Oklahoma City’s Jalen Williams celebrates a dunk against the Indiana Pacers during Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Monday at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City. (Getty Images)
By Joe Vardon The Athletic The Athletic
OKLAHOMA CITY – Jalen Williams played the best playoff game of his life, the Oklahoma City Thunder survived one of the Indiana Pacers’ patented, double-digit comebacks, and the NBA Finals are, or could be, nearly decided.
Williams, the Thunder’s third-team All-NBA forward, scored a postseason-high 40 points, league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander added 31 points and the Thunder beat the Pacers, 120-109, in Monday’s pivotal Game 5.
The potential clincher, Game 6, is at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday in Indianapolis. With a win, the Thunder would claim their first title since the franchise was uprooted from Seattle in 2008. Nearly three quarters of all teams that won Game 5 of a finals tied, 2-2, won the championship.
The Pacers, who have lost consecutive games for the first time since March 10, were led by Pascal Siakam’s 28 points. Reserve guard T.J. McConnell starred again with 18 points in 22 minutes and Aaron Nesmith added 14 points and six rebounds.
Perhaps the biggest Indiana storyline, other than the one where the Pacers are on the brink of elimination, was Tyrese Haliburton’s lack of scoring. Clearly battling a right leg injury (or two), Haliburton finished with four points, seven boards and six assists. He didn’t make any field goals and didn’t score at all until the third quarter.
The Pacers are both kings of the comeback and the bounce back when they lose. Entering Game 6, they had won the next game after a loss by an average of 14.7 points. They’d also posted a league-record five wins after trailing by 15 or more points this postseason. They trailed by 16 early in the third quarter but had cut the deficit to two points with 8:30 left before the Thunder put the game away.
Williams, whose career high in any game – regular or postseason – is 41 points, scored 11 in the final frame. He was 14-of-25 shooting for the game and 9-of-12 from the foul line with six rebounds and four assists.
Gilgeous-Alexander added nine points in the fourth quarter. He finished with 10 assists and was 13-of-14 at the free throw line. In the last two games of this series – both wins for Oklahoma City – Williams and Gilgeous-Alexander lived at the foul line.
The rhythmic chants of the Oklahoma City faithful “O-K-C, O-K-C,” the clapping in unison and singing of the refrain for “Enter Sandman,” and the pregame introductions (televised for the first time on ABC since 2013), set the stage for an emotional, physical first quarter. The Thunder led 32-22 when it was over and had assisted on 10 baskets (compared to 11 assists for all of Game 4).
After his impassioned defense of official Scott Foster (who worked Game 4, but not Game 5) on Sunday, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle tore into the refs when Andrew Nembhard didn’t get a call on a drive to the hoop. Not only was Carlisle assessed a technical foul, but he had to be restrained by his assistants. Haliburton tripped on a drive and when he stood up, favored his right calf. The apparent injury was to the same leg Haliburton was experiencing discomfort in after Game 2. He had it wrapped when he was on the bench throughout the game. Williams was whacked in the face on a drive and when play finally stopped, he was on all fours on the court for what seemed like half a minute before he was helped to his feet.
The Thunder led by as many as 18 and took a 59-45 advantage into the locker room at halftime. Unlike in Game 1, when Oklahoma City turned the Pacers over at a historic rate but couldn’t turn those freebies into points, the Thunder scored 15 points off of Indiana’s 11 first-half turnovers. Haliburton, meanwhile, failed to score in the first two quarters and missed all five of his shots.
Haliburton finally found the score board with 7:07 left in the third quarter through a pair of foul shots. The period belonged to McConnell. He rattled off 13 points and a steal, at one time scoring six in a row for the Pacers as they trimmed a 13-point deficit down to as low as five. Williams’ 15-footer with three seconds to go put Oklahoma City ahead 87-79 heading into the fourth.
This is the second straight game where Indiana seemed to run out of gas in the final quarter – notable because the Pacers thrive on wearing down their opponents. The offense held up well enough (10-of-15 shooting, whereas in Game 4 they went cold down the stretch) but eight turnovers turned into 13 Thunder points in the fourth quarter alone.
Indiana has two days to clean this up, and get Haliburton right, to extend the season.
### Latest riddle for Pacers
In the first two games, Williams looked tight. Not quite nervous in his first NBA Finals, but just not himself. His open shots came up short. His layups lipped around and out.
But after three straight games of superb efficiency, it’s safe to say Williams has found his groove. With a playoff-career-high 40 points in the Thunder’s Game 5 victory, he helped move Oklahoma City within one win of the city’s first championship.
Of all the riddles Indiana must solve against this loaded Thunder squad – dominant defense, suffocating depth and incredible versatility – Williams has emerged among the biggest. While the Pacers are doing all they can to contain league Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams has started to feast. He made 14 of 25 shots Monday, applying relentless pressure on the Pacers with a series of drives to the basket. Simply keeping Williams out of the paint has become a tall order for Indiana, and now the Pacers must figure out how to do it twice.
How difficult will that be? Over his past three games, Williams has scored 93 points on 61 shots. In the first two games, Williams managed just 36 points on 33 shots.
But since the start of Game 3, Williams has played brilliantly off Gilgeous-Alexander and transformed the Thunder. Now they’re just one win away.
### Thunder defense clamps down
The Pacers were so close to pulling off a miracle yet again. With Haliburton significantly limited by a right hamstring injury he suffered in the first half, his teammates elevated to make up for his deficit. McConnell flipped the game with a scoring outburst in the third quarter. Pascal Siakam came alive early in the fourth to bring the Pacers (almost) all the way back. But when the Thunder defense tightened the clamps, Haliburton couldn’t dribble his way out of trouble.
This has been Oklahoma City’s edge all playoffs long. The Pacers are the team that springs counterattacking comebacks on the opponent out of nowhere, but the Thunder defense can do the same thing with their ball pressure. Alex Caruso, Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams took away the Pacers’ ability to comfortably move the ball coming down the court. While there were some incredible deflections, the Thunder mostly just took away the flow from Indiana’s offense right as the Pacers lost a little bit of their edge to push hard in transition.
The Pacers have defied logic throughout this postseason run, but it’s impossible to win an NBA Finals game when your best player doesn’t hit a single shot. This is the epitome of the Thunder defense, one of the best in recent history at suffocating ballhandlers and commandeering passing lanes. The Pacers’ supporting cast found life tonight and the Thunder put that to bed as soon as crunch time began.
Haliburton wasn’t able to get downhill much in the second half and that became a serious problem when Siakam’s fourth quarter run naturally ran out of steam. Nembhard couldn’t take control in the fourth like he did in Game 1, becoming a defensive sieve as well when SGA and Williams attacked. In crunch time, the Thunder successfully countered the Pacers’ blitzing coverage on the MVP by having Williams sit in the weak side slot. When his man left to protect the lane against SGA snaking back against the blitz, Williams would get the swing pass from his point guard and attack against the rotated defense. It became too easy for the Thunder to create good looks as the fourth quarter went on, especially as the Thunder’s scoring stars were able to get to their spots in the midrange in isolation with little resistance from the Pacers’ guards.
Indiana doesn’t have an answer without Haliburton being an effective scorer. When the Thunder get 71 points out of their two great scorers and play swarming defense in the fourth quarter, they simply aren’t beatable. Now they’re on the verge of a championship, just as expected since these playoffs began. _– Jared Weiss_
### Haliburton’s health looms large
Haliburton sat on the bench with a towel over his mouth and stared at the floor during the second quarter of Game 5. Indiana assistant Mike Weinar tapped Haliburton on his leg, seemingly to encourage him because Weinar knew his team’s leader was hurting – physically and mentally – as he watched his teammates try to rally without him.
Late in the first quarter, Haliburton crossed over Thunder center Chet Holmgren but immediately lost his balance. He was later seen holding his right calf and briefly went back to the locker room. When Haliburton emerged, he was a shell of himself. Already prone to a few no-shows throughout these playoffs – with two single-digit scoring performances entering Monday night – Haliburton had another absentee performance in Game 5. However, it would be hard to argue his right leg didn’t compromise him as he limped around the court.
Haliburton was held scoreless in the first half, marking the third time in his playoff career in which he failed to score a point in a half, and he tied his playoff career-low with four points. The two-time All-Star missed all six of his shot attempts, including four 3-pointers, which was the first time Haliburton didn’t make a single shot in 36 playoff games. He was also limited to six assists and coughed up three turnovers.
As Indiana trails in a series for the first time this postseason, the health of Haliburton’s right leg will be something to monitor ahead of Thursday’s Game 6 in Indiana. If the Pacers hope to win and force a winner-take-all Game 7 in Oklahoma City, they’ll likely need Haliburton at full strength or as close to it as possible. _– James Boyd_