NBA Finals staff picks: Can Pacers upset Thunder? Who will be MVP?

And then there were two.

The 2025 NBA Finals get underway Thursday as the Oklahoma City Thunder host the Indiana Pacers in Game 1 of a championship matchup few predicted when the postseason began.

The Thunder, winners of a franchise-best 68 games in the regular season, are the overwhelming favorites. However, not everyone's discounting a dynamic Pacers side that, like OKC, has only lost four games entering the Finals.

Here's how our hoops writers expect the Finals to play out.

In agreement with the general public, most writers tab the Thunder to capture the franchise's first NBA championship since arriving in OKC. Their season-long dominance is widely expected to continue in the Finals; nobody who took the Thunder expects they'll need more than six games to put the Pacers away.

Indiana has a couple of believers, but those who envision a Pacers title believe Rick Carlisle's squad will need all seven games to vanquish Oklahoma City.

Everybody who picked Oklahoma City to lift the Larry O'Brien Trophy sees the same man walking away with Finals MVP: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. If the three-time All-Star does earn the honor, he would be the first Canadian Finals MVP in NBA history. He would also be the 11th player to win both regular-season MVP and Finals MVP in the same year, joining a list that includes Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and several other all-time legends.