Though Jalen Williams may be right to not overlook these Pacers and note in his recent presser that the majority of players participating in the 2025 NBA Finals are heading toward "the biggest stage any of us have ever played on," sadly for the OKC Thunder, this latter statement cannot be said about each team's respective coaching staff.
For Mark Daigneault, this is by far his most successful and longest campaign to date, as he has coached in just one NBA postseason before this current one that has seen both his first conference finals and, come Thursday, championship-round experiences.
As for Pacers headman Rick Carlisle, deep runs have proven to be his modus operandi throughout his 23 years running the sidelines, and this experience, in particular, could wind up serving as a major edge for Indiana against the Thunder as it has in the previous rounds of their playoff run.
Rick Carlisle's familiarity with big-time decisions could trouble Thunder
Through this point in the 2025 NBA Playoffs, Carlisle has seemingly been running circles around his coaching foes.
Be it with his schemes that helped Indiana find ways to manipulate the Cavaliers' length on defense in round two to forcing the fifth-slowest team in the Knicks to try and pick up the pace to no avail and commit a whopping 93 total turnovers (compared to their own 75) in round three, the veteran clipboard holder is more than familiar with drawing up the proper in-game strategy.
He's been so successful on this front amid Indiana's excursion, in fact, that star guard Tyrese Haliburton has gone on record to refer to him as "a savant when it comes to adjustments.”
With all this in mind, it should come as no surprise that Carlisle is tied with Rick Adelman for 13 all-time in coaching playoff wins with 79, and is just two behind K.C. Jones to crack the top-10 in such a category.
The 65-year-old heads into Thursday's series opener with two NBA Finals berths on his resume, with the most notable to this point being the Dallas Mavericks' six-game upset win against the Miami Heat in 2011, bringing home the Mavs' first and only Larry O'Brien Trophy.
So even though the majority of both teams' core players may not have ample experience playing under the bright lights of the title round, coach Rick Carlisle certainly does, which is something that the Thunder and, most importantly, Mark Daigneault must actively look to avoid making obvious in their upcoming matchup.