The OKC Thunder haven't lost all that many contests throughout the 2024-25 campaign, as they've fallen short a total of 19 times in both the regular season and playoffs.
Yet, despite this, their Game 1 demise against the Indiana Pacers is surprisingly not foreign territory for them, as they were also bested during their series opener against the Denver Nuggets in round two of the postseason.
Though undoubtedly different stages, as one's merely the conference semifinals while the other is the literal title-round, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander revealed during his post-game press conference on Thursday night that their response to such adversity should remain exactly the same ahead of Sunday's follow-up.
"We lost Game 1. We've lost Game 1 before and on the other side of that we became a better team. That's our goal, that's our mentality. Try to learn a lesson from the loss like we always do, move forward and be better," Gilgeous-Alexander said.
OKC Thunder have been on both sides of their series deficit
Out of all their losses on the year, this Thunder team has only fallen on back-to-back occasions twice.
However, on top of the fact that they've proven more than capable of properly responding to adversity, it's also important to realize that Oklahoma City has found itself on the complete opposite side of this exact situation before.
Back during the 2012 NBA Finals, OKC handed the LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh-led Miami Heat a commanding L during the series opener, which saw both fans and pundits alike prematurely crowning the Thunder as not just the eventual champions but the league's next great dynasty.
13 years later, the franchise's faithful followers are painfully aware that neither of these expectations ultimately came to fruition, as they went on to lose every single game that followed in that final round and would wind up trading off James Harden that summer.
What can't be forgotten is that this is a full seven-game, first-to-four series. Throughout the league's history, 70.0 percent of the time, the team that wins the series opener has gone on to win that year's championship. However, just 47.0 percent of road teams that steal Game 1 (like Indiana, for example) wind up coming away with the Larry O'Brien Trophy.
This Thunder team has been thrusting itself into the history books left and right all year long. The hope now is that they can add yet another storied feat to their illustrious collection by becoming one of the 30.0 percent of clubs to storm back and win it all.