Thunder Eye Historic Feat to Match Michael Jordan's Legendary Bulls
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
The NBA Finals and the matchups are set. The top-seed and overwhelming favorites, the Oklahoma City Thunder, will take on the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference, the Indiana Pacers.
Thunder-Pacers NBA Finals Preview: What to Know, Key Dates, Prediction
The Thunder enter this match as the favorites and by a large margin. Oklahoma City opened as -750 favorites over the Indiana Pacers in the Finals at ESPN BET. The Pacers opened as +525 underdogs.
The Thunder have the talent and home-court advantage on their side. As for the Pacers, they have all the momentum, toughness, grit and attitude they need to pull off the impossible.
On the basketball side of things, this series is set not to disappoint. The Thunder will look to avoid disappointing their fans, as they are on the verge of history.
The Thunder, who won 68 games in the regular season, are four wins away from putting themselves among the likes of the historic 1995-96 Chicago Bulls.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander #2 of the Oklahoma City Thunder poses with teammates after defeating the Minnesota Timberwolves 124-94 in Game Five of the Western Conference Finals of the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Paycom Center on May...
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander #2 of the Oklahoma City Thunder poses with teammates after defeating the Minnesota Timberwolves 124-94 in Game Five of the Western Conference Finals of the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Paycom Center on May 28, 2025 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. More
Photo by"On the other side, Oklahoma City also would rank toward the extreme end of a historical leaderboard if it were to win the Finals. The Thunder went 68-14 in the regular season and with four more wins would reach 84 total wins for the season; the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls, who went 72-10 before cruising through the playoffs, are the only champions in NBA history with more total victories," wrote Zach Krama and Kevin Pelton of ESPN.
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The 1995-96 Bulls won 15 games in the playoffs, as was the case before, with the first-round series being a best-of-five series. Ultimately, the Bulls ended that season with 87 wins.
As for the Thunder, if they were to collect four more wins, they'd end their historic season with 84 wins, three shy of Michael Jordan's Bulls.
Oklahoma City has all the tools to get the job done, led by their MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The MVP of the league and his team are poised for history.
They are coming off a historic regular season led by a young, rising star-studded core and a unique approach to team building. For the second consecutive season, they finished as the No. 1 seed in the loaded Western Conference.
The Thunder could go down as one of the best teams to ever win a title. While that may not be the case right off the bat (if they win), in the long run, the statistics and data will support that claim.
More NBA news: Spurs Need to Avoid Nightmare Situation With Victor Wembanyama
NBA Finals Set to Feature Uncommon Matchup Missing for Almost Two Decades
For more Thunder, Pacers, and NBA news and rumors, head on over to Newsweek Sports
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The Bounce Newsletter | This is The Athletic's daily NBA newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox. On this date in 1992, Michael Jordan lit up the Blazers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. The Bulls won 122-89 behind 39 points from Jordan. He scored 35 of them in the first half, thanks to six 3-pointers. He made only five 3s in the 16 playoff games leading up to that night. He hit six more 3-pointers the rest of the finals. We all remember the iconic shrug. Grading Pacers-Thunder matchups With Game 1 of the NBA Finals tipping off Thursday night and a lull between playoff action, we've got plenty of Bounce days to preview this series. We gave some aspects of the game to consider yesterday, and today we're going to grade out the matchups for each team. We've got star matchups, secondary guys, key role players, entire benches and even the coaching matchup to consider! Advertisement Let's slap a few grades down for each team in each category, determine a winner and see where it all shakes out: Stars: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander vs. Tyrese Haliburton Haliburton has become a big-time playoff performer, and we know how well he can control a game. Put him in a clutch situation, and you'll see him push the opponent to the brink of losing their sanity and past losing their lead. On the flip side of that, SGA is the MVP of the league and has been brilliant in the playoffs. Grade: A+ for OKC, A for IND | Winner: Thunder Secondary Stars: Jalen Williams vs. Pascal Siakam Williams has been excellent defensively during this entire run. His offense was abysmal against Denver until Game 7, and he rebounded with his scoring perfectly against Minnesota. He's also just in his third season. Siakam has been a big addition to the Pacers over the last year and a half, and he has the experience of already contributing to a championship. Grade: A- for OKC, A- for IND | Winner: Tie Third Guys: Chet Holmgren vs. Myles Turner I'm not sure you can rely on Turner to be a consistent defensive presence anymore, which is a far cry from what he used to be. Meanwhile, Holmgren struggles with consistency, but he's pretty great for a 23-year-old with only two years on NBA courts. The latter will likely have a bigger impact, but Turner needs to win this battle. Grade: A- for OKC, B for IND | Winner: Thunder Key 3-and-D Wings: Lu Dort vs. Aaron Nesmith Nesmith did a good job on Brunson, and he had the big Reggie Miller moment in Game 1 against New York. Dort will eat your soul on defense and is a pretty reliable 3-point shooter. Grade: B+ for OKC, B for IND | Winner: Thunder Fifth Guys: Isaiah Hartenstein vs. Andrew Nembhard We've seen Nembhard step up big-time in these past two postseason runs, but Hartenstein is a big man the Pacers may not have an answer for. 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Grade: A- for OKC, A for IND | Winner: Pacers That's a pretty heavy swing to the Thunder with a 5-1-1 tally here. Even if you convince me that Siakam is winning that matchup over Williams (which I'm not mad at), we're still looking at 5-2 OKC. That doesn't mean things can't change once we're on the court, though. You, too , can learn to train like an MVP! 🏀 Training tips. There are five things you learn by training with SGA. Have to create an alter ego. 🏀 Power Rankings. WNBA rankings are here, but can anybody challenge the historically dominant Liberty? Here come the Aces! 🏀 Take care. The Pacers and Thunder both take care of the ball at an elite level. Possessions matter. ✈️ Travel buddies. What was a key part of Indiana's path to the NBA Finals? A trip to Paris!🎶 Jazz hiring. The Jazz are hiring Austin Ainge from the Celtics to be the president of basketball ops. Yes, that's Danny Ainge's son. 🎧 Tuning in. 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