By The Associated Press
(AP) — Indiana and Oklahoma City will resume NBA Finals preparations on Saturday, before Game 2 on Sunday night.
Friday was technically an off day for both teams. Practices at Paycom Center will be held on Saturday afternoon.
Tyrese Haliburton’s jumper with 0.3 seconds left gave the Pacers a 111-110 victory over the Thunder in Game 1 on Thursday night. It was Indiana’s only lead of the game and capped a 15-point fourth-quarter comeback.
Friday’s NBA Finals News
— Tyrese Haliburton is Mr. Clutch
— In OKC, everybody must visit the memorial
— Adam Silver updates Europe plans
Thursday’s NBA Finals News
— Indiana wins Game 1 at the buzzer
— How the Game 1 comeback happened
— Commissioner Adam Silver talks parity, expansion, more
— The Thunder know they can regroup
— Things to know about these NBA Finals
Previous Stories of Note
— The long, winding road for Rick Carlisle
— Could it be U.S. vs. the World in the All-Star Game?
— Thunder are big favorites, but …
— Players play for the trophy. Referees ref for the jacket
— Ashley Kerr wins a lot of titles. She’s Mark Daigneault’s wife
— The ratings might not be good. The NBA has 76 billion reasons not to worry
— In Seattle, the message is clear: ‘Go Pacers’
— Two teams, two paths, one destination
Betting Odds
Oklahoma City (-350) remains a big favorite to win the NBA title, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, but was at -700 before the Game 1 loss. Indiana’s odds are now +275; they had been +500.
The Thunder are 10.5-point favorites over Indiana for Game 2. That’s down a point from early Friday.
The Pacers have covered in 12 of their first 17 games of these playoffs. The Thunder — favored in every game so far — have covered seven out of 17 times to this point.
NBA Finals Schedule
All games of the NBA Finals will be aired on ABC.
Thursday, June 5th — Game 1, Indiana 111, Oklahoma City 110
Sunday, June 8th — Game 2, Indiana at Oklahoma City, 8 p.m. EDT
Wednesday, June 11th — Game 3, Oklahoma City at Indiana, 8:30 p.m. EDT
Friday June 13th — Game 4, Oklahoma City at Indiana, 8:30 p.m. EDT
Monday, June 16th — Game 5, Indiana at Oklahoma City, if necessary, 8:30 p.m. EDT
Thursday, June 19th — Game 6, Oklahoma City at Indiana, if necessary, 8:30 p.m. EDT
Sunday, June 22nd — Game 7, Indiana at Oklahoma City, if necessary, 8 p.m. EDT
(And good news: No NBA Finals games conflict with Stanley Cup Final dates!)
Key Upcoming Events
June 25th — NBA draft, first round.
June 26th — NBA draft, second round.
SGA is the MVP
A recap of Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s winning of the NBA MVP award.
The story: Gilgeous-Alexander tops Jokic for MVP award
The reaction: SGA tears up when talking about his wife
Steve Nash speaks: Canada’s 1st MVP thrilled to see SGA follow him
The notebook: Jokic finishes top-2 again, Giannis’ streak ends, LeBron gets votes
Stats of the Day
— Thursday’s game was the closest Game 1 in NBA Finals history, decided by one point. There had been eight two-point Game 1s, most recently Chicago’s 84-82 win over Utah in 1997.
— Odds are, that was it for the one-point games in this series. The only NBA Finals with two games decided by exactly one point was the Golden State-Washington matchup in 1975, which was a closer-than-it-looked Warriors sweep. Golden State won those four games by an average of four points.
— Teams that were down by seven or more points with 3:00 left in an NBA Finals game were 0-121 in the play-by-play era (since 1997) before the Pacers’ Game 1 win. They trailed 106-99 with 3:00 left on Thursday and won 111-110.
Quote of the Day
“We have a group of guys that respond, and we are going to be ready for the next game.” — Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein.
