INDIANAPOLIS — With an opportunity to clinch a championship, the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder turned in a clunker of a efficiency.
“The best way I see it’s we sucked tonight,” Thunder celebrity Shai Gilgeous-Alexander mentioned after the 108-91 loss to the Indiana Pacers in Thursday’s Recreation 6 of the NBA Finals. “We have to be taught the teachings, and we’ve got one recreation for every little thing we labored for, and so do they. The higher workforce Sunday will win.”
Gilgeous-Alexander and the remainder of the Thunder starters might be nicely rested for Sunday’s Recreation 7. They sat out your complete fourth quarter, exiting when the Pacers had a 30-point lead.
It was a very sloppy efficiency by the MVP. Gilgeous-Alexander dedicated eight of Oklahoma Metropolis’s 21 turnovers.
The eight turnovers had been essentially the most Gilgeous-Alexander has ever had in a playoff recreation and matched his regular-season profession excessive. It additionally matched essentially the most a participant has dedicated in a Finals recreation in a minimum of 40 years, in response to ESPN Analysis.
“A few of them I simply assume was carelessness and never being centered and never being engaged,” mentioned Gilgeous-Alexander, who had completed with 21 factors on 7-of-15 capturing and had solely two assists. “They performed tougher than us tonight as nicely, and when a workforce performs tougher, they often flip the opposite workforce over.”
The Pacers did not make use of the relentless full-court strain that they’d all through the sequence. Gilgeous-Alexander mentioned it stunned him that Indiana selecting up the Thunder ballhandlers decrease on the courtroom resulted in such a high-turnover recreation.
“From our standpoint, it was uncharacteristic,” coach Mark Daigneault mentioned. “It was disappointing. It was collective. It wasn’t one man. Simply we weren’t the place we wanted to be on both finish of the ground for a lot of the sport. We’ve to be so much higher earlier than Recreation 7.”
The turnovers had been removed from the Thunder’s solely offensive problem within the series-extending loss. Oklahoma Metropolis shot solely 38.2% from the ground by the three quarters that the common rotation performed earlier than Daigneault determined to tug the plug and sit up for Recreation 7. That included making solely three of 20 3-point makes an attempt getting into the fourth quarter.
“It simply received sticky, I really feel like,” Thunder ahead Jalen Williams mentioned, referring to the stagnant nature of the Oklahoma Metropolis offense all through the sport. “Our protection wasn’t excellent. If you’re continually taking the ball out and also you’re taking part in towards a set protection over and over, that is a part of it. Different half, we did not do a very good job trusting one another to make the following play like we did Recreation 5.”
The Thunder had been outscored by 40 factors throughout Williams’ 27 minutes, the worst plus-minus by any participant in a Finals recreation within the play-by-play period that started in 1997-98, in response to ESPN Analysis. He completed with 16 factors on 6-of-13 capturing, one help and three turnovers.
Gilgeous-Alexander acknowledged that the chance to clinch a championship — the franchise’s first since transferring to Oklahoma Metropolis — was at the back of the Thunder’s minds as Recreation 6 tipped off.
“Now, we did not play prefer it in any respect,” Gilgeous-Alexander mentioned. “That is why the evening went the way in which that it did. We received precisely what we deserved, what we earned. We’ve to personal that.”