In these NBA Finals, a team is four wins away from getting the last laugh.

Ask anyone on the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers if they’re still fueled by doubters, and the answer is probably going to be an immediate “yes.” Thunder star and NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander went 11th in his draft. Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton went 12th in his. Both sides have undrafted players in their rotation.

Here they are: The NBA Finals, which start Thursday night in Oklahoma City. The Thunder have, by far, the NBA’s best record this season. The Pacers have the league’s second-best record since Jan. 1, including playoffs. And both teams have rolled through the postseason, going 12-4 in the first three rounds.

“I’ll continue to tell you guys in certain moments that it doesn’t matter what people say, but it matters — and I enjoy it,” Haliburton said. “I think the greats try to find external motivation as much as they can and that’s something that’s always worked for me.”

It’s not like more motivation is needed. Not for the next couple of weeks, anyway. Indiana is chasing its first NBA title. Oklahoma City — technically — is also seeking its first; the franchise won a championship when it played in Seattle in 1979. These are teams that combined to win 49 games just three seasons ago, and now they’re the last two standing.

“Staying true to who we are is the reason why we’re here,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We’d be doing ourselves a disservice if we changed or tried to be something we’re not once we got here. We’ve had success doing so. If we want to keep having success, we have to be who we are.”

The Thunder are enormous favorites in the series, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, and understandably so. They’re 80-18 including the regular season and postseason, plus went 29-1 in the regular season against the Eastern Conference and have more double-digit wins — 61 and counting — than any team in any season in NBA history.

“We’ve got a lot of work cut out for us,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “A lot of our guys have been through a lot of situations where they’ve been underdogs in the past. It’s simply going to come down to us being able to play our game at the best possible level.”

The Thunder want no part of hearing this series will be easy. The way Indiana — a No. 4 seed in the East — got through Giannis Antetokounmpo and Milwaukee in Round 1, a top-seeded Cleveland team in Round 2 and New York in Round 3 and never faced an elimination game has captured Oklahoma City’s full attention.

“Their attack is very simple. The theoretical way to stop it is simple,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “In reality it’s very difficult to do, as you can see from the way that they’ve really had their way with everybody. ... They pump a 99 mph fastball at you. You can prepare all you want for that. When you’re in the batter’s box, it’s different when it’s time to hit it.”

Suns hire Ott

The Phoenix Suns hired Cleveland Cavaliers assistant Jordan Ott as their head coach, opting for a young, emerging leader to rebuild a franchise that has regressed over the past few seasons, a person familiar with the search told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Ott will be the team’s fourth head coach in four seasons and replaces Mike Budenholzer, who was fired following a miserable 36-46 season that ended without a trip to the playoffs despite the high-priced trio of Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal.

Ott, 40, has worked for the Atlanta Hawks, Brooklyn Nets, Los Angeles Lakers and the Cavaliers. He also worked as a video coordinator under Tom Izzo at Michigan State, which is where Suns owner Mat Ishbia played as a walk-on from 1999 to 2003.

Ott and fellow Cavs assistant Johnnie Bryant, a graduate of Bishop O’Dowd High in Oakland, were the two finalists for the job. Both worked under Kenny Atkinson, helping lead Cleveland to a 64-18 record this season, which was the best record in the NBA’s Eastern Conference.

New ASG format?

The NBA is working on a plan to turn next season’s All-Star Game into a U.S.-vs.-world competition, a person with knowledge of the situation said Wednesday. Speaking to Fox Sports 1 earlier Wednesday, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver — who has talked about such a game on multiple occasions — was asked if U.S. vs. the world is possible.

“Yes,” Silver said.

Silver addressed the idea on March 27 as well at the league’s most recent board of governors meeting, when he revealed that the NBA was scrapping the All-Star mini-tournament format that was used this season.

At that time, the AP reported that the 2026 game — to be played Feb. 15 in Inglewood, California, just past the midpoint of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics — will be moved from its traditional prime-time Sunday night slot to one that starts on Sunday afternoon. That’s happening because the game will be aired on NBC under the terms of the new 11-year media rights deals that kick in next season. NBC is also the Olympic broadcaster in the U.S.