Oklahoma City - There are many ways to describe the NBA finals.

Some view Oklahoma City vs. Indiana as small market finals. For others, this is called the fiscal final, a rare championship showdown between non-luxury tax paid teams.

On the court, it was a showdown between two best defenders in the league, Thunder MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Pacers All-Star Tyrese Haliburton.

However, how these teams can only capture the championship's four victories in different ways.

"This is the two toughest teams in the NBA," a Western Conference coach told NBC News.

The Thunder have the NBA best record since January 1, and the Pacers are the second best, in large part because of how everyone shines through their crazy rhythms and pressures. The Thunder’s harassment defense has become one of the best defenses in playoff history.

Meanwhile, Indiana's game seemed to drive the ball up as quickly as possible. It is common for teams to work quickly even after making the basket, the Pacers earned their name, and in the process they created a large number of scoring opportunities that had beaten the Eastern Conference No. 1 (Cleveland) and No. 3 (New York) seeds and won the initial finals of 25 years.

NBC News spoke with NBA insiders to help analyze the series, which began in Game 1 on Thursday. All of this is anonymous in exchange for their candidness and analysis, and their team does not allow them to speak out on their voices.

Scouts for the Western Conference team said the Pacers were “organized chaos.” “They draw you into their game, it won’t be too much defense, but they just play up and down the court, spread you out, spread you out, shoot 3 shots, try basketball, try turning you around and play in the game type. If you can match those teams that are hard to do, then New York, then you get a good chance to win.

"The problem with Oklahoma City is that they can play a lot of ways. They like to play fast games, but they can also slow down and use shai in the half. See which play style wins. Who breaks first and wants to play one way, not the other?"

Oklahoma City won 68 regular season games to win the first seed in the West, but has won a final favorite throughout the season, despite having a second-year roster ever. The Thunder ranks first in defense in both the regular season and the playoffs, thanks to their powerful backs. The challenge began with a three-point arc, with Oklahoma City succeeding in the regular season with a 2-0 record against Indiana State, limiting how often Halliburton will touch the ball. Meanwhile, the edge is protected by Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren.

"I think OKC is so strong on defense that they can take you away from your first and second choices," said the Eastern Conference scout. "They have found a way to identify players that fit into the modern game style that are able to defend and shoot, and then you obviously have an extraordinary MVP that can create opportunities for others."

The Western Conference Scouts said some teams build defense around some good players, while others try to boost five average defenders with a system that makes the entire parts bigger.

"But I think with OKC, you'll get a little bit of both," the Western scout said. "You're also doing great personal performance and at the same time being very interconnected with each other. It shows with them, and they like to get along with each other, like playing with each other."

Haliburton said Wednesday that the Thunder were “awesome in history on both sides of the ball.”

"This is the best team in the NBA," he said. "This is the best team in the NBA all year. They coached well. They did a great job. There are no shortcuts to beat this team."

Defeating Indiana will require Oklahoma City to do one thing no one wants to do - forcing the Pacers to beat themselves. Indiana's top pick is fast, but rarely throws the ball over. In the playoffs, Indiana scored 6-2 by having the highest road assist to turnover ratio, and it helped the playoffs-highest 65% basket as it often played with five players who were able to hit 3-pointers, including Center Myles Turner, including Center Myles Turner who shot from the game, whose ability always kicked a spot from the game.

The offensive depth makes the Pacers more tricky than Oklahoma City’s past playoff opponents. It can focus on taking away Ja Morant of Memphis, Nikola Jokey of Denver and Anthony Edwards of Minnesota. An Eastern executive said that while Oklahoma City loves winning the series very much, an Indiana executive said, an Indiana executive said.

"They know their way of playing and their method is very stubborn," he said. "They kind of use their way of playing to grind you. They wear you."

Both franchise reflect the reality of the modern NBA, where collective bargaining agreements between the league and players have set rules aimed at creating a costly roster by making a paycheck difficult to requisition or trade when it crosses a certain salary to a certain threshold. Although Oklahoma City has a star in Gilgeous-Alexander, and the Pacers claim Haliburton is his own, they both have been successful in building deep teams that can punish opponents by waving their opponents on long arms and fresh legs.

"That's why the days of aging superstars will end in the next two years," the Western coach said. "The best Indiana talent in most of the roster is how they perform. TJ McConnell, Aaron Nesmith, Benedict Mathurin, throw Pascal Siakam there - they're just Junkyard Dogs, they do it every night."