However, what won the 68 games and got them to the Finals was their defense, and the Pacers torched that for a long stretch of Game 3. Indiana took better shots and capitalized on them, finishing with a 116 offensive rating (9.5 points higher than the Thunder allowed on average during the playoffs coming into the game).

The Indiana Pacers had a chance to do to the Oklahoma City Thunder what they did to the Knicks. But Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had other ideas.

NBA Finals finally started, Mark Daigneault threw a last-second curveball to the Indiana Pacers. He opted to start Cason Wallace over Isaiah Hartenstein. Don't let revisionist history fool you. While everybody questioned the move after their Game 1 loss,

Cason Wallace got the call to start Game 1 of the NBA Finals for the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night, taking the place of Isaiah Hartenstein. The Thunder had used the same starting five — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander,

How The Thunder Got Here: OKC took sole possession of first place in the West on Nov. 25, and held it for the remaining 140 days of the regular season, finishing with a league-best and franchise-record 68-14 record.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander attempted the steal and once that failed, Indiana's second-best player converted the transition layup to seal the result. The Oklahoma City Thunder's frustrations finally boiled over in a 116-107 Game 3 loss to the Indiana Pacers.