Every time the OKC Thunder lost throughout this year's postseason run, there always seemed to be a few specific and logical reasons why.
Be it an all-out dominating performance from an opposing team's star player or, inversely, a putrid showing from one of their own, in one way or another, all six of their playoff losses heading into Thursday night have been rather easy to explain.
Because of this, whether it came in the form of falling three points shy or via a 43-point blowout, Oklahoma City's demise always seemed to make sense.
Their drubbing in Game 6 against the Indiana Pacers, however, proved to be a completely different beast.
Pacers outplayed Thunder in every aspect of the game in Game 6
Simply put, the Thunder were just outplayed in every facet of the game, something no one, not even the harshest of critics, likely would have predicted.
Despite how it may seem, this statement is far from hyperbole.
Even in their 143-101 loss to the Timberwolves in the conference finals, the Thunder still at least managed to outpace Minnesota in a few key areas of play (ex. fastbreak points, where they led 12 to 6).
Against the Pacers, there was truly nothing positive for OKC to hang their hats on.
From the long-range shooting game (35.7 percent to 26.7 percent) and second-chance scoring (14 to 6), to their usual bread and butter of the stocks department (21 to 8), Indiana simply outplayed and outclassed the Thunder in what was the biggest game of the series to the tune of a 108-91 win.
All night, there was nowhere for the Thunder to turn in order to get into a rhythm on either side of the ball.
Facing suffocating perimeter defense (went just 8-of-30 from deep) and insufferable screen fighters when on offense, it should come as no surprise that Oklahoma City went on to score the fewest points through three quarters this entire season, as they headed into the fourth trailing 90-60.
Defensively, they couldn't seem to get stops at any moment throughout their 48 minutes of play, as they let six Pacers score in double figures while allowing both Pascal Siakam (16 points, 13 rebounds) and Ben Sheppard (7 points, 5 assists) to each convert on momentum-sealing buzzer beaters to close the half and third period, respectively.
On top of all this, the Thunder were absolutely dominated in the turnover battle (21-10), an area that, as has been discussed ad nauseam throughout these NBA Finals, is the ultimate per-game decider.
The Pacers were unequivocally the better team in all areas of play during Thursday's Game 6, and as a result, things will head back to Oklahoma City for a winner-takes-all Game 7.