OKLAHOMA CITY — Jalen Williams had a profession playoff-high 40 factors, MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander added 31 and the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder moved one win from a title by beating the Indiana Pacers 120-109 in Sport 5 of the NBA Finals on Monday evening.
It was the tenth — and by far, the largest — time the Thunder stars mixed for greater than 70 factors in a sport. Williams was 14 of 24 from the sector, and Gilgeous-Alexander added 10 assists.
Pascal Siakam had 28 factors for Indiana, which now trails the collection 3-2 and can host Sport 6 on Thursday evening. TJ McConnell added 18 for the Pacers, who whittled an 18-point deficit right down to 4 within the fourth — then watched the Thunder draw back once more, and for good.
“That is a very good workforce over there,” Williams mentioned. “You simply do not journey into the finals.”
True. However now, all the things favors the Thunder.
Groups that win Sport 5 of an NBA Finals that was tied at 2-2 have gone on to win the collection 23 occasions in 31 earlier alternatives, or 74%. And groups with a 3-2 lead within the finals have received 40 occasions in 49 earlier alternatives, or 82%.
However Sport 5 was not simple. Removed from it.
Down by as many as 18 late within the second quarter, the Pacers — the comeback kings of those playoffs, with as many wins on this postseason from 15 factors down or extra (5) than the remainder of the league has mixed, together with in Sport 1 of this collection — did what they do, chipping away. And so they did it with Tyrese Haliburton diminished to mainly enjoying decoy on offense due to a leg concern that he aggravated within the first quarter.
Led by McConnell, who scored 13 factors in slightly below seven minutes of the third, the Pacers received inside 5 late in that quarter.
Then, Siakam went to work — a pair of free throws with 9:19 left received Indiana inside 4, then a 3-pointer a couple of minute later made it 95-93. Within the play-by-play period of the NBA, beginning with the 1997 playoffs, groups with leads of 15 factors or extra within the finals had been 80-9.
Make that 81-9 now, and the Thunder are one win away.
“That was actually the identical precise sport as Sport 1,” Williams mentioned. “Studying by these finals, that is what makes a workforce good.”
Another win, and his workforce shall be licensed as nice.
