Three Takeaways from Oklahoma City's Deflating Game 6 Loss

The Oklahoma City Thunder was taken down in Indiana on Thursday night convincingly, and will now have to head back to Bricktown for Game 7.

Jun 19, 2025; Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder forward Chet Holmgren (7) walks of the court after losing the Indiana Pacers in game six of the 2025 NBA Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images / Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

The Oklahoma City Thunder took a thrashing on Thursday night, ultimately falling 108-91 inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse to the Indiana Pacers.

This marks the series at three wins apiece, leaving a Game 7 inside Paycom Center to decide who will take home the Larry O'Brien trophy for the 2025 season.

It was a rough game for the Thunder as the team went down by as much as 31 in the game after crafting a 10-2 lead early which quickly dissipated. Oklahoma City couldn't bridge the gap in the first quarter and it spiraled into an eventual 22-point deficit by half time.

Let's take a look at three takeaways from a disappointing Game 6 outcome for the Thunder:

OKC Trio Scrambled

The Thunder trio of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren were scrambled on Thursday evening.

Gilgeous-Alexander's 21 points, Williams' 16 and Holmgren's four proved to be vastly underwhelming in the grand scheme of things, as Indiana's ball pressure, ability to close the gaps and cut off ball handlers paired with the Thunder's inability to hit a shot was way too much to overcome.

13 rebounds from those three plagued Oklahoma City in that sense, especially only having six from Holmgren. Their shooting efficiency wasn't awful, but it wasn't great either—Williams and Gilgeous-Alexander both shot just under 50% from the field on 13 and 14 shots, but Holmgren's 2-of-9 shooting was detrimental offensively.

Beaten at Its Own Game

At the beginning of this series in Thunder On SI's round table, it was noted that Oklahoma City had to beat Indiana the way it knows how—turnover generation and scoring production off of said turnovers.

The Thunder completely dropped the ball on that in its Game 6 loss.

21 turnovers to Indiana's 10 highlighted the intensity of the Pacers' defense behind its raucous crowd. Eight of those turnovers came from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Sloppy passes, an unfocused product leveraged by a prepared Indiana defense made OKC look like one of the teams the Thunder would dominate all season long.

The Thunder had made teams look like a deer caught in the headlights throughout this season—it was the deer on Thursday.

Daigneault Empties Bench Early

Head coach Mark Daigneault made a tough decision in emptying the bench to start the fourth quarter.

Down 30 at that point, Ajay Mitchell, Kenrich Williams, and Jaylin Williams all got some playing time, as well as Ousmane Dieng and Dillon Jones.

Daigneault made the decision out of caution as he and the Thunder were already looking ahead to Game 7 at that point, leaving his starters to rest and eliminate any chance of injury. It was the right move—Oklahoma City will look to be fully charged and ready for Game 7 at 7 p.m. on Sunday inside Paycom Center.

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