In a pivotal Game 5 on Monday, both the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder came out swinging while flying around on defense and pushing the pace on offense. And these were not inconsequential flails in the air as if swatting a fly. No, these were Canelo Alvarez haymakers.
With 7:45 left in the first quarter, Indiana was 5-of-7 from the field while Oklahoma City was 7-of-9. But the Pacers had three turnovers and the Thunder scored four points off of them.
And so it began.
Indiana finished with seven turnovers in the first quarter while the Thunder defense buckled down. In addition, the Pacers missed plenty of open shots from the perimeter.
Translation: OKC 32 IND 22 after one period.
The second quarter was akin to watching a python wrapped around a deer while the head kept moving around to strike it with its fangs, over and over and over again. The Thunder got the lead to 18 points, but the Pacers were able to get into halftime down 59-45.
Tyrese Haliburton at halftime had zero points, one rebound, two assists and a turnover in 17 minutes. He shot 0-for-5 from the field and 0-for-4 from downtown.
It wasn’t quite Willis Reed, but Haliburton came out of the tunnel for the second half and looked spry and agile. And the Pacers did what they’ve been doing all playoffs: grinding and whittling leads. T.J. McConnell was huge, scoring six straight and a total of 10 points within a few minutes.
He and Obi Toppin helped cut the lead to five points, and McConnell finished with 13 points in the third, but OKC finished strong and went into the final period up 87-79.
But like the Energizer Bunny, the Pacers kept going and going and going. With 8:30 left in the game, Pascal Siakam drilled a three-pointer to pull Indiana within two points.
The Thunder immediately responded, though, with a Jalen Williams trey and Cason Wallace steal and breakaway dunk.
What. A. Game.
OKC wasn’t done, like Dominic Toretto pressing the NOS button, the Thunder racked up steals and more Williams buckets to extend the lead to 13 with 5:48 left.
From the 6:16 to 5:20 mark, SGA had two steals, Alex Caruso had one and Lugentz Dort had another.
Final score: OKC 120 IND 109.
Most of the stats were similar except…..the Pacers turned the ball over 23 times compared to 11 for the Thunder. Those turnovers led to 32 points for OKC.
Jalen Williams ($9,800; 56.5 FPTS) was masterful, scoring a game-high 40 points , going 14-of-25 from the field, 3-of-5 from downtown and 9-of-12 from the line. He also chipped in six rebounds, four assists and a steal.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander ($14,000; 60.5 FPTS) put up 31 points, two rebounds, 10 assists, four blocks and two steals. He shot 9-of-21 from the field, 0-of-3 from downtown and 13-of-14 from the line.
Lugentz Dort ($4,600; 30.5 FPTS) stuffed the stat sheet with nine points, eight rebounds, three assists, a block and two steals.
Cason Wallace ($3,400; 25 FPTS) contributed 11 points, two rebounds, a block and four steals in only 17 minutes. He drilled 3-of-4 treys.
Aaron Wiggins ($2,200; 23.75 FPTS) finished with 14 points, five rebounds and a block in 22 minutes. He converted 4-of-7 from beyond the arc.
Isaiah Hartenstein ($5,000; 23.5 FPTS) only played 21 minutes but produced four points, eight rebounds, four assists, a block and a steal.
For Indiana:
Pascal Siakam ($10,000; 51.5 FPTS) continued his stellar play, putting up 28 points, six rebounds, five assists, two blocks and three steals. He shot 9-of-15 from the field, 3-of-6 from downtown and 7-of-8 from the line.
T.J. McConnell ($4,200; 32 FPTS) finished with 18 points, four rebounds, four assists and two steals in 22 minutes.
Bennedict Mathurin ($4,000; 22.5 FPTS) had seven points, eight rebounds, an assist and two blocks, but he only shot 2-of-11 from the field.
Tony Bradley ($1,000; 8.5 FPTS) was dusted off the shelves for 12 minutes. He put up four points and four rebounds.
Game 6 is Thursday in Indiana.
