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NBA: Thunder storm past Nuggets for 3-2 series lead, Pacers eliminate top-seeded Cavaliers

Jamal Murray of the Denver Nuggets shoots over Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Pic: Joshua Gateley/Getty Images

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 points, and the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Denver Nuggets 112-105 on Tuesday night to go up 3-2 in their Western Conference semifinal series.

Oklahoma City overcame a 44-point, 15-rebound night from Denver’s Nikola Jokic. The Thunder can clinch the series on Thursday in Denver.

Gilgeous-Alexander made 12 of 23 field goals and bounced back from a slow start to lead six players in double figures.

“What the great players do is they rise in the face of those challenges and adversities,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “And I just thought he got more and more composed as the game went on. And despite the fact that the pressure was mounting and it got hotter in there, he got cooler and just kind of settled into it, made the right plays, let the game tell him what to do.”

Jokic made 17 of 25 shots. Denver’s Jamal Murray scored 28 points, but he made just 10 of 27 shots. No other Denver player scored more than 13 points.

“This is a really disappointing loss,” Denver interim coach David Adelman said. “The guys in there should be disappointed. It’s a heavy loss and we have to bounce back quickly to win Game 6 and give ourselves a chance to come back, have a game like this, but finish it.”

Oklahoma City ran out to a 12-2 lead, and it looked like it might turn out like the Thunder’s blowout victory in Game 2. Denver made one of its first nine shots, and that was a putback by Jokic.

Denver rallied and led by 11 in the second quarter, but Oklahoma City closed strong and trailed 56-54 at halftime. Jokic had 19 points and nine rebounds before the break.

Murray scored 13 points in the third quarter and Jokic added 12 to help the Nuggets take an 86-78 lead into the fourth. Still, there were missed opportunities.

“It felt like every time we had a chance to go back up 12, or get it back at 14, we wouldn’t make the shot and they’d run out and make a basket or score in transition,” Adelman said. “So it compounded itself.”

Oklahoma City’s Lu Dort, who scored three total points in the first three quarters, hit a trio of 3-pointers in a two-minute span to cut Denver’s lead to 92-90 midway through the fourth.

Jokic hit a deep fadeaway 3-pointer to tie the game at 103 before Oklahoma City closed it out. Jalen Williams’ 3-pointer with 1:18 remaining gave the Thunder a 106-103 lead, and Gilgeous-Alexander’s three with 48 seconds to go pushed Oklahoma City’s lead to six.

“I thought we executed as well as we have in the playoffs down the stretch in a close game,” Daigneault said.

Indiana Pacers 114 Cleveland Cavaliers 105

Indiana coach Rick Carlisle put it best in summing up his team’s finishing punch in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

“The winning team writes the script,” he said.

The Pacers’ 114-105 victory over the Cavaliers in Game 5 on Tuesday night was similar to the first two games of the series. Cleveland jumped out to a big first-half lead, but Indiana’s quick tempo eventually took a toll.

“I have to give our guys credit, they earned this,” Carlisle said. “This was one of the best teams in the league. I’m sorry their season had to end like this. They had the perfect season, and we came along and were hot at the right time.” Tyrese Haliburton scored 31 points and Pascal Siakam added 21 as the Pacers reached the conference finals in consecutive years for the first time since 2013-14.

Donovan Mitchell, who missed the second half of Sunday’s game due to a sprained left ankle, led Cleveland with 35 points. Evan Mobley added 24 points and 11 rebounds.

The top-seeded Cavs swept their first-round series against Miami, but were unable to match up against the up-tempo Pacers.

“We were not favored in one game. The lowest point spread was 5½. That was something that fueled our guys, too,” Carlisle said.

The fourth-seeded Pacers will now await the winner of the matchup between the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks. New York leads 3-1 with Game 5 on Wednesday night in Boston.

Indiana rallied from a 19-point deficit in the first half and took control after halftime and won all three games at Cleveland’s Rocket Arena.

It was the first time since a 2005 first-round series against Boston that the Pacers won three road games in a playoff series.

The Cavs dropped three home games in a postseason series for the first time.

“I love playing in this arena, man. We’re 0-3 at home. We let the city down,” Mitchell said. “This place is special. What hurts is that we didn’t get it done at home.”

Cleveland stormed out to a 44-25 lead with 8:10 remaining in the second quarter, but Haliburton had five of his six 3-pointers in the period as the Pacers got within 56-52 at halftime.

“We didn’t panic after that rough start to the first quarter. We talked about how we knew that they were going to throw a haymaker there. But I thought we weathered the storm the right way and got going from there,” Haliburton said.

Indiana then shot 14 of 22 from the field in the third quarter, when it had a 17-2 run, to go up 85-76 going into the final 12 minutes.

The Cavs shot 38.9% for the game and were a woeful 9 of 35 on 3-pointers. Mitchell and Darius Garland were a combined 12 of 41, including 4 of 19 from beyond the arc.

Mitchell’s 3-pointer got the Cavs within 106-103 with 1:27 remaining, but Indiana closed it out by scoring eight of the final 10 points.