Indiana Pacers Head Coach Wants Mistakes Against OKC Thunder Defense

The Oklahoma City Thunder have been able to suffocate the Indiana Pacers through the first two games of the 2025 NBA Finals. Indiana has labored to score this series and do so efficiently aside from the fourth quarter of the series opener.

That was to be expected against the Thunder's top ranked defense but Indiana is attempting to adjust in Game 3 of this series back at home.

The Pacers have to try to play at its normal pace against this Thunder and it was put in an interesting why by head coach Rick Carlisle, who has been around basketball a long time and has seen the pictures.

"Yeah, I mean, some of our turnovers have been so violently bad that Oklahoma hasn't even had a chance to catch the ball." Carlisle said with a chuckle, "Look, there's some merit to doing that, and not having a live-ball situation. Live-ball situations are the worst for every team in the league. There are a lot of symptoms of high turnovers. Usually it's disruptive defense along with probably poor spacing and other things."

The Oklahoma City Thunder are hoping to continue to force the issue and get Indiana into turnovers.

"Yeah, you try to address those things as best as we can. Tyrese has been historically great with ball security. This team that we're playing now presents unprecedented challenges because they've been turning everybody over through the entire Playoffs," Carlisle explained. "We're going to have to have really great spatial awareness with everything that we're doing. You can't play too careful against Oklahoma or otherwise you'll never get a basket. You have to be aggressive. There are going to be some mistakes."

Though Indiana, has been able to limit the damage off of turnovers. the Thunder have not been able to get out and run in transition to capitalize on points off the Pacers giveaways so far this series.

"Our bounce-back ability from mistakes is really key and our response. Certainly, we want to avoid those mishaps as much as possible," The Pacers' bench boss detailed.

The Indiana Pacers should be more comfortable in Game 3 at home which should make it easier to respond to the Oklahoma City Thunder's elite defensive unit.