunder gave up 40 second-quarter points and didn't force a turnover in the 12 minutes. Their bench was outscored 49-18. After a strong third quarter, they were outscored 32-18 in a fateful fourth when their offense came to a halt and their defense had too many lapses, including from Gilgeous-Alexander late, sagging too far off Nesmith and closing out too slow, leading to a dagger 3. This all combined to deliver the Thunder their second danger point in these playoffs. Like the Nuggets series — which began with a home collapse in Game 1 and a tight Game 3 loss in Denver — they are down 2-1, staring down the barrel of a crucial Game 4 road test Friday night against a confident team and a frothing crowd. 'You're probably just slightly more frustrated with (this 2-1 deficit),' Caruso said. 'You just put in so much effort and so much into the game to not come away with a win when you have a chance, especially on the road, it definitely stings a little. That's part of the playoffs. That's part of the finals.' (Photo of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
Chicago Tribune
an hour ago
- Chicago Tribune
Today in Chicago History: Bulls win 1st championship — and Michael Jordan named MVP of NBA Finals
Here's a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on June 12, according to the Tribune's archives. Is an important event missing from this date? Email us. Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago) 1966: In Humboldt Park, white Chicago police Officer Thomas Munyon shot Arcelis Cruz, a young Puerto Rican man, in the leg. The incident ignited two days of rioting along Division Street that sprang from deep frustrations over bad police relations, poor schools and uncaring landlords. On the first day of unrest, the Tribune reported, three squad cars were burned, 35 people were arrested and 19 people were injured. Stores along Division Street were looted and set on fire. A firebomb was thrown into Schley Elementary School. Firefighters had a hose wrested from their hands as they tried to extinguish the flames of a burning police car. A Tribune photographer was robbed of his camera, beaten and kicked, until neighborhood residents rescued him. The nearby St. Mary's Hospital treated both civilians and police officers. The violence subsided after a heavy rainfall and hundreds of police officers were placed on patrol in the area. 1991: The Chicago Bulls won the first NBA championship in the team's 25-year history with a 108-101 victory in Game 5 of the NBA Finals over the Los Angeles Lakers. MVP Michael Jordan scored 30 points, Scottie Pippen had 32 and John Paxson added 20. The Bulls won three straight on the road at the Forum. Chicago Bulls beat Los Angeles Lakers for NBA title in 1991'(The championship) means so much,' said Jordan, in tears after the game, talking to a national television audience. 'Not just for me but for this team and this city. It was a seven-year struggle. It's the most proud day I've ever had.' 2019: Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed into law sweeping abortion rights legislation that established the procedure as a 'fundamental right' for women in Illinois. Subscribe to the free Vintage Chicago Tribune newsletter, join our Chicagoland history Facebook group, stay current with Today in Chicago History and follow us on Instagram for more from Chicago's past.
