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The NBA Finals matchup is set, and unfortunately for the Golden State Warriors, they weren't able to make it this year. Still, Brandin Podziemski is excited to see the Oklahoma City Thunder go up against the Indiana Pacers. He expects it to be a good series, and he is just happy that he doesn't have to watch the New York Knicks go up against the Thunder.
Indiana just took down the Knicks in six games during the Eastern Conference Finals despite New York being favored in the series. If the Knicks had done enough to get to the NBA Finals, Brandin Podziemski would've predicted a sweep.
“I'm super excited for it. I'm glad it was the Pacers, not the Knicks, because it's like, if it was the Knicks, it would have been a sweep, just because I don't think the Knicks had enough to compete with OKC, both offensively and defensively,” Podziemski said to Kay Adams. “So I think the Pacers, you know, on any given night, they play, what 10 guys I think? And there's games where all 10 of them score in double figures. You don't always necessarily know where the points are coming from with Indiana.”
The Pacers have a lot of different players that can score, and that might end up being a challenge for OKC. Against the Timberwolves, the Thunder were good at forcing the ball away from Minnesota's playmakers. That might not work as well against the Pacers because of the fact that there so many scorers on the team.
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“And I think that what OKC is really good at stopping, you look at the Timberwolves, the majority of the points are from [Julius] Randle and Ant (Anthony Edwards), and so they're really good at taking that away and forcing others to beat you,” Podziemski continued, “where Indiana's like, we have a pass-first point guard in Tyrese [Haliburton], and then a bunch of other guys, [Andrew] Nembhard, Bennedict Mathurin, [Aaron] Nesmith, all guys that can get buckets at random times of the game.”
Both the Pacers and Thunder have a lot of similarities in terms of any player being able to come in and light up the box score on any given night, and that should make for an entertaining series.
“Nesmith comes back against New York, just him single-handedly, and he's a role player, you know, you got TJ McConnell, and he scores his buckets,” Podziemski added. “So it can come from anywhere with Indiana, and I think that's the thing that's going to be challenging for OKC. But OKC, you know, they're the best team in NBA for a reason, and they won 68 games, not by mistake. And they got the same thing where, the points can come for anywhere on any given night, whether it's Shai [Gilgeous-Alexander], J Dub (Jalen Williams), [Alex] Caruso can have 20, Isaiah Joe can have 20. Cason Wallace could have 20. So it could come from anywhere. And I think that's what's going to be good about this series.”
The NBA Finals is going to be a fun matchup. Game 1 of the series between the Pacers and Thunder will go down on Thursday night at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City. The game will get underway at 7:30 CT, and it will be airing on ABC. The Thunder are currently favored by 9.5 points.
