For NBA fans worldwide, the first ever face-off between the Indiana Pacers and the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Finals starting June 6 is a must watch for two reasons: the contrasting point guard matchup between Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Tyrese Haliburton, and the play styles of the Pacers’ relentless and chaotic offense and Thunder’s pesky and suffocating defense. 

The playoff stats already tell a narrative of what makes the matchup of playmakers Gilgeous-Alexander of OKC and Haliburton of Indiana quite interesting. 

Shai is not just a scoring point guard, he is THE scoring point guard, having been hailed as the 2025 NBA Scoring Champion after averaging 32.7 points in the regular season, and bagging the highly coveted 2025 Kia NBA MVP award. His postseason performance: 29.8 points, 6.9 assists, and 5.7 rebounds in 16 games. He is also the scoring leader in the postseason in a minimum of six games played. 

Tyrese, the current assist leader in the playoffs, is averaging 18.8 points, 9.8 assists and 5.7 rebounds in 16 games this postseason. He is a pass-first point guard—quite a rarity these days due to the abundance of scoring PGs like Steph Curry, Luka Dončić, Jalen Brunson, Ja Morant, and, of course, Gilgeous-Alexander. 

Although one’s a bucket maniac and the other’s a pass-first guard, Shai and Tyrese are the key pieces in their respective squads’ offense. 

Haliburton is the main orchestrator of the Pacers’ relentless offense with his ability to quickly find open passing lanes and wide-open teammates but also taking advantage of the space for himself with his scoring prowess. With him at the helm, the Pacers are second in offensive rating this postseason with 118.1, only behind the No. 1 seed Cleveland Cavaliers which they eliminated in the Eastern Conference semifinals, 4-1.

As for 26-year-old Gilgeous-Alexander, he simply leads the Thunder’s offence by being the humongous scoring threat that he is. What sets SGA apart from average guards in the current NBA is his willingness to drive into the lane and get a 2. He is league leader in drives per game by a huge margin with 20.6, followed by Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks, 17.8. 

But how is this driving game by SGA leading the Thunder’s offense? Simple. The Canadian star has a lot of variations in his bag when it comes to piercing the lane. There is the quick bucket at the paint with his impressive first step, his mid-range pullup shots, his quick dip inside followed by a step-back three, and the kickout pass to an open teammate as defenders are sucked by his offensive gravity. 

Another salient factor in Shai’s driving game is his infamous ability to get into the foul line. This postseason alone, the MVP has averaged 7.9 points per game with his free throws—much to the frustration of the defenders. 

As for their on-court matchup, it appears that the two star guards won’t be guarding each other. In their two games this season, Andrew Nembhard got the SGA assignment while it was All-Defensive First Team Luguentz Dort who was tasked to guard Haliburton. 

Clash of chaotic systems

Another exciting matchup to look out for in this series would be the clash of the Pacers’ offense and the Thunders’ defense. Indiana is one of the top offensive teams in the league while Oklahoma City leads in the defensive rating department in both the regular season and playoffs. 

In his podcast “Mind the Game,” Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James called the Pacers offense “controlled constant chaos.” The Pacers have built an offense system that takes full advantage of chaos and confusion on the court, courtesy of their constant off-ball movements and maneuvers which leaves the defense second-guessing their role. 

Due to the constant chaos and confusion on the side of their defenders, most of the Pacers’ job revolves around getting the ball to that wide-open person—which they consistently did. Indiana is leading the postseason in most assists by a team with 449, and in three-point percentage at 40.1%, way ahead of the other teams (the Milwaukee Bucks were second with 37.9%). 

As for the top team in the West, Oklahoma City’s defense has been a nightmare for all the teams who had the displeasure of experiencing it firsthand. After being eliminated by the Thunders in the West Conference Finals, Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards described OKC’s defense as “15 puppets in one string.” This means that every person on that monster roster is playing in a cohesive and connected manner that it barely even makes a difference when substitutions take place. 

The Thunders capitalize on their individual defensive players who are more than capable in forcing turnovers. In their starting five lineup, they have an NBA All-Defensive first team in Lu Dort and a second team awardee in Jaylen Williams. Then there’s the standout defensive bench players in Alex Caruso and Cason Wallace who are more than ready to keep the defensive pressure on the second unit. 

Oklahoma City’s ability to force turnovers put them at the top of the league in steals in both regular season and postseason with 10.3 and 10.8 SPG respectively. What makes these stats scarier for such a team as OKC is their ability to effectively convert steals into transition buckets. The Thunder have scored 235 points on their 172 possessions following a steal, which comes to a rate of 136.6 points per 100 possessions—by far the best in the league. 

Looking at the two play styles of each team, a key area to focus on in the finals is the Pacers’ ability to keep the ball in their hands and not turn it over to the Thunder’s defensive swarm. Indiana cannot execute their chaotic offense if they are not able to move the ball well around the court, something that Oklahoma City will definitely be working on. 

As for the Thunder defense, as long as they keep on executing their defensive system the same way they’ve been doing all season long and working as one unit, they are by far the favorites to take home the title. 

The first game of the much-awaited NBA Finals takes place on June 6, Friday, 8:30 a.m. (8:30 p.m. in Manila) with the Pacers taking on the Thunder on their homecourt at Paycom Center.