While clearly disappointed at how the game ended, the Oklahoma City Thunder's players did not overreact following their dramatic defeat to the Indiana Pacers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday.

The Thunder were previously taken to seven games by the Denver Nuggets in the conference finals, so they know that losing 111-110 here was not terminal to their ambitions.

That is despite the defeat coming in gut-wrenching circumstances, having blown a 15-point lead and with Tyrese Haliburton putting the Pacers into the lead for the first time on the night with just 0.3 seconds on the clock.

"Well, it sucks," said Thunder forward Jalen Williams, as quoted by ESPN, when summarising how the defeat stings. "But we have been here before."

This season's NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was in agreement with Williams and did his best to stay positive.

"How you lose doesn't really matter," he said after registering 38 points in the match. 

"Obviously it sucks, a last-second shot, the energy in the arena and stuff like that. But we lost at the end of the day. We lost Game 1.

"We've lost Game 1 before. On the other side of that, we came out a better team. That's our goal.

"The series isn't first to one, it's first to four. We have four more games to get. They have three.

"That's just where we are. We've got to understand that, and we got to get to four before they get to three if we want to win the NBA Championship.

"It's that simple. It's not rocket science. We lost Game 1. We have to be better."

Final from OKC pic.twitter.com/UC8r2Petqv

— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) June 6, 2025

The confidence of the Thunder's players is understandable, given that they have won all four of their games following defeats in their playoff run.

Their coach, Mark Daigneault, challenged his players to move on quickly from the result.

"The playoffs take you to the limit," he said.

"They put your back against the wall in games, in series. If you make it this far, you have to endure to do that.

"It gives you rich experiences that you can draw on. The biggest experience we've had is understanding that every game's a new game.

"The most important game in the series is always the next one, regardless of the outcome. We would've liked to win tonight, but tonight was a starting point, not an end point."