Yang Yi is not optimistic about the Thunder winning the championship! This team is like the Heat in 2011, and it is all about defensive offense.

The 2025 NBA Finals are still in progress, and the Thunder and Pacers are quite exciting; the first six games ended, and the two teams tied 3-3 in big scores, and the series was dragged into a tense and exciting tiebreak battle. This top-level showdown will surely attract the attention of many fans and also trigger heated discussions by many basketball commentators. In the regular season, the Thunder performed very well and was considered a T0-level team, and its strength was much stronger than many opponents. They relied on their strong defense and efficient offense to win the first place in the regular season and reached the finals smoothly. The Thunder team has star player and scoring king Alexander in their lineup, and their offensive firepower cannot be underestimated. However, after entering the finals, the Thunder's performance was particularly surprising.

Look at the Pacers again and played strong offensive ability in the finals. The players cooperated very well and had a variety of offensive methods. Whether it was three-pointers from the outside or hard-working inside, they played very well. Facing the Thunder defense, the Pacers can always find a breakthrough, and as always, surprises stand up.

In this regard, Yang Yi, a famous domestic basketball commentator, and Ren Ran and Zhu, in the team, commented on the series. Yang Yi directly said that he was not optimistic about the Thunder winning the championship. He felt that this team was a bit like the Heat in 2011. Yang Yi analyzed that the Thunder performed well in the regular season, but they focused most of their energy on defense, almost a team that won entirely on defense.

Just like the Heat in 2011, there were superstars like James and Wade, but they focused on defense at the time and had very little offensive training. In the finals of that year, if the Heat could not defend the Mavericks and could not produce a particularly effective counterattack, then the offense would be in trouble. Yang Yi believes that the current Thunder team is similar to the previous Heat. If defense is useless in the finals, it will be useless; if defense is not used to drive counterattacks, offensive problems will all appear.

Why is Yang Yi not optimistic about the Thunder team winning the championship? There must be two aspects: internal factors and external reasons.

The Thunder focus too much on the defense side, which may become a "sword of good and bad" in the finals. In the regular season, they rely on defense to suppress their opponents; but in the finals, when they meet Pacers with particularly strong offensive firepower, the defensive pressure suddenly becomes high. Moreover, because they do not invest enough in offensive training in normal times, when the team fights in position, the players do not cooperate so smoothly and the tactical execution is not flexible enough. If there is a loophole on the defense side and there is no way to strike quickly, the offense will easily stop.

Look at the player configuration. Although there are MVPs in the season, the other role players have not made a stable contribution in offense, and it is difficult to provide enough firepower to core players.

Of course, the Pacers' offense is quite powerful, and tiebreaking will inevitably pose a great challenge to the Thunder. In this round of the series, the Pacers have many and different offensive tactics, and the players feel very good at shooting, and the Thunder are not easy to stop them from scoring completely. Moreover, there are many uncertain situations in the tiebreak battle. The pressure brought by home advantage and the atmosphere created by the fans on the scene will have an impact on the players' mentality and performance. In the previous games, the Thunder exposed offensive problems. In such a particularly critical game, the pressure in their hearts can be imagined. If there is no way to adjust the offensive state, those outside shooters will still perform as half-baked, and it will be really difficult to win the championship.

However, if a game determines the outcome, every round may affect the trend; can the Thunder slap Teacher Yang Yi in the face and win the cup at home in the tiebreak battle? We're just waiting to see!