Seattle, WA
Grading Thunder-Pacers matchups for 2025 NBA Finals. Plus, should Seattle feel left out?
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On this date in 1992, Michael Jordan lit up the Blazers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. The Bulls won 122-89 behind 39 points from Jordan. He scored 35 of them in the first half, thanks to six 3-pointers. He made only five 3s in the 16 playoff games leading up to that night. He hit six more 3-pointers the rest of the finals. We all remember the iconic shrug.
Match Game
Grading Pacers-Thunder matchups
With Game 1 of the NBA Finals tipping off Thursday night and a lull between playoff action, we’ve got plenty of Bounce days to preview this series. We gave some aspects of the game to consider yesterday, and today we’re going to grade out the matchups for each team. We’ve got star matchups, secondary guys, key role players, entire benches and even the coaching matchup to consider!
Let’s slap a few grades down for each team in each category, determine a winner and see where it all shakes out:
Stars: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander vs. Tyrese Haliburton
Haliburton has become a big-time playoff performer, and we know how well he can control a game. Put him in a clutch situation, and you’ll see him push the opponent to the brink of losing their sanity and past losing their lead. On the flip side of that, SGA is the MVP of the league and has been brilliant in the playoffs.
Grade: A+ for OKC, A for IND | Winner: Thunder
Secondary Stars: Jalen Williams vs. Pascal Siakam
Williams has been excellent defensively during this entire run. His offense was abysmal against Denver until Game 7, and he rebounded with his scoring perfectly against Minnesota. He’s also just in his third season. Siakam has been a big addition to the Pacers over the last year and a half, and he has the experience of already contributing to a championship.
Grade: A- for OKC, A- for IND | Winner: Tie
Third Guys: Chet Holmgren vs. Myles Turner
I’m not sure you can rely on Turner to be a consistent defensive presence anymore, which is a far cry from what he used to be. Meanwhile, Holmgren struggles with consistency, but he’s pretty great for a 23-year-old with only two years on NBA courts. The latter will likely have a bigger impact, but Turner needs to win this battle.
Grade: A- for OKC, B for IND | Winner: Thunder
Key 3-and-D Wings: Lu Dort vs. Aaron Nesmith
Nesmith did a good job on Brunson, and he had the big Reggie Miller moment in Game 1 against New York. Dort will eat your soul on defense and is a pretty reliable 3-point shooter.
Grade: B+ for OKC, B for IND | Winner: Thunder
Fifth Guys: Isaiah Hartenstein vs. Andrew Nembhard
We’ve seen Nembhard step up big-time in these past two postseason runs, but Hartenstein is a big man the Pacers may not have an answer for. He might require them to play a lot more Tony Bradley, which isn’t a good idea.
Grade: A- for OKC, B for IND | Winner: Thunder
Bench battle: Thunder bench vs. Pacers bench
Let’s boil it down to Cason Wallace, Alex Caruso, Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe against Bennedict Mathurin, Obi Toppin, T.J. McConnell and Ben Sheppard. We’ve seen the Pacers have some great moments in the postseason so far. Wallace and Caruso alone for OKC probably win this matchup for the Thunder.
Grade: A for OKC, B+ for IND | Winner: Thunder
Coaching: Mark Daigneault vs. Rick Carlisle
Daigneault has already won Coach of the Year, had a 68-win season and coached the most dominant team (at least, by net rating) in league history. He’s one of the top coaches in the NBA. However, Rick Carlisle is a championship coach and has decades of experience battling out in the playoffs. I have to give the veteran coach the slight edge here.
Grade: A- for OKC, A for IND | Winner: Pacers
That’s a pretty heavy swing to the Thunder with a 5-1-1 tally here. Even if you convince me that Siakam is winning that matchup over Williams (which I’m not mad at), we’re still looking at 5-2 OKC. That doesn’t mean things can’t change once we’re on the court, though.
The Last 24
You, too , can learn to train like an MVP!
🏀 Training tips. There are five things you learn by training with SGA. Have to create an alter ego.
🏀 Power Rankings. WNBA rankings are here, but can anybody challenge the historically dominant Liberty? Here come the Aces!
🏀 Take care. The Pacers and Thunder both take care of the ball at an elite level. Possessions matter.
✈️ Travel buddies. What was a key part of Indiana’s path to the NBA Finals? A trip to Paris!🎶 Jazz hiring. The Jazz are hiring Austin Ainge from the Celtics to be the president of basketball ops. Yes, that’s Danny Ainge’s son.
🎧 Tuning in. Today’s “NBA Daily” discusses whether SGA is having one of the best seasons in league history.
The story of the greatest players in NBA history. In 100 riveting profiles, top basketball writers justify their selections and uncover the history of the NBA in the process.
The story of the greatest players in NBA history.
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Acknowledge Seattle
Is Seattle owed an honor in this year’s finals?
Back in 2012, when that young Thunder squad made the NBA Finals to take on Miami, it made sense to not bring up where it had come from. Oklahoma City had done a great job to help house the New Orleans Hornets in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, so executive Clay Bennett and company decided to pounce on the opportunity to move a team there permanently. They bought the Seattle SuperSonics, as they hit a bit of a stalemate in procuring a new arena in the Emerald City, and then ripped them from the city for the prairie. (The Hornets had spent the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons there before the Thunder relocated in 2008.)
Four years after the move, the Thunder were in the finals because general manager Sam Presti is unbelievable at his job. And 13 years after the move, Presti’s Thunder are back in the finals as a heavy favorite to win. They also look like they’re capable of setting up a dynasty. All the while, we still can’t get any kind of straight answer on a real plan as to when Seattle will get an expansion team back into the city.
To be fair, the timing of expansion is a complicated process, but the league hasn’t committed yet. The NBA did almost let the Sacramento Kings get purchased to be moved to Seattle back in 2013. But Vivek Ranadivé swooped in to buy the team and keep it in Sacramento. The Thunder are looking like a premier team in this league and an eventual champion. But I still know plenty of NBA-loving and -covering people with a sour taste in their mouths about how this team was ripped away from Seattle under David Stern’s watch.
There is a feeling that it’s been swept under the proverbial rug as a storyline. Maybe the NBA is supposed to do that. At this point, it’s been 15 years, and the franchise didn’t take the history with it. It’s been set aside for the eventual expansion team that will oddly come with its own championship before it even has a roster. I’m not even sure what I, or anyone else, would be asking of commissioner Adam Silver and the league to do here, especially considering the franchise divorced itself from the history tied to Seattle and the Sonics. And I’m not sure anybody is asking Thunder fans to apologize for this either.
Maybe the final closure, if OKC wins the title, is just an acknowledgment that the way they got there sucked and was wrong. Seattle did and still does deserve better. Because many of us still have fond memories of the franchise and want to see them again. Can the NBA truly ever fix this?
What’s Happening?
Five questions about the upcoming offseason
We’re less than a month away from free agency starting and a little more than three weeks away from the NBA Draft on June 25. That means teams are geared all the way up for trying to take down both the Pacers in the East and the Thunder in the West. Because this is a league of jealousy, mimicry and pettiness. Just how we like it.
A lot needs to be determined this offseason, but here are five questions I have about this summer right off the bat.
1. Do the Knicks have a Mikal Bridges dilemma? James Edwards III did a great job laying out the situation the Knicks will have with Bridges this offseason. He’s eligible for a four-year, $156 million extension, and you might remember Jalen Brunson caused quite the stir in taking a below-market value extension to give the franchise flexibility. Many assumed it was to help them re-sign his friend and college teammate. But the Knicks gave up five first-round picks for Bridges, and their main lineup with him wasn’t what it was all cracked up to be. If the Knicks feel like they have to swing for the fences, Bridges is probably the guy to move.
2. With who and how are the Celtics going to trim salary? The Celtics probably need to cut $23 million off the books this summer, if not more. That depends how much they’re willing to spend in a season we can assume Jayson Tatum will mostly, if not entirely, miss. The Celtics’ biggest challenge may be finding places that can easily absorb contracts. And, if they can’t, that probably means attaching draft picks in deals. Seeing how far they go in this process will be a tone-setter for the East.
3. Are Julius Randle and Myles Turner the most intriguing names to get? Names like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kevin Durant are going to be volleyed about in the rumor mill, but the free-agent class is going to be pretty weak. Turner is going to be an unrestricted free agent. Randle had a great finish to the season, outside of the series against the Thunder andhas a $29.2 million player option that might be worth declining to enter the market. However, there isn’t a lot of cap space outside of Brooklyn, as teams are preparing for 2026. If Antetokounmpo and KD don’t end up actually being available, maybe we have kind of a dud summer in terms of big names moving.
4. Will Kevin Durant find his way out of Phoenix? Speaking of KD, how salty is he going to be about the trade deadline? Lots of rumors happened around him being dangled to the Warriors in a potential multi-team deal that would have landed Jimmy Butler on the Suns. Of course, I’m not even sure what was possible with a Mat Ishbia-owned team. It’s like watching a kid run a franchise mode in a video game. Antetokounmpo is the potential biggest target this summer, but Durant could make a lot of teams interested in a short-term star.
5. Who will look at the East landscape and be aggressive? Boston is likely cutting, rather than adding or adjusting. Cleveland and New York probably won’t make sweeping changes. Milwaukee is painted into a corner. Indiana is in a great place right now, obviously. Miami and Philadelphia are stuck in trying to figure out if they’re any kind of relevant. The potential for a big jump would be upstarts Orlando and Detroit. Do they have the aggressiveness to go make a big splash with the East landscape looking vulnerable?
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(Photo: Alonzo Adams / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
Seattle, WA
Victim identified in deadly Seattle beer garden shooting on Lake City Way; suspect sought
SEATTLE — A north Seattle community is mourning the loss of a 25-year-old beer garden employee who was killed while closing the business Friday night.
Loved ones identified the victim as Quusaa Margarsa, known to many as “Q.” Seattle police are searching for the suspect but have not released details about the circumstances surrounding the killing, including whether investigators believe it was a robbery gone wrong or a targeted attack.
Police said Margarsa was working at The Growler Guys on Lake City Way NE on Friday night when he was killed. A co-worker discovered him the next morning.
“I want to know why. I think we all want to know why. What was the reasoning?” said Coreena Richards, a childhood friend of Margarsa.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE | Memorials, mourners honor young employee found dead at North Seattle beer garden
Throughout the weekend, friends, family members, and customers stopped by the north Seattle beer garden to leave flowers, candles, and messages at a growing memorial honoring Margarsa.
“Amazing, one of one — you’re never going to meet anybody like him,” Richards said.
Margarsa, a graduate of Nathan Hale High School, was a member of the school’s 2017 championship basketball team, according to the school’s alumni association. Friends described him as a “gentle soul” who was full of humor.
“He’s funny as hell. He was the life of the party. Very sweet, very kind,” Richards said.
Family members said Margarsa was preparing to celebrate his 26th birthday later this month and had been planning a birthday trip. Instead, his life was cut short while he was closing the beer garden where he worked. Police said Margarsa died of apparent gunshot wounds.
ALSO SEE | Seattle beer garden employee found shot to death inside workplace
“He was very sweet, very nice — a young guy with his whole life ahead of him. Very sad,” said Robert Bishop, a customer at The Growler Guys.
Days after the killing, customers continued to visit the memorial site, lighting candles and calling for answers as detectives searched for whoever was responsible.
“I’ve been on social media asking everybody, because it’s one thing for a mom to find out on Mother’s Day,” Bishop said. “Everybody in the neighborhood should be up in arms about this.”
As investigators work to solve what police say is Seattle’s 12th homicide of 2026, authorities have not said whether the attack was random or targeted. Police also have not said whether surveillance cameras at the business captured images of the suspect.
“You got nothing out of it. You gained nothing from this,” Richards said. “They took somebody very, very important to the people who knew him, loved him, and cared for him.”
Seattle police said the circumstances surrounding the killing remain under investigation. Anyone with information is urged to contact the department’s violent crimes tip line at 206-233-5000.
I have always been in love with cities. I joke with friends that I have crushes on cities the way they have crushes on good-looking strangers. Sometimes—as with Paris and London—my unrequited crush meant finding an excuse to move there. With Seattle, however, that initial attraction grew into a long-term relationship.
Liz Dunn
Phot by TRAVIS GILLETT
I arrived here as a “tech baby,” coming from Canada to work at Microsoft as a college intern. For a long time, I felt as though I were living in a bubble—until I realized I could pivot my career and work in and on the city I’d come to call home. Through my company, Dunn & Hobbes, I’ve done just that, spending more than 25 years building and renovating spaces for retail, restaurants, and creative work. I love old buildings—but what I love more is what happens inside and around them. I love making space for creative people and then watching them fully inhabit those places and thrive. I also love how a collection of structures on a block can become an economic and artistic ecosystem.
Working in real estate is not just about making deals—you’re crafting pieces of the city, and that comes with both impact and responsibility.
Small businesses are the heart and soul of any neighborhood. Research shows that locally owned businesses generate a much higher multiplier effect in the regional economy than national chains. Beyond economics, the independent shops, restaurants, and designers that comprise the core fabric of a city are the secret sauce that makes it feel unique.
Nowhere is that more evident than Capitol Hill’s Pike/Pine corridor, where I’ve conducted most of my work and lived out large chunks of my adult life. During the past 25 years, it has become a case study in what happens when you preserve character and invest in small business. The area was once filled with old auto-row buildings that had fallen into disuse. Instead of wiping the slate clean, local developers, including me, saw an opportunity for creative reuse. Those buildings turned out to be perfectly scaled for independent retailers and restaurants, creating a unique critical mass that offers a popular destination for locals and tourists alike.
What makes Pike/Pine special is its texture and grit—the layered history you feel in both the physical architecture and the spirit of the shops and restaurants. A large percentage of businesses are owned by members of the LGBTQ+ community, women, immigrants, and people of color. The density of independent retailers and studios—and the inclusive community that supports them—creates omething you can’t replicate with a formula. It evolved over decades, shaped by artists, musicians, designers and small entrepreneurs willing to take risks and plant their flags.
Today, neighborhoods like Pike/Pine face challenges that threaten the tightly woven ecosystem that makes them thrive. There’s a difference between gritty and too gritty, and during the past six years, it’s become harder to attract people. Foot traffic in neighborhood retail districts is dropping, even as downtown begins to recover with tourism. Small businesses are dealing with crushing cost pressures, many tied to public safety concerns and well-intentioned policies with unintended consequences. Public safety has been the elephant in the room—though I do believe we are starting to see improvements. At the same time, our habits have changed. Seattleites have been hibernating, whether because of repercussions from the COVID-19 pandemic or the convenience of delivery apps, streaming, and gaming.
And yet, people still deeply crave connection.
That’s why what’s happening in Pike/Pine right now is inspiring and hopeful. Many of the people who helped shape the neighborhood are still here, investing their time, money, and creativity because they care deeply about its future. We’re doubling down on what makes it special—art walks, a slate of new murals, the On The Block street fair, and Capitol Hill Block Party—all invitations for the community to come back out and re-engage.
This spring, on Saturday, May 16th, we’re launching something new: the Pike/Pine Spring Fashion Walk and Social. It’s designed to be an annual celebration that stretches across the neighborhood, anchored by a collection of activations at Melrose Market, and a runway show on the “catwalk” at Chophouse Row that will include Seattle fashion apparel leaders Glasswing, JackStraw, the Refind, the Finerie, and Flora and Henri. Neighborhood-based designer and brand activations up and down the corridor will include open studios, DJs, wine tastings, in-store pop-ups, and involvement from local college students—bringing in the next generation of designers and entrepreneurs. One of the goals is to remind everyone that Seattle still has amazing fashion “game,” offering a scene that is just as creative and diverse as anything you might find in New York or LA. At its core, this event is not about shopping. It’s about creating a reason for people to come together, to reconnect, and to experience the neighborhood as a shared space.
Because that’s the point. Cities work best when we show up—for them and for each other. Seattle’s culture is not something that exists just for us to consume; we are all participants in shaping it. So, my call to action is simple: come out. Walk around and meet your neighbors. Engage in what’s happening. It feels good—and it does good.
SEATTLE — Memorials are growing outside popular beer garden The Growler Guys in North Seattle, as friends and family honor the life of a young employee found dead at the business Saturday morning.
Seattle police said coworkers found the victim’s body with apparent fatal gunshot wounds inside The Growler Guys around 9 a.m. Saturday. Authorities have not publicly identified the victim yet. He was in his 20s.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE | Seattle beer garden employee found shot to death inside workplace
The young man’s death has shocked and shaken the surrounding North Seattle community.
Dozens of family members, friends, and regular customers surrounded the taped-off homicide scene for hours throughout the day Saturday. Several people who knew the victim described him as a friend to all, a family man, and a stand-out employee to his boss, Kelly Dole.
“He was a part of my community at The Growler Guys,” Dole said. “It’s been a joy just to see them together day after day, and for him to lose his life this way is just a shame and such a loss.”
The victim was also a close friend of Dole’s son for years.
The Growler Guys is closed for the time being, but many people stopped by on Sunday to drop off flowers, cards, or to stop to take a moment and reflect.
A note left at the corner of NE 85th St. and 20th Ave. NE was written by a family that had the victim serve them at The Growler Guys. “While we were only lucky enough to know you for one evening,” the note reads, “I know there are many, many more lives you have made a lasting impact on.”
Left next to the note was a child’s apple juice box. Coworkers of the victim said he always gave kids free apple juice.
“Don’t tell my boss,” they said the victim would say with a smile.
He really was important to the guests and always had a smile, Dole said of his young employee. He had worked at The Growler Guys for about a year.
The victim was killed sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning, and police are still investigating a possible motive and suspect. So far, no arrests have been made.
People living nearby, who wanted to remain anonymous, said they didn’t hear any gunshots but called the death shocking: “Well, my heart breaks. My first thought is that it’s a tragedy,” one man said.
Anyone with information or surveillance video in the surrounding Lake City area should contact Seattle police or 911 immediately.
Dole said he hopes justice is served to offer a small piece of closure to the victim’s grieving family.
“My heart goes out to his mom and his dad, his brother and other family members,” Dole said. “It’s just so tragic.”
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