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).

Still, both teams had sluggish offensive starts to the game, as the Thunder have taken a modest 26-20 lead after one. The Thunder shot 10-of-21 (47.6%) from the field, while the Pacers lagged ...

The Pacers and Knicks offensive production numbers in the regular season were ... Anunoby will likely be asked to deal with former teammate Siakam and either Bridges or Hart could cause problems for Haliburton. McBride is also an effective defensive ...

However, the Thunder are even better in those categories, which could cause significant issues for Indiana ... no playoff team has a higher offensive rating than the Pacers.

The Knicks had some offensive issues Tuesday, but the defense that ... worse and his presence in place of Josh Hart allowed the Pacers to play faster and the efforts at switching and mismatched ...

From an overall offensive standpoint, this was an aesthetically pleasing game; the Pacers finished with 27 ... and we saw exactly why that caused problems in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference ...