The Oklahoma City Thunder went with Cason Wallace over Isaiah Hartenstein. That meant Chet Holmgren slid down to his natural center position. The move had its desired results of creating havoc in the perimeter and forcing turnovers at a high rate. The only problem was that they only scored 11 points off the 25 turnovers they created.

If the Thunder bounce back in Game 2, Chet Holmgren will need to be better. He was invisible in Game 1 with just six points and six rebounds. That performance resulted in him barely seeing the floor in the fourth quarter as the game evolved into crunch time.

The 2025 NBA Finals got off to a rousing start with the Indiana Pacers' miraculous 111-110 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 1 on Thursday night. Tyrese Haliburton made a game-winning pull-up jumper with 0.3 seconds to complete a 15-point fourth-quarter comeback and steal home-court advantage from OKC.