SGA vs. Haliburton is a dream Finals matchup

This year's NBA Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers will bring discussions about the rise of small markets, unprecedented parity, and roster construction in the new age. There will be hand-wringing over how few household names are featured and how that might impact TV ratings. All the while, a top-five point guard matchup in Finals history is staring us right in the face.

When Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Tyrese Haliburton meet in Oklahoma City on Thursday night, it will be the 17th time in 79 years that each Finals team boasts an All-Star and/or All-NBA point guard (and only the 10th time both are All-NBA). According to Basketball Reference's Win Shares metric, this year's matchup ranks third among those 17 clashes.

What makes this generational matchup so fascinating is that the star guards go about their on-court business in such different ways. Although Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning MVP, is a plus defender for one of the best defensive teams in the modern era, this discussion focuses on both players' otherworldly offensive contributions.

SGA is no free-throw merchant

Gilgeous-Alexander won the 2025 scoring title with a funky, herky-jerky game that's become his trademark. With the ball in his hands, he is somehow both frenetic and in complete control. His methods of attack are predictable, yet he flummoxes opponents with his change of speed and general movements. He's a relentless driver and an all-time killer from the mid-range.

It's nearly impossible for defenders to keep Gilgeous-Alexander in front of them or off the free-throw line because he's one of the craftiest scorers we've ever seen - not because he's the foul-baiting "free-throw merchant" his detractors suggest.

SGA isn't racking up free throws at an unfair rate. He ranked second in free-throw attempts this season (behind Giannis Antetokounmpo) and fifth in free-throw attempts per field-goal attempt among high-usage players (behind Deni Avdija). Among point guards, Luka Doncic, James Harden, and Ja Morant all drew fouls on a higher percentage of their shot attempts, and five guards drew a higher percentage of non-shooting fouls, per Cleaning the Glass.

Gilgeous-Alexander has led the league in drives per game five years running (and is the playoff drives leader for the second straight year). The gap between his league-leading 20.6 drives per game this season and second-ranked Jalen Brunson (17.8) was bigger than the gap between Brunson and ninth-ranked LaMelo Ball (15.1).

That constant rim pressure collapses defenses, creating a gravitational pull that feeds Gilgeous-Alexander's underrated playmaking and opens the floor for his teammates. SGA is still a point guard, after all.

The most impressive aspect of Gilgeous-Alexander's playmaking is his ability to take care of the ball, especially considering how much he dominates it. Across NBA history, there have been 93 instances of a player posting a usage rate of at least 30% and an assist rate of at least 29%. Among those 93, Gilgeous-Alexander's last two seasons rank first and third in turnover rate.

All the defensive attention doesn't seem to make a difference when he decides to keep it for himself, either. Gilgeous-Alexander just put together one of the greatest mid-range-shooting seasons of all time and shot 37.5% on nearly six 3-point attempts per game, including a respectable 35.4% on pull-up threes (placing him just ahead of Kyrie Irving). That's how you end up owning three of the 13 most efficient 30-point-per-game seasons in NBA history.

While the concept of a star as a "cheat code" can be overused in modern sports, it's totally appropriate for Gilgeous-Alexander's offensive presence. Opponents can never be sure what type of punch SGA is about to throw or where it's going to come from, but they can be certain it will be a haymaker.

Haliburton is the new Point God

Although Haliburton isn't nearly as forceful as Gilgeous-Alexander, he's equally devastating. He's not as fast, yet he pushes his Pacers to play at breakneck speed with his consistent and unfathomably accurate hit-ahead passes.

Haliburton is the ultimate conductor, and the Pacers' offense is his orchestra. He leads it by playing nearly mistake-free basketball every night, perfectly balancing his own scoring with the needs of his teammates while demonstrating a flair for the dramatic.

His league-leading assist-to-turnover ratio of 5.5 doesn't do him justice. Haliburton became the first player since Muggsy Bogues 33 years ago - and just the second player ever - to average nine or more assists per game while committing fewer than two turnovers. It's not like he's playing a conservative, risk-free brand of basketball, either; Haliburton makes what would be a high-wire act for most guards look rather pedestrian.

Though he's taking the "Point God" moniker from Chris Paul, Haliburton's game harkens back to another Hall of Fame guard. We haven't seen a combination of playmaking, teammate optimization, and marksmanship like this since Steve Nash, as Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault recently noted. The difference is that Haliburton is a more willing shooter than the two-time MVP was.

Longtime NBA executive David Griffin once told me that the difference between Nash and rival point guards like Jason Kidd was that Kidd could create any shot he wanted for someone else, but opponents could make Kidd take shots he couldn't make. On the other hand: "You couldn't make Steve Nash take a shot he couldn't make." The same can be said of Haliburton, who also happens to play in the most audacious shooting era in league history.

Haliburton's a legitimate three-level scorer with limitless range, striking fear into the hearts of opponents in ways his scoring average (18.6 points per game) can't convey.

He's as valuable to the Pacers as any bigger-name star is to their respective franchise. After a surprising, injury-aided run to the Eastern Conference final last year, Haliburton and the Pacers limped out of the gates this season. With lingering back and hamstring issues clearly limiting the star guard, Indiana owned a 10-15 record in mid-December, good for 10th in the East.

As Haliburton found his legs (despite refusing to take time off) and began to look more like his All-NBA self, the Pacers - not coincidentally - found another gear.

They're rarely on anyone's radar, but as long as they have a healthy Haliburton, the Pacers will be in the mix. As Pacers forward Obi Toppin said a year-and-a-half ago, "We got Tyrese ... we good."

Joseph Casciaro is theScore's lead Raptors and NBA reporter.