INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — 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 these guys are great competitors. And then they've got the rim protection to go along with it.”
That combination helped the Thunder win a league-high 68 regular-season games while earning the top seed in the Western Conference for the second straight year.
Apparently, it was just a warmup. During the franchise's first Finals run since 2012, the Thunder's scoring defense has been even stingier — allowing just 106.3 points per game compared with 107.6 over the first 82 games — while yielding fewer than 100 points in half of their 12 postseason wins.
While Indiana has not matched those numbers, they eliminated three teams — New York, Cleveland and Milwaukee — that each averaged more than 115 points during the regular season. In 16 playoff games, they held those three teams below their averages 11 times.
Naturally, Thunder coach Mark Daigneault has been taking notes.
“If you look at this playoff run, you’ll see how challenging they are for their opponents, and the way they defend contributes to their team identity. It’s not just offense," he said. “Their defensive philosophy is very much aligned with their offensive philosophy, so it creates a certain air to the game when you play against them. It is difficult to play against, as you can see from the way that they’ve really run through the Eastern Conference to get here.”
Their rosters were constructed in similar fashions, too.
Both teams are young, rely on deep benches to wear down opponents late and feast on turnovers. The Thunder average a postseason best 21.3 points per game off turnovers while the Pacers are second at 18.5.
But with so much focus on the high-scoring, up-tempo offenses, it's easy to overlook their defenses or worse — see it as a glaring weakness.
A year ago, Indiana gave up 120.2 points per game in the regular season. This year that number dropped to 115.1, and in the postseason it's down to 113.3.
What changed?
Indiana's top three defenders — Aaron Nesmith, Andrew Nembhard and Myles Turner — are all relatively healthy now.
Nesmith missed 2 1/2 months with a sprained left ankle before returning in January and working his way back into game shape. He sprained his right ankle in Game 3 of the conference finals against the New York Knicks but played in each of the final three games.
Nembhard also missed nearly a month early this season with tendinitis in his left knee, and Turner, Indiana's rim protector, has overcome an assortment of nagging injuries.
But Indiana also changed its forcus after getting swept by Boston in 2024.
“Last year, all that was being said was we couldn't win because we didn't guard anybody and all we do is try to outscore people,” two-time All-Star Tyrese Haliburton said. “We've taken such a big step on the defensive end as a group, and I think the step we made on that end of the floor is why we're here. We've got our work cut out for us (in this series).”
Neither Carlisle nor Daigneault would disclose their defensive assignments entering Game 1 though there's a good chance Nembhard and Nesmith will somehow find themselves pitted against Gilgeous-Alexander, the league MVP, and Williams.
On the flip side, Oklahoma City may deploy its two all-NBA defenders, Williams and Dort, against the combination of Haliburton and Nembhard.
But regardless of the assignments, this is a matchup of wills most believe will determine the next NBA champion.
“All tests are fun, and we get to do it on the biggest stage any of us have ever played on," Williams said. "So it’ll be a very fun challenge. Like I said, that’s a really good team. Obviously, they’re in the finals for a reason. Nobody just waltzes into the finals. So it’ll be our ultimate test.”
AP Sports Writer Cliff Brunt in Oklahoma City also contributed to this report.
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA
Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards (5) works toward the basket as Oklahoma City Thunder forward Chet Holmgren (7) and guard Luguentz Dort (5) defend during the second half of Game 5 of the Western Conference finals of the NBA basketball playoffs, Wednesday, May 28, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Kyle Phillips)
Indiana Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard (2) defends against New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson (11) during the first half of Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals of the NBA basketball playoffs in Indianapolis, Saturday, May 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Indiana Pacers center Myles Turner (33) defends against New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) during the second half of Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals of the NBA basketball playoffs in Indianapolis, Saturday, May 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
NEW YORK (AP) — Reviving a campaign pledge, President Donald Trump wants a one-year, 10% cap on credit card interest rates, a move that could save Americans tens of billions of dollars but drew immediate opposition from an industry that has been in his corner.
Trump was not clear in his social media post Friday night whether a cap might take effect through executive action or legislation, though one Republican senator said he had spoken with the president and would work on a bill with his “full support.” Trump said he hoped it would be in place Jan. 20, one year after he took office.
Strong opposition is certain from Wall Street in addition to the credit card companies, which donated heavily to his 2024 campaign and have supported Trump's second-term agenda. Banks are making the argument that such a plan would most hurt poor people, at a time of economic concern, by curtailing or eliminating credit lines, driving them to high-cost alternatives like payday loans or pawnshops.
“We will no longer let the American Public be ripped off by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Researchers who studied Trump’s campaign pledge after it was first announced found that Americans would save roughly $100 billion in interest a year if credit card rates were capped at 10%. The same researchers found that while the credit card industry would take a major hit, it would still be profitable, although credit card rewards and other perks might be scaled back.
About 195 million people in the United States had credit cards in 2024 and were assessed $160 billion in interest charges, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says. Americans are now carrying more credit card debt than ever, to the tune of about $1.23 trillion, according to figures from the New York Federal Reserve for the third quarter last year.
Further, Americans are paying, on average, between 19.65% and 21.5% in interest on credit cards according to the Federal Reserve and other industry tracking sources. That has come down in the past year as the central bank lowered benchmark rates, but is near the highs since federal regulators started tracking credit card rates in the mid-1990s. That’s significantly higher than a decade ago, when the average credit card interest rate was roughly 12%.
The Republican administration has proved particularly friendly until now to the credit card industry.
Capital One got little resistance from the White House when it finalized its purchase and merger with Discover Financial in early 2025, a deal that created the nation’s largest credit card company. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is largely tasked with going after credit card companies for alleged wrongdoing, has been largely nonfunctional since Trump took office.
In a joint statement, the banking industry was opposed to Trump's proposal.
“If enacted, this cap would only drive consumers toward less regulated, more costly alternatives," the American Bankers Association and allied groups said.
Bank lobbyists have long argued that lowering interest rates on their credit card products would require the banks to lend less to high-risk borrowers. When Congress enacted a cap on the fee that stores pay large banks when customers use a debit card, banks responded by removing all rewards and perks from those cards. Debit card rewards only recently have trickled back into consumers' hands. For example, United Airlines now has a debit card that gives miles with purchases.
The U.S. already places interest rate caps on some financial products and for some demographics. The Military Lending Act makes it illegal to charge active-duty service members more than 36% for any financial product. The national regulator for credit unions has capped interest rates on credit union credit cards at 18%.
Credit card companies earn three streams of revenue from their products: fees charged to merchants, fees charged to customers and the interest charged on balances. The argument from some researchers and left-leaning policymakers is that the banks earn enough revenue from merchants to keep them profitable if interest rates were capped.
"A 10% credit card interest cap would save Americans $100 billion a year without causing massive account closures, as banks claim. That’s because the few large banks that dominate the credit card market are making absolutely massive profits on customers at all income levels," said Brian Shearer, director of competition and regulatory policy at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, who wrote the research on the industry's impact of Trump's proposal last year.
There are some historic examples that interest rate caps do cut off the less creditworthy to financial products because banks are not able to price risk correctly. Arkansas has a strictly enforced interest rate cap of 17% and evidence points to the poor and less creditworthy being cut out of consumer credit markets in the state. Shearer's research showed that an interest rate cap of 10% would likely result in banks lending less to those with credit scores below 600.
The White House did not respond to questions about how the president seeks to cap the rate or whether he has spoken with credit card companies about the idea.
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., who said he talked with Trump on Friday night, said the effort is meant to “lower costs for American families and to reign in greedy credit card companies who have been ripping off hardworking Americans for too long."
Legislation in both the House and the Senate would do what Trump is seeking.
Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., released a plan in February that would immediately cap interest rates at 10% for five years, hoping to use Trump’s campaign promise to build momentum for their measure.
Hours before Trump's post, Sanders said that the president, rather than working to cap interest rates, had taken steps to deregulate big banks that allowed them to charge much higher credit card fees.
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., have proposed similar legislation. Ocasio-Cortez is a frequent political target of Trump, while Luna is a close ally of the president.
Seung Min Kim reported from West Palm Beach, Fla.
President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, Friday, Jan. 9, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
FILE - Visa and Mastercard credit cards are shown in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Feb. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
