INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder have two of the NBA's best offenses.

But this year's title hopes may swing on the other facet: Who has the better defense?

While both teams made major improvements from last season's respective rosters in the conference finals and conference semifinals, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle, who led Dallas on its only title run in 2010-11 knows just how difficult the challenge can be, especially against Oklahoma City.

“Their depth of great defenders is staggering,” he said before listing names. “ Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander) is a great scorer, but he's also a great competitor. You've got Jalen Williams, you've got (Lu) Dort, you've got (Alex) Caruso, and a bunch of other guys. People talk about (Aaron) Wiggins, Cason Wallace and all th

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