After a little bit of a wait, the 2025 NBA Finals matchup is officially set. The Oklahoma City Thunder will face the Indiana Pacers in the championship round. The global audience will see some fresh characters as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Tyrese Haliburton will make their Finals debut.
The Thunder held practice on Sunday. They’re a little while away from Game 1 on Thursday, June 5. Because it’s the NBA Finals, the entire sports world will be in OKC for the week. That means more media attention. From locally to nationally to globally.
Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault, Jalen Williams, Cason Wallace, Lu Dort and Isaiah Hartenstein talked to the media after practice. Here’s what they all said:
Jalen Williams on the Pacers: “They play fast and that’s what fuels their whole identity. They’re really talented. Mark made a really good point that they are feeling the exact same way we feel.” pic.twitter.com/sXR29zmEQj
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) June 1, 2025
Jalen Williams said Myles Turner made a good point yesterday about team chemistry and how the NBA has shifted over to that with the Thunder & Pacers in the NBA Finals: “They’re close to us in terms of how close they are as a team.”
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) June 1, 2025
Jalen Williams: “When I first got here, I told my parents I didn’t expect to get along with the group as well as I did. It’s really an organic thing. That’s probably a Sam Presti question regarding background checks.” pic.twitter.com/AOrIP6kxPK
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) June 1, 2025
Jalen Williams on childhood memories of watching the NBA Finals. Said his AAU teams would rush after practice to watch the game late at night: pic.twitter.com/3SZoxJrqmK
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) June 1, 2025
Mark Daigneault on Rick Carlisle: “I have a lot of respect for him. He’s had an unbelievable life in basketball… He’s forgotten more about the game than most of us have seen.” pic.twitter.com/mGjkJwJtN7
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) June 1, 2025
Pretty good answers from Mark Daigneault on his relationship with Sam Presti and the constant roster construction they’ve had over the years: “We obviously want to have the best team we can have but our job is to maximize the team we do have and to figure out what the strengths… pic.twitter.com/I2Y0LqZnIt
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) June 1, 2025
Mark Daigneault on reflecting back to their rebuild and how SGA, Dort & Kenrich Williams laid out a foundation: “I think if you’re a hardcore Thunder fan and you were following those teams, they were in a lot of nights punching above their weight.”
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) June 1, 2025
Cason Wallace on the Pacers: “They all can score the ball. They call can guard. They’re a good all-around team. They’ve won the same amount of games we have.”
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) June 1, 2025
Cason Wallace on Alex Caruso’s message to the team when he showed them his championship ring earlier this season: “Pretty much we can do it too.”
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) June 1, 2025
Cason Wallace said this is the closest team he’s ever been on: “They’re gonna be my brothers forever.”
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) June 1, 2025
Cason Wallace on Tyrese Haliburton: “Can’t relax. Go out there and make life difficult for him as best as possible.” pic.twitter.com/viuP3n5Yar
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) June 1, 2025
Lu Dort on Bennedict Mathurin: “Ben is kinda a brother to me, honestly. Grew up in the same neighborhood. Our people know each other. We spend a lot of time together during the offseason.”
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) June 1, 2025
Lu Dort: “When I first got here, we all had a vision. The main thing was to develop and get better. I feel like we checked a lot of those boxes to get to the point we are today… It would mean a lot to get it done. Not just for us, but for the city and organization.”
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) June 1, 2025
Lu Dort on Nikola Topic: “He’s been doing a lot of his recovery stuff but you can see the talent and how much more comfortable with the ball. Recently, he started playing with us and be a little more active with us. He’s still getting back from his injury but I can see just how…
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) June 1, 2025
Isaiah Hartenstein: “I think in the playoffs, you always have to prove yourself again. We’re not a team that wants anything given to us. We want to go out and conquer, go out and hunt. For us, it doesn’t matter what happened before. It doesn’t matter even in a playoff series, it…
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) June 1, 2025
Isaiah Hartenstein: “I think the greatest quality of this team is we do everything together. It starts with off the court. We’re a really together team. We support each other. If you’re playing a lot of minutes or not a lot of minutes, that’s what makes it special. We’re very…
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) June 1, 2025
Isaiah Hartenstein: “I think our defense is special because we don’t any weak links. Normally, a team can kinda go out and hunt one player. We don’t really have that as much.”
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) June 1, 2025