Oklahoma City Thunder players cheering from the bank during the second half of game 4 of the NBA Finals Basketball series Agasint de Indiana Pacers, Friday 13 June 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Oklahoma City – The book is called “The Obstacle is the way.” It is a gift that Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault gave the Thunder Center Isaiah Hartenstein during a difficult time this season, knowing that the glory reader would find out the meaning.
Message delivered.
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“I read it and remembered that everything happens for a reason,” said Hartenstein. “And then everything worked great.”
That was the story of the Thunder season. That was the story of Game 4 of the NBA Finals. Faced with the biggest challenge of their seasonal backlog of 10 points in the second half, staring at a very real chance that the Indiana Pacers grabbed the almost uncertain 3-1 lead in the title round, the Thunder was getting away again and said that everything worked great.
Under the leadership of a dazzling and hectic finish of the reigning MVP and scoring champion Shai Gilgeous-Alexander-Die 15 of his 35 points, the Thunder had in the fourth quarter to beat Indiana 111-104 on Friday evening. The series is now 2-2 bound, on its way to Oklahoma City for Game 5 on Monday evening, and it is the Thunder who has home again.
“That was a tough match against a great team,” Daigneault said after game 4 in Indianapolis, at the same time praised his team while he was also enthusiastic about the pacers. “This is one of the best teams in the competition in the past few months, since All-Star Break. They are a difficult team to beat here. They are a difficult team to defeat, point out. I thought we got it out one night that we were not going on, especially offensive.”
It was a night when the Thunder only made three 3-Pointers and 45% photographed with about five minutes before Gilgous-Alexander started. He made 11 shots in the last 4: 40-three attempts in the field goal, one of them a 3-point attempt and eight free throws and made them all. A perfect finish, one night when Little had gone.
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“It’s incredible,” said Daigneault. “He really didn’t have much of the night. He was working. We had a hard time shaking him freely. To be able to turn the switch and get the rhythm he received, just speaks how great a player he is.”
It may not seem to be the same as the Buitenwereld-Negen who have fixed on things such as the 68-14 franchise-best record of Oklahoma City, the 16-game lead at the nearest challenger in the Western Conference classification, a record number of double digits in GilgeGerexae. But the Thunder has actually confronted some adversity this season.
They played for a while without Chet Holmgren and Hartenstein during the year. Sometimes there was some flux to the line -up. Everyone probably had a kind of mini slump along the way. There was a game 1 loss in the second round to Denver. And Daigneault embraced every piece of that pain, knowing that the Thunder would come where they want to go, would present themselves.
Just like its-down-10, late third quarter kind of setback that emerged in Game 4.
Just as Hartenstein was led through the book, everything worked great.
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“We didn’t really have to show much this year, with the success we had in the regular season,” said guard Jalen Williams shortly before the team left for the flight back to Oklahoma City, where a huge crowd appeared in the middle of the night to greet the team at the airport – as they often do. “We have had a lot of ups and downs during the play -offs. We have just learned from those experiences. That is something that Mark is really big; every game that you should be able to learn, then the next game should be able to apply and be better at it. That is what we try to do every time.”
The series is not over yet and the Thunder knows. Indiana has already won in Oklahoma City in this final; Certainly, the pacers think they can do it again. And although the teams broke up 18 victories apart in the last rankings – OKC won 68 times, Indiana won 50 – it does not seem to be 18 victories in inequality between the clubs at the moment.
Indiana Stal Game 1 at the end. Oklahoma City Stal Game 4 at the end, although not as dramatic as the Pacers took the opener. Game 2 was controlled almost everywhere by the Thunder; The Pacers had the best of the game for the majority of Game 3.
Add it and it looks exactly like what it is-a 2-2 series that goes in that game 5.
“I still have the feeling that we have so much work to do,” said Gilgous-Alexander. “Halfway there, of course, but still so far from the finish line.”
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Where, but two more efforts like this, and everything will be great. Just as the book says.
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