Berry Tramel
OKLAHOMA CITY — Andrew Nembhard flipped a pass back towards midcourt, because most anything beats attacking this Thunder defense. But Alex Caruso doesn’t care which way the ball is going. He wants it.
Caruso tipped the pass, then gave chase as Indiana’s Pascal Siakam scrambled for possession, too. Caruso, who approaches playoff basketball like he’s playing Stanley Cup hockey, saving nothing, dived headfirst and slid in beating Siakam to the ball.
Soon enough, Jalen Williams was fouled, the Thunder padded its lead and a 120-109 Game 5 victory Monday night was secured.
Momentum is a funny thing in sports. We can feel it. We can describe it. Sometimes we can even document it. But sometimes it surprises us from where it comes. This Thunder team that has the state of Oklahoma on the precipice of an NBA championship is quite the outlier. This Thunder team creates momentum from defense as much as offense.
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Like that stretch in the fourth quarter, when Caruso’s steal was the third of four straight steals by the Thunder defense, all of which led to points and helped create a 10-0 run that put away the game.
“We were very disruptive defensively,” said Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. “Kind of had them on their heels. Was pressuring. Because of that, felt three or four steals in a row, we were able to get out and run, get easy baskets. It always starts defensively for us.”
The Wednesday ScissorTales check in on the Pacers’ injured Tyrese Haliburton, wonder why the Thunder is struggling to inbounds the ball and look at some of these NBA Finals’ interesting statistics. But we start with the Thunder’s remarkable defense.
Indiana committed 23 turnovers, leading to 32 Thunder points. OKC had 15 steals and 12 blocked shots. Stocks, NBA parlance calls steals plus blocked shots, and 27 stocks is an incredible number.
GIlgeous-Alexander had two steals and four blocks. Caruso and Cason Wallace each had four steals and one block. Lugentz Dort had two steals and one block. Chet Holmgren had three blocks and one steal.
The Thunder has a battalion of difference-making defenders, and even with the offensive exploits of SGA and Williams, that defense is historically great and can get even better.
“There’s two sides to every game,” Holmgren said. “You have to score more than the other team, so there’s two ways to win the game. Score more points or hold them to less points.”
The Thunder held Indiana to 45.1% shooting. If you’re going to commit 23 turnovers, you better shoot better than 45.1% to win.
The Thunder’s 15 steals fuel the OKC offense. The Thunder is like a National Football League pass rush that gets its sacks in bunches, creating a tsunami of momentum.
The Pacers got swamped by that momentum and must figure out how to turn it to keep their season alive.
Haliburton hurting
Haliburton had perhaps the worst game of his NBA career: 34 minutes, 0-of-6 shooting, four points, six assists, seven rebounds, three turnovers.
Haliburton is injured, and we don’t mean Lu Dort Disease. Haliburton played with a calf strain suffered sometime in the first half. ESPN reported that Haliburton was to undergo an MRI.
“He’s not a hundred percent,” Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said. “It’s pretty clear. But I don’t think he’s going to miss the next game. We were concerned at halftime, and he insisted on playing. I thought he made a lot of really good things happen in the second half. But he’s not a hundred percent. There’s a lot of guys in the series that aren’t.
“This is a lifetime opportunity. Not many guys are going to sit, even if they are a little banged up.”
Few players are 100% this time of year. But Haliburton didn’t do much in the way of “good things.” Some wonder if Carlisle would have been better off going with backup T.J. McConnell in the fourth quarter.
McConnell torched the Thunder in the third quarter, but 70 seconds into the final period, Carlisle removed McConnell. He didn’t return until 3:23 remained in the game.
“He was very tired,” Carlisle said. “That’s why we got him out. I think there was a play early in the fourth where it looked like fatigue had set in there. Then Ty was back in, and then that group went on a good run there.”
All true, too. In the two possessions before McConnell was removed, he shuffled his feet about five times, trying to get up a shot over Kenrich Williams in the lane. McConnell was whistled for traveling. On defense, Gilgeous-Alexander drove the lane, McConnell offered only marginal help, and McConnell completely lost Aaron Wiggins, who took a pass from SGA and nailed a 3-pointer that gave the Thunder a 10-point lead.
McConnell was superb. But he was out of gas.
“I mean, it’s the NBA Finals,” Haliburton said. “It’s the Finals, man. I’ve worked my whole life to be here, and I want to be out there to compete. Help my teammates any way I can.
“I was not great tonight by any means, but it’s not really a thought of mine to not play here. If I can walk, then I want to play. They understand that. And it is what it is. Got to be ready to go for Game 6.”
Inbounds problems
In Game 3, McConnell swiped three Thunder inbounds passes. With 23.4 seconds left in Game 4 and OKC nursing a 108-103 lead, Indy’s Bennedict Mathurin tipped another Thunder inbounds pass, leading to a Pacer steal.
For such a fundamental play, you’d think the Thunder would have the hatches battened down for Game 5. But no. Twice more the Pacers stole inbounds passes.
Holmgren’s inbounds pass was swiped by Obi Toppin, though that miscue didn’t result in Pacer points. But Gilgeous-Alexander’s errant inbounds pass was a disaster; he missed Holmgren, and Siakam scooped up the ball on the dead run for a breakaway dunk that pulled Indiana within 92-86 early in the fourth quarter.
“They are pressuring 94 feet basically on a lot of plays and contesting the ball inbounds,” Mark Daigneault said. “It opens the floor up at times. There’s a play where Jalen Williams in the first half (of Game 4), he gets a screen at 80 feet and ripping downhill and he’s at the front of the rim. That’s the cost of doing business when you do that on their end of things, and we have to continue to attack that pressure.
“When you contest that many inbound passes, you’re bound to be disruptive at times. I thought all of our turnovers in Game 3 were well intended. We were trying to get the ball inbounds quickly and McConnell was sneaking around, stealing those passes. We gained an awareness of that, and we were better at that in Game 4.”
Still not good enough in Game 5. The Thunder must clean up the inbounds passes back in Indy.
The List: Interesting Finals stats
Five statistics from the Finals you might find interesting:
1. The two leading scorers in this series are Gilgeous-Alexander (32.4 points a game) and Jalen Williams (25.8). That’s a combined 58.2. Indiana’s top four scorers are averaging 60.8 — Siakam 20.6, Haliburton 15.0, Myles Turner 13.0 and Mathurin 12.2. To the Pacers’ credit, they have remarkable depth. Four more Pacers are averaging double digits — Toppin 11.4, McConnell 11.2, Aaron Nesmith 10.6 and Nembhard 10.0.
2. The primary difference between these teams has been turnovers. We talk a lot about rebounding, but those numbers are quite similar. The Thunder’s rebounding rate is 50.2% to the Pacers’ 49.8. The Thunder has a slightly better defensive rebounding rate, .744 to .721. No discernible difference. But Indiana has committed 89 turnovers, to the Thunder’s 60. That’s 5.8 extra possessions per game for OKC. That’s the difference between winning and losing.
3. The Thunder has the better 3-point percentage in this series. Indiana has made 63-of-172 deep shots, 36.6%. The Thunder has made 52-of-136, 38.8%. If OKC outshoots the Pacers, it’s hard for Indy to win, since the Thunder is going to get fouled a lot, going to score in transition off takeaways and going to score in the mid-range. Dort has made 14-of-24 3-pointers, Wiggins has made nine of 17, Isaiah Joe has made three of six and Caruso has made eight of 19.
4. Gilgeous-Alexander is the leading shot-blocker in this series. He has nine. Indiana’s Turner has eight blocked shots, Siakam has seven and Holmgren has six.
5. The Thunder’s foul shooting has been superb — 84.7%. OKC has made 133-of-157 foul shots. That’s outstanding. SGA has made 46-of-50, Williams 39-of-47, Holmgren 18-of-19 and Caruso 15-of-18. Those four combined are shooting 88% from the line; 118-of-134.
Mailbag: Arkansas Williams
The Thunder is a deep team. Not every quality player gets to play. Like Jaylin Williams of Arkansas, who in these Finals has played three minutes total.
Jeff: “I really enjoy watching Arkansas Williams play. It’s crazy not seeing him getting any playing time. Can you tell me why he’s not playing?”
Berry: It’s all about matchups. The Pacers don’t really have a traditional center. Look how difficult it’s been for Daigneault to play Holmgren and Hartenstein together. That means even Hartenstein’s minutes are limited. Which makes Jaylin Williams the odd man out. Williams didn’t play much against Memphis or Minnesota. But against Denver, he was invaluable, giving Hartenstein some relief against Nikola Jokic. Williams played 74 minutes in those seven games.
If the Knicks or Cavaliers or someone else had made the NBA Finals, Williams might be playing. Against Indiana, Daigneault needs someone else.
berry.tramel@tulsaworld.com
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