Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander emphasized sticking to the team’s regular-season principles after a crushing 111-110 loss to the Indiana Pacers in Game 1 of the 2025 NBA Finals on June 5, 2025. Despite leading by 15 in the fourth quarter, the Thunder fell to Tyrese Haliburton’s pull-up jumper with 0.3 seconds left, per espn.com.
The Thunder, who topped the NBA with 68 regular-season wins, never trailed early in the opener, per cbssports.com. Gilgeous-Alexander, the 2024-25 MVP, urged consistency, saying, “We just got to treat it like any other game. Our character doesn’t change. It’s still basketball, the same game we grew up playing. The rules don’t change in the Finals.”
With 48.6 seconds left and Indiana within one, Gilgeous-Alexander, 26, missed a fadeaway that could have given OKC a three-point lead. “I got a good look, felt good, didn’t go in,” he said. “They got a look, and it went in. Can’t change it now. Just be better next game.”
The loss echoed Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals, where Denver’s Aaron Gordon hit a last-second three for a 121-119 Nuggets win. OKC rebounded to win that series in seven, and Gilgeous-Alexander downplayed the setback: “Me personally, how you lose doesn’t really matter. Obviously it sucks, last-second shot, the energy in the arena and stuff like that. But we lost at the end of the day. We lost game one. We’ve lost game one before.