The NBA Finals are knotted up at 1-1, and you know what that means—time for the legends to weigh in. And when it’s Magic Johnson doing the talking, the whole basketball world tunes in. After watching the Oklahoma City Thunder dismantle the Indiana Pacers 123-107 in Game 2, Magic took to Twitter with a blueprint for how this series might unfold.

He didn’t mince words either—handing major props to OKC’s head coach Mark Daigneault for having his squad locked in, while also tossing a very public challenge in the direction of Indiana’s star. He tweeted: “You have give Oklahoma City Thunder Head Coach Mark Daigneault a lot of credit tonight because he had his team ready to play. The Thunder dominated the Indiana Pacers in every category of the game – defense, points in the paint, and they attacked the Pacers inside opening up the three!”

And Magic wasn’t just gassing him up, he saw what we all saw. The Thunder looked like a completely different team from the one that choked away Game 1. They were the aggressors. They balanced their attack with five different players scoring in double figures. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was brilliant again with 34 points, but this time, his running mates showed up in a big way. Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren had huge bounce-back games with 19 and 15 points, respectively, and their bench was on fire, with Alex Caruso dropping 20 and Aaron Wiggins adding a crucial 18 points. It was a total team beatdown, and as Magic said, it all started with their coach having them ready to punch back.

But Magic wasn’t just handing out compliments, he had some tough love for the Indiana Pacers, identifying what he sees as their single biggest problem if they want to win this series. And he put the pressure squarely on the shoulders of their superstar, Tyrese Haliburton :“If the Indiana Pacers are going to win Game 3, Haliburton’s mindset needs to be score the basketball right from the tip and get the Pacers into their transition game. In Games 1 and 2, they played too much half court basketball and they can’t beat the Oklahoma City Thunder playing that style.”

That’s a direct challenge from one of the greatest point guards ever to the new-school star. Magic is basically screaming that Haliburton, for all his passing genius, has to stop being so unselfish and start hunting for his own shot from the jump. And if you look at the Game 2 stats? They prove Magic’s point completely. Haliburton was a virtual ghost for the first three quarters, scoring just five points as OKC’s defensive bulldog, Lu Dort, completely erased him from the game. Sure, he finished with 17 points, but most of those came in the fourth quarter when the game was already out of reach. He also coughed up a playoff-high five turnovers.

Tyrese Haliburton himself had some insights to offer after the loss: “Anytime you’re the lower seed in a playoff series, you know your job is to go split… we got game one… you feel good about that.” Yes, he’s right. But here’s the scary thought, the underdog trap that might be lurking: are the Pacers, a team that has lived and breathed off their chaotic, “never say die” comeback identity all postseason, playing right into the hands of a cool, calculated Thunder team that now expects it?

Are the Pacers playing right into OKC’s hands?

Let’s be real, the Pacers’ entire brand this postseason has been about resilience. They get down big, look like they’re totally out of it, and then they come roaring back with a barrage of threes and that frenetic pace. It’s exciting as hell, and it’s what makes them special. But after watching Game 2, you have to wonder if that’s a sustainable way to win a championship. Haliburton himself admitted to having “two really poor first halves” in this series and that he needs to “figure out how to be better earlier in games.” That’s the whole problem right there. The Pacers keep digging themselves these massive holes, and against a defensive monster like OKC, trying to climb out is a whole different ballgame.

The Thunder’s defense is just on another level. Haliburton broke it down perfectly: “They got great point of attack defenders, they got great rim protectors… they’re flying around.” He knows that OKC’s “really physical” defense is designed to keep the Pacers from doing what they do best: get into the paint.

“Our offense is built from the inside out, we got to do a better job getting downhill,” Haliburton said, admitting that in the first half of Game 2, they were just stuck “moving the ball on the outside,” with almost no points in the paint. That’s not Pacers basketball. That’s the Thunder forcing them to play left-handed.

And this is the trap. The Thunder got absolutely stunned by the Pacers’ magic in Game 1. So in Game 2, they seemed perfectly happy to build up a big lead and then just absorb Indiana’s frantic comeback attempt. They let the Pacers burn all their energy trying to pull off another miracle, all while staying calm and collected themselves. OKC knows the run is coming; they expect it. So they let the Pacers get a little sloppy, wait for those “really dumb turnovers” Haliburton admitted to, and then close the door.

So what’s the plan for Game 3? Haliburton knows they can’t just bank on more last-second heroics. They have to be the ones throwing the first punch. “We got to do a better job of getting threes our way,” he explained, not just heaving up desperation shots at the end of the shot clock. It’s about being proactive, not reactive. He knows OKC is throwing different looks at him, and he’s got to figure out how to counter it.

As this series heads back to Indianapolis, the big question is whether the Pacers can actually dictate the pace of the game from the jump. Can they prove their resilience is a real weapon they can choose to unleash, not just a predictable trap they keep falling into? Game 3 is going to tell us a lot.