2025 NBA Finals prediction: Who will win between the Pacers and Thunder?
2025 NBA Finals prediction: Who will win between the Pacers and Thunder?
The 2025 NBA Finals are set, as the Indiana Pacers will take on the Oklahoma City Thunder for the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy.
It's hard to predict how this series will go exactly, as Oklahoma City and Indiana boast two of the best rosters in the entire league.
Whereas the Thunder have MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Pacers have a red-hot Tyrese Haliburton. Oklahoma City compliments SGA with superstars like Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams, while Indiana supports Haliburton with excellent players like Pascal Siakam and Obi Toppin.
These two teams feel pretty even with each other, although Oklahoma City will enter this year's NBA Finals with more rest. Indiana could ride its hot hand after eliminating the New York Knicks in six games. Both arenas are treacherous to play in, and both teams have the depth needed to go the distance in a seven-game series.
Will the Thunder cement Gilgeous-Alexander's MVP season with a championship? The team will need its superstar to really lead the pace on offense and its stonewall defense to do its part, as the Pacers have flashed so many ways to score in their playoff run. It's that Indiana offense's completeness that really wows you, even though Oklahoma City has so much star power and have plenty of ways to find the basket, too.
We're going to guess this series goes the full seven games, and that Haliburton and the Pacers ultimately emerge victorious on the power of their offensive depth and the general momentum they've built in this playoff run to give the franchise its first proper NBA title.
Maybe it's controversial with how good the Thunder has been this season, but Pacers in 7.
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San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
SuperSonics fans feel no allegiance to the Thunder in these NBA Finals. Go Pacers, the scornful say
SEATTLE (AP) — It's logical to think someone like Danny Ball is a fair representation of Seattle these days. Ball, a hoops fan who runs an Instagram account called 'Iconic Sonics,' is pulling for the Indiana Pacers over the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals. There are no deep ties between Seattle and Indianapolis. The Seahawks play the Colts this December, so the cities will be foes that weekend. Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever probably won't be warmly welcomed when they visit the Emerald City later this month to play the Seattle Storm. But right now, Seattle may as well be an Indy suburb. Seattle fans lost their NBA franchise, the SuperSonics, in 2008 when it was stolen from them and rebranded in Oklahoma City. For the scornful, that means one thing: Go Pacers. 'I'd love to see the Pacers pull it off in six games,' Ball said. The NBA Finals begin Thursday night. For some in Seattle, it'll be a heaping helping of fresh salt on the wounds that opened when the Sonics were taken away. And people like Ball, who was born in Seattle and heard stories of Sonics legends Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton from his father, aren't exactly rooting for Oklahoma City right now. The Thunder are heavy favorites to beat the Pacers. Should they pull it off, the Thunder would claim their first NBA title in Oklahoma City, but technically their second as a franchise after Seattle won the title in 1979. It's no secret the city wants the league to come back. Expansion is on the NBA's to-do list, and it's likely that talks — the first of many, many steps in this process — could start in earnest with interested cities in the next few months. Commissioner Adam Silver, however, hasn't fully committed to adding new teams. 'The issue I would not have anticipated at the time I sort of began talking about the timeline is how much unknown there is about local media right now,' Silver said earlier this year. 'Having said that, though, I would just say again to our many fans in Seattle, and I hear from them often, and the legacy of the Sonics is still very strong and it's a fantastic basketball market, is that we are very focused on it. … We don't take those fans for granted. We're thankful that the interest has remained over all these years.' Any mention of expansion sends fans into a tizzy. Steve Ballmer, the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, spoke to the crowd before a preseason game in Seattle — his hometown — in 2023, and made a thinly veiled reference to how fans need to remind the league's New York office how much the city loves the game. 'All night long, it better be loud enough in this building to hear us all the way back in New York, if you get me,' Ballmer told the crowd. 'Let's make sure we're loud tonight.' And then came the Ballmer bellow: 'Go Seattle,' he screamed. It's something Seattle takes seriously, as Mayor Bruce Harrell learned earlier this year in his address to the city. 'Right now, at this moment, I have an announcement to make,' Harrell said, reaching into the lectern where he was standing and pulling out a basketball, spinning it in his hands as he displayed it to the crowd — which began roaring. 'Ah, I'm just kidding.' The crowd wasn't amused. Harrell later was interviewed by Seattle's KOMO News and apologized for the attempt at humor, getting reminded that residents of the city aren't happy that the NBA hasn't returned yet. 'Count me among them,' Harrell said. A very real void has been left in the SuperSonics' absence. The NHL's Seattle Kraken entering the fold has helped, as has the success of the WNBA's Seattle Storm, both of whom play at Climate Pledge Arena, which sits on the site of the SuperSonics' former home. That same arena received a significant remodel ahead of the Kraken arriving, which could make it suitable for NBA games. That would ultimately be up to the association to decide one day, but Ball hopes it would be the Sonics' former home in the Queen Anne neighborhood they get to triumphantly return to one day. 'A lot of Sonics fans that I know I'm sure never got over the wounds of what happened here 17 years ago with them leaving (for) Oklahoma City,' SuperSonics fan Eric Phan said. 'All of the Sonics fanbase (is) rooting for the Indiana Pacers.' Seattle seemed to have a chance at getting a team back in 2013 when the Maloof family put the Sacramento Kings up for sale. But investor Chris Hansen's bid to relocate the team to Seattle was rejected by the NBA's Board of Governors. For fans like Ball and Phan, hope lives on. Ball recognizes that's partially because he is an inherently positive person, and he's hoping for a Hollywood ending. 'It would be poetic if the year that OKC wins the finals — if that occurs — is in the same summer that the league comes out and says, 'Hey, we're forming an expansion committee to start really exploring this process,'' Ball said. 'I think that would help damper or therapize the feelings and emotions that would come along with seeing the Thunder hoist the Larry O'Brien.' Phan pointed out that just because the Sonics don't play in Seattle, it doesn't mean the team is truly gone. 'You can see people walking the sidewalks and streets of Seattle, and even the suburbs,' Phan said. 'People are wearing Sonics gear like they never really left.'
New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
Leon Rose's daughter shares ‘special' look at Knicks' playoff run in new video
As far as Brooke Rose is concerned, the journey is still unwritten for this Knicks team following their heartbreaking playoff ouster. One day after the Knicks fell to the Pacers in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals on Saturday, the daughter of Knicks president Leon Rose recapped the 'special' run in an Instagram video that highlighted different moments throughout the postseason. Advertisement 'This chapter might have ended, but the story is far from over.. beyond proud of this team. truly something special,' she captioned Sunday's post. '🔒. forever.' The video captured wild celebrations at Madison Square Garden, along with scenes from the Knicks knocking off the Pistons and Celtics en route to their first conference finals appearance since 2000. 6 Knicks president Leon Rose with his daughter, Brooke Rose. Brooke Rose/Instagram Advertisement The Knicks opened the series against the Pacers at home by choking away a Game 1 lead within the final moments of regulation, paving the way for Indiana's 138-135 overtime win at MSG in May. 6 Scenes from Brooke Rose's Knicks recap video shared on Instagram. Brooke Rose/Instagram 6 The Knicks reached the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2000. Brooke Rose/Instagram Advertisement The Knicks then found themselves in a two-game hole entering Game 3 in Indiana, but rallied back in the second half to claim their first victory of the best-of-seven series, 106-100. Although they rebounded from a Game 4 defeat with a resounding 111-94 win at MSG in Game 5, the Knicks fell flat in the second half of Game 6 Saturday, ending their season with a 125-108 loss. 6 Leon Rose during the Knicks' playoff run in April 2025. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post 6 He high-fived Karl-Anthony Towns during the first round of the NBA playoffs in April 2025. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post Advertisement 'There were stretches where we played very good defense and stretches where we didn't,' coach Tom Thibodeau said. 'Once we dig into it and look at: Was it our defense, or was it our turnovers? Probably both.' Although it's going to take a beat to digest the loss, Knicks captain Jalen Brunson is 'overconfident' the team — which added Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges this season — can take the next step. 6 Brooke Rose said she's 'beyond proud' of the team. Brooke Rose/Instagram 'There's not an ounce of any type of doubt that I'm not confident with this group,' Brunson said. '… We have a lot of guys that just genuinely want to work hard to be better, and I like that, and I appreciate my teammates and everything they do and everything they believe in.' Towns, who drew the ire of local sports personalities in the wake of Saturday's season-ending loss, arrived in New York in October following a blockbuster trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Bridges joined former Villanova teammates Hart and Brunson following a trade with the Nets in June 2024 — a move Brooke hinted at on social media at the time.
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
2025 NBA draft workout tracker: Who's all met with the OKC Thunder
2025 NBA draft workout tracker: Who's all met with the OKC Thunder The calendar has flipped to June, which means there is less than a month left until the 2025 NBA draft. While the Oklahoma City Thunder are in the 2025 NBA Finals, they must multitask as they prepare to enter this year's class with multiple selections. The Thunder will have three draft picks in this year's draft class. They own the No. 15 pick (via Heat), No. 24 pick (via Clippers) and the No. 44 pick (via Hawks). Over the next few weeks, expect the Thunder to meet with several draft prospects from the first round to the undrafted pool. It's that time of the year when prospects travel across the NBA to meet with teams in hopes of their pro careers. Because of the amount of draft information out there at this time of the year, Thunder Wire will actively update this article throughout the predraft process. The 2025 NBA draft will be held on June 25-26:
