‘We have been here before.’ Thunder players try to look ahead in aftermath of painful Game 1 loss

OKLAHOMA CITY — “It sucks, but we have been here before.”

Jalen Williams’ summation of Oklahoma City’s gut-punch Game 1 loss — where the Thunder led until Tyrese Haliburton’s shot with 0.3 on the clock — summed up the postgame mood of the Thunder.

Disappointed? Absolutely. However, the Thunder dropped Game 1 at home to Nikola Jokić and the Nuggets in the second round and came back to win that series in seven games. After Haliburton’s shot, OKC players drew on that experience and how they had turned things around.

“We played good enough to win that game, controlled it for the most part. Was up double-digits most of that game, as well,” Alex Caruso said of the Game 1 loss to Denver. “Then they made some big shots. We made a couple mistakes down the stretch to give them free throws. There’s some similar stuff from that. I think moving forward, the mentality of this team is good.”

The Thunder’s postgame vibes flowed from their leaders.

“The biggest experience we’ve had is understanding that every game’s a new game,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “The most important game of the series is always the next one, regardless of the outcome… Would’ve liked to get the game, but need to be a better game in Game 2.”

“The series isn’t first to one, it’s first to four,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We have four more games to get, they have three. That’s just where we are. We 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.”

The other postgame theme from the Thunder’s perspective was that they lost the game more than the Pacers took it from them.

“It sounds weird — it wasn’t like they won the game, but I feel like we lost the game,” Isaiah Hartenstein said, speaking for a lot of Thunder players. “There was a lot of things where it was closeouts, executing and slowing down the pace a little too much at the end.”

“We lost the game. I thought we played good enough to win. We just didn’t finish the game,” Caruso said. “Credit to them, that’s how they’ve played for the whole post-season. They kind of strayed true to themselves, their brand of basketball. They threw in a couple big shots down the stretch.”

The team’s mantra seemed to be “it’s just one game.”

“It counts the same as when we lost by 40 in Minnesota in the last series. Counts the same as when we lost by two or three at Denver Game 3 that series. It’s all worth one,” Caruso said.

Game 2 is Sunday in Oklahoma City. Drop that one and the postgame mood from the Thunder may be very different.