NBA Finals Game 1 loss: 'We just got to be a little bit better," says Caruso

After a tense loss against the Pacers, OKC Thunder recognizes parallels with their Denver Nuggets playoff. With sights set on Game 2, Alex Caruso and Chet Holmgren say they're focused on improvement.

Thursday, June 5th 2025, 11:45 pm

By: Carrie Winchel

OKLAHOMA CITY -

A theme of the OKC Thunder's post-game news conference, where players were faced with a one-point loss against the Indiana Pacers after leading through the 4th quarter, was how similar this game felt to OKC's first playoff game against the Denver Nuggets.

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When a reporter asked Alex Caruso about leaning on his experience, Caruso said, "Yeah, you can, just from a sense of kind of the same game flow. We played good enough to win that game, controlled it for the most part. Was up double-digits most of that game, as well. 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. We'll go back to the film and see what coach has for us, then move from there," he said.

Chet Holmgren said he's also planning to focus on improvement as the Thunder prepares for Game 2 against Indiana at home Sunday.

"I mean, there's always opportunities for improvement. We're going to go back, see where we can be better. I feel like we were getting really good cracks at it, getting good looks, getting advantages," Holmgren said.

"Especially myself, just wasn't finishing those plays. Got to slow down and look how I can kind of convert those."

You can watch the entire Q&A from Thursday's post-game news conference at the top of this article.