Data story · NBA Playoffs

The 2025 NBA Finals, game by game.

Oklahoma City led Game 1 at 46 of the 48 minute marks and lost it. That strip, gold from end to end except its last band, set the tone for a series in which nobody won two in a row until Games 4 and 5.

Every strip on this page is a real NBA Playoffs strip from the Huezle app, drawn by the app’s own code. More about NBA Playoffs.

How to read the strips

Each strip is one game, tip-off on the left and the final buzzer on the right, one band per minute. A band is purple when the away team led at the end of that minute, gold when the home team led, and pale when it was close or tied. The colour is full at an 18-point lead.

Oklahoma City had home court, so in Games 1, 2, 5 and 7 gold means Thunder ahead. Games 3, 4 and 6 were in Indianapolis, where gold means Pacers ahead. The home team won five of the seven.

Game 1: gold until the very last band

Game 1: Indiana wins 111–110 in Oklahoma CityForty-six gold bands, one pale, and one purple: the last.
Tip-offFinal Buzzer
  • Away Leading
  • Tied
  • Home Leading

The Thunder led by as many as 14, early in the third quarter. Indiana was ahead at exactly one minute mark, the final buzzer, after Tyrese Haliburton’s jump shot with less than a second left. A strip that is gold from end to end except for its final band is what a last-second winner looks like.

Games 4 to 6: the hinge, and a 30-point answer

  • G4 · OKC 111–104
  • G5 · OKC 120–109
  • G6 · IND 108–91
Tip-offFinal Buzzer
  • Away Leading
  • Tied
  • Home Leading
Game 4 flips from gold to purple in its last few bands; Game 5 is gold from the 4th minute; Game 6 is a deep gold block.

The teams split Games 2 and 3. Game 4 in Indianapolis was the hinge: the Pacers led by 10 in the third quarter, but the Thunder went ahead in the 46th minute and won by 7. Back home, Oklahoma City won Game 5 by 11, ahead from the 4th minute on. Facing elimination, Indiana produced the biggest lead of the series in Game 6, up 22 at halftime and 30 after three quarters.

Game 7: one bad half

Game 7: Oklahoma City wins 103–91Pale and even through the first half, then deep gold from the third quarter on.
Tip-offFinal Buzzer
  • Away Leading
  • Tied
  • Home Leading

Neither team led by more than 5 at any minute mark of the first half, and Indiana was up 1 at the break, so the first 24 bands barely leave the pale middle of the scale. Haliburton was hurt in the first quarter and did not return. Oklahoma City led by 13 after three and by as many as 21, and won the franchise’s first championship since it moved from Seattle in 2008. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was Finals MVP.

Close overall, too. Over seven games the Thunder scored 765 points and the Pacers 746. Every figure here is the score at the end of a minute, so a lead that peaked between two marks reads a little smaller.

This was the third Finals in the data to reach a Game 7, after 2013 and 2016; every NBA Finals Game 7 puts the three side by side, and the 2026 Finals picks up the next year.

Huezle shows you one playoff strip at a time and asks which game it was. Try spotting a last-second winner.

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Questions

Who won the 2025 NBA Finals?

The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Indiana Pacers 4–3, winning Game 7 103–91 at home. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was Finals MVP.

What happened in Game 1 of the 2025 NBA Finals?

Indiana won 111–110 in Oklahoma City on a jump shot by Tyrese Haliburton in the final second. The Thunder had led at 46 of the 48 minute marks, by as many as 14.

How did the Pacers force a Game 7?

By winning Game 6 108–91 at home. Indiana was up 30 after three quarters, the biggest lead either team held in the series.

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