Rick Carlisle may have been speaking to his own team, but his advice should resonate with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Indiana Pacers led Game 1 of the 2025 NBA Finals for a grand total of 0.3 seconds. Despite that jaw-dropping fact, Indiana will enter Game 2 with a 1-0 series lead over the Oklahoma City Thunder and the type of momentum that can crush a rival team's spirit.
If the Thunder are hoping to avoid disaster striking twice, then they'll need to heed advice from an unlikely source: Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle.
Carlisle is in the midst of yet another legendary run through the NBA Playoffs. Much as his Dallas Mavericks stunned the masses in 2011, the Pacers have done the same in 2025. When asked how Indiana can sustain its success, Carlisle offered a quote that should echo through the halls at the Paycom Center.
According to Marc J. Spears of Andscape, Carlisle believes his team needs to balance poise with aggression to close out the 2025 NBA Finals.
“We’ve just got to be very much present in the moment and know what this is all about. This is all about keeping poise and at the same time having a high level of aggression.”
Carlisle may have been talking about his own team, but the advice that he's offered is identical to what the Thunder need to do to turn this series around.
Rick Carlisle's advice for Pacers is exactly what Thunder need themselves
Teams that lose games they should've won often overcompensate in their attempts to right the ship. They push the pace at times when it's better to slow down, force shots that could act as daggers when the right play would suffice, and overemphasize physicality at the expense of avoiding foul trouble.
For the Thunder, those are the exact mistakes they must avoid if they hope to overcome a 1-0 deficit and not only win Game 2, but ultimately prevail as champions.
No matter what happens in Game 2, home-court advantage has shifted in the Pacers' favor. That thought can prove daunting for teams that obsess over dropping a game on their own floor, as they begin to look ahead to a must-win encounter in either Game 3 or Game 4.
The difference between teams that successfully overcome an early blunder and those that allow it to derail their momentum, however, is poise in the face of adversity.
The good news for Oklahoma City is that they've already overcome an issue of this nature. They dropped Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals to Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets, and later fell behind 2-1 when they lost Game 3.
Rather than hitting the panic button, the Thunder took care of business in Games 2 and 4, and closed out the series with home wins in Games 5 and 7.
What Indiana has taught Oklahoma City is that the NBA Finals will need to be won with a similar formula and a crucial mental adjustment. They won't blow Indiana out by building a lead and breathing a sigh of relief, but must instead be prepared to play 48 full minutes every time out—no matter their lead or deficit.
Carlisle is going to have the Pacers ready to play with a simultaneously poised and aggressive mentality. The Thunder must be prepared to match them step for step.