Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault credited the Indiana Pacers for their tenacious approach in a rematch of last season's NBA Finals.

The Pacers withstood a late rally to edge to a 117-114 win on Friday, having kept the Thunder on the back foot from the very first minute.

Andrew Nembhard had 27 points and 11 rebounds, and Jarace Walker added a career-high 26 points for the Pacers, bettering his previous best of 21.

Walker sank four free throws in the final 10 seconds to lift injury-hit Indiana, who scored 39 points in the first quarter, to the win, after Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had scored 47 points for the Thunder.

Oklahoma City were also struggling with injury, with Jalen Williams, Isaiah Hartenstein and Alex Caruso among those sidelined.

But while the teams' fortunes have differed since the Thunder clinched their first NBA title, Daigneault acknowledged his side were just not good enough.

"They made plays. Credit them. They made enough plays," he said of the Pacers. "Zooming out, the lesson is: when you're in a deficit like that, that's what a deficit does to you.

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"It really limits your margin for error for the rest of the game. It doesn't mean you can't come back and win. It's a 48-minute game. It was obviously a winnable game for us.

"But when you go down that much in the first half, it takes a lot of effort to get back in, and then, it comes down to a play here or there, and obviously, they were more than two plays better than us."

Gilgeous-Alexander helped pull the Thunder to within one with 7.8 seconds left, but came up short as Isaiah Joe missed a corner three that could have sent the game to overtime.

"The fight and then the competitiveness of the team was great," Daigneault added.

"I thought we played really well despite it not being a very good shooting night. We played well enough to win for 36 minutes in the 48, and credit them, they played for 48, and they held us off when we tried to get back into it multiple times."