NBA Finals: Jalen Williams scores 40 as Thunder move to edge of first title
OKLAHOMA CITY — Jalen Williams scored a career playoff-high 40 points, MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander added 31 and the Oklahoma City Thunder moved one win from a title by beating the Indiana Pacers 120-109 in Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Monday night.
It was the 10th — and by far, the biggest — time the Thunder stars combined for more than 70 points in a game. Williams was 14 of 24 from the field, and Gilgeous-Alexander added 10 assists.
Pascal Siakam had 28 points for Indiana, which now trails the series 3-2 and will host Game 6 on Thursday night. TJ McConnell added 18 for the Pacers, who whittled an 18-point deficit down to two in the fourth — then watched the Thunder pull away again, and for good.
'That's a really good team over there,' Williams said. 'You just don't trip into the finals.'
True. But now, everything favors the Thunder.
Teams that win Game 5 of an NBA Finals that was tied at 2-2 have gone on to win the series 23 times in 31 previous opportunities, or 74%. And teams with a 3-2 lead in the finals have won 40 times in 49 previous opportunities, or 82%.
But Game 5 was not easy. Far from it.
Down by 18 late in the second quarter, the Pacers — the comeback kings of these playoffs, with as many wins in this postseason from 15 points down or more (five) than the rest of the league has combined, including in Game 1 of this series — did what they do, chipping away. And they did it with Tyrese Haliburton reduced to basically playing decoy on offense because of a leg issue that he aggravated in the first quarter.
Led by McConnell, who scored 13 points in just under seven minutes of the third, the Pacers got within five late in that quarter.
Then, Siakam went to work — a pair of free throws with 9:19 left got Indiana within four, then a 3-pointer about a minute later made it 95-93. In the play-by-play era of the NBA, starting with the 1997 playoffs, teams with leads of 15 points or more in the finals were 80-9.
Make that 81-9 now, and the Thunder are one win away.
'That was honestly the same exact game as Game 1,' Williams said. 'Learning through these finals, that's what makes a team good.'
One more win, and his team will be certified as great.
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Hartenstein's passing proving critical, too
Follow live reaction after Oklahoma City won 120-109 behind Williams and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (31 points) to move one win away from an NBA title Imagn Images The Oklahoma City Thunder got 40 points from Jalen Williams and 31 points from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to survive another fourth-quarter Indiana Pacers comeback and take a 3-2 series lead with a 120-109 win in Game 5 of the 2025 NBA Finals. The Thunder were up 14 points at halftime thanks to some stifling defense, forcing 10 Pacers turnovers and holding Indiana to 33 percent shooting. But the Pacers stormed back despite a quiet night from Tyrese Haliburton, who was dealing with right calf soreness, thanks to second-half performances from Pascal Siakam and unlikely hero T.J. McConnell, trailing by as little as two in the fourth quarter before the Thunder regained momentum. Oklahoma City's defense forced 22 Indiana turnovers, Gilgeous-Alexander added four blocks, two steals and 10 assists to his scoring output, and the Thunder have their first lead of the series and are one win away from their first NBA title. Williams is the 14th player in NBA history with a Finals Game 5 performance of 40 or more points and the first since Devin Booker in 2021. Game 6 is Thursday in Indianapolis. GO FURTHER Jalen Williams' 40-point Game 5 has Thunder one win from NBA title Connections: Sports Edition Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Getty Images To Mike Prada's point, it's not just the screening from Isaiah Hartenstein that helps. He's already found one cutter, when he bounced an assist to Jalen Williams for a dunk. Hartenstein is the king of finding guys on back cuts. The Thunder have needed someone who can take advantage of off-ball movement. Hartenstein has stepped up in that role early on in this one. The Thunder had only 11 assists in Game 4 at Indiana Friday night. Through the first 4:15 of Game 5, Oklahoma City already have 6 assists on their 7 field goals. Isaiah Hartenstein has three of them. Getty Images This is the value of Isaiah Hartenstein — and why the Thunder have moved him back into the starting lineup. His backcourt screens have knocked Indiana's ball pressure back and made it far easier for the Thunder guards to get the ball up the floor and attack once they do. Pascal Siakam has been so good in this postseason that it is unusual to see him get out of control or struggle in the slightest. He's committed two turnovers in the first four minutes of this game trying to attack each of the Thunder's twin towers off the dribble. Thunder getting out on the run early and they've scored four points off of three Pacers turnovers. Getty Images Q1 7:45 - Thunder 17, Pacers 12 This game has a nice pace to it so far. Chet Holmgren drills a 3 before Aaron Nesmith responds with a long ball of his own. Isaiah Hartenstein finds Jalen Williams for a cutting layup and after a Pascal Siakam turnover, JDub gets out in transition before powering down a dunk. A few possessions later, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander gets all the way rim for an easy bucket causing the Pacers to call timeout. That Chet Holmgren layup was one of the most difficult shots that I've seen someone make look so routine. Jalen Williams continues to be the Thunder's lead ballhandler instead of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, as he was in Game 4. Q1 12:00 - Pacers 0, Thunder 0 Tied at two games apiece, we have a critical Game 5 tonight in Oklahoma City. There's no more waiting necessary because we're underway. As someone who has watched a whole lot of introductions over the years, I have to wonder if the league gave instructions to the teams, and then the teams gave instructions to the players, to honor their actual in-arena announcements and not just all run off the bench in a blob. In Milwaukee, the Bucks are already in their huddle by the time the PA announcer calls the names of the final three players in the starting lineup. It was Black Moon that once asked us, "Who Got Da Props?" This correspondent believes he has an answer. Again, all odds via BetMGM ... and all pregame vibes via Boot Camp Clik. Q1 alternate spread of Oklahoma City -4.5 (+105) — OKC has won three of four first quarters in convincing fashion (+9 and +6 in the two home games, then +8 in Game 3). The Thunder lost their first opening period of the series on Friday night, but they still shot better than 50 percent from the field and forced four turnovers. Tyrese Haliburton over 0.5 blocks (-105) — Believe it or not, Indiana's centerpiece point guard had four blocks across those first four Finals tilts. Before missing out in Game 4, Haliburton notched at least one stuff in five straight playoff games. Obi Toppin over 1.5 made 3s (+105) — The Pacers reserve has been a surprising source of rebounds and defensive effort in this series. He's making the most of those earned extra minutes, trying a sizable 5.3 treys per Finals game. That bumps up to 6.5 in the road action. I see Toppin topping this one. I've been going to NBA games on the road since 2021. The coolest part of traveling is seeing how the starting lineup package looks in these arenas. I grew up on the 1990s intros. To finally put them back on television is like a fever dream. Don't take them back off ever again! Last postseason, I remember telling Athletic colleague Fred Katz that we have it all wrong. Game 7s are not the best games in a series. Game 5s tied at two are the best games in a series because Game 7s tend to be ugly and Games 5s are the sweet spot when desperation has kicked in and both teams know each other well. He almost immediately told me I was an idiot. And then we watched the Knicks beat the Pacers by 30 points in Madison Square Garden. And I had to abandon my argument. No lineup changes for this pivotal Game 5. Isaiah Hartenstein remains in there next to Chet Holmgren for the Thunder in a double-big set. Getty Images Here's a fun Shai Gilgeous-Alexander stat. His Game 4 performance, where he took 24 shots and had no assists, was just the 26th time in finals history where a player had no assists on at least 24 shots. SGA is the 17th player to do that. It hasn't happened since Game 3 of the 1994 Finals when Patrick Ewing took 29 shots without an assist. Those players are 9-17 in those games. We've got a tense Finals duel knotted at 2-2. Each team has swiped a road game and both rotations are at full strength. So, naturally, Monday's spread borders on double digits. Oddsmaking is something between a weird science and an inexplicable phenomenon. Here's how it looks for Game 5. All listings via BetMGM: OKC is laying 9.5 points at home. If you're surprised to see such a huge number this late in a tied series, just know that you're not alone. A whopping 73 percent of spread bettors are taking the Pacers to cover. The Thunder are -450 to win straight up, and moneyliners are digging that at a more modest 55 percent clip. The point total is coming in at 223.5, and an even 80 percent of the public is smashing that over. When Indy beats the spread, it does so convincingly — by 11 points in Game 1 and 14.5 in Game 3. It fell one point shy of the +6 mark last time out. The over has hit in just one of these four games, and Friday's final came in 12.5 points under. The NBA Finals are basketball's ultimate competitive showcase, including the sneakers worn on the court. Historically, that's been a showcase run predominantly by Nike, which includes a large roster of the NBA's biggest and highest-profile players, in addition to still producing merchandise under the Jordan Brand and Kobe Bryant. It's impossible to watch the NBA without seeing the Nike influence. Nike is the league's official uniform partner, so the logo is on every player, down to the socks. The 2025 finals, however, aren't about the biggest shoe brands. Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton used Game 1 to debut his first signature shoe with Puma: the Hali 1. Oklahoma City Thunder star and league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is signed to Converse, a subsidiary of Nike. Read more here. GO FURTHER NBA players and shoe deals: Motivation shifts to ownership, control vs. the brand Ben Sheppard's main role in the first half was to press Jalen Williams full-court and the Pacers guard ended up getting beaten at the point of attack several times. On offense, his screening was weak and his off-ball spacing was too static. But he showed signs of life in the fourth quarter, handling Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's drives well on a few occasions and generally kept his arms back to not get called for fouls. The Pacers shouldn't have blown the lead in these minutes, but there were several screw ups on defensive box outs that let the Thunder bigs set up four second-chance baskets in the fourth quarter. Especially after a game in which the Thunder could not hit an open 3, the Pacers may want to prioritize a tighter defensive shell that can affect the driving lanes and force more kickouts. It worked for parts of the fourth quarter, and if it weren't for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander hitting a tough stepback late in the fourth quarter, the Pacers could have pulled Game 4 out. Though most defenses in the NBA want to limit 3-point attempts, the Pacers have been taking 9.5 more 3s per game in this series and have a little room to play with in that advantage if they think it can limit the Thunder's free throw attempts. But for all the small tweaks the Pacers could have made in Game 4, this game really came down to the Aaron Nesmith-Gilgeous-Alexander matchup and all those little fouls that piled up. The Thunder were able to get Nesmith switched onto the MVP throughout crunch time and the Pacers accepted the matchup, not shading enough help to force SGA to get off the ball. There likely isn't a better perimeter trio to close it out than Tyrese Haliburton-Andrew Nembhard-Nesmith, so Pacers coach Rick Carlisle will have to decide if he wants to close with Myles Turner or Obi Toppin late. Carlisle will likely still play eight players at the minimum in Game 5, but he will have to change something to keep the offense going without Haliburton and to keep SGA from living at the line in crunch time. Now that we are approaching the do-or-die part of the Finals, this is often when coaches trim their rotations down as tight as they can. For Rick Carlisle, that means figuring out who is going to be his eighth man. He experimented in Game 4 with both Ben Sheppard and Benn Mathurin when Tyrese Haliburton hit the bench and got burned by his second unit, losing both the early second quarter and early fourth quarter segments. In the second quarter, the offense ran through TJ McConnell and Myles Turner once all the starters came off the floor. Because Turner is not hitting his shots right now, that unit was completely reliant on McConnell and that was too heavy a lift for him. Carlisle may choose to keep Mathurin out there instead of Sheppard to keep another attacker who can force the issue if the ball movement isn't getting anywhere. The Thunder defense was able to force outside shots from McConnell and Turner, which is exactly what they wanted.
Yahoo
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Pacers vs. Thunder: With Tyrese Haliburton hobbled, Pacers now on brink of losing NBA Finals. Do they have anything left?
OKLAHOMA CITY — Tyrese Haliburton ambled into a dribble handoff from Tony Bradley, and even though he was only going about three-quarters-speed at best on a flat right rear tire, the Pacers' premier playmaker still merited enough respect with a live dribble to draw a second defender. Haliburton read the help and kicked to the corner, where Andrew Nembhard was waiting to launch a 3-pointer over a screaming closeout from Thunder reserve Cason Wallace. Nembhard's triple clanged clear, but the ball finds energy, they say, and Pascal Siakam, a 6-foot-9, 230-pound source of coursing current, rose up over the top of 7-footer Isaiah Hartenstein to high-point the offensive rebound and give Indiana a second chance. Advertisement A second later, Siakam lofted his own long ball over the outstretched right arm of Oklahoma City stopper Luguentz Dort. When it found the bottom of the net, the sound that emanated from the stands at Paycom Center was something like 18,203 souls leaving 18,203 bodies. These friggin' Pacers, man. They'd done it again. Despite being down 18 late in the first half of Game 5 of the 2025 NBA Finals … despite looking absolutely dead in the water after again sputtering up a sinful seven first-quarter turnovers to stake Oklahoma City to an early lead that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams seemed intent on expanding … and despite Haliburton clearly hampered by a right calf issue that he seemed to aggravate after slipping on a drive to the basket midway through the first quarter … … they'd clawed all the way back, with Siakam's 3 capping an 11-3 run that drew Indiana within one stinking bucket, 95-93, with 8:30 to play. Advertisement 'Even with the game that we had, we still put ourselves in position [to win] at that point,' said Siakam, who scored 18 of his team-high 28 points in the second half, adding 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks in yet another monster game from him in this 2025 postseason. Eight-and-a-half minutes is an absolute lifetime in an NBA game. An eon of possessions with which to regain control — of the game, of the Finals, of a golden opportunity to put the fear of God into the favorite. A chance to make a 68-win juggernaut's life flash before its eyes, and see if it blinks. But chances come, and chances go. 'They got a second-chance opportunity and scored, and then we had an uncharacteristically bad turnover that turned into a dunk,' Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. 'We called timeout. Came out, I think Myles [Turner] got fouled. Got it back to five. But then, I don't remember — I just looked at part of that sequence to see what happened. Didn't make enough plays, pretty clearly.' Advertisement 'Yeah,' Siakam said. 'Just that fast, it kind of, like, went away from us.' That's how fast it can happen against the Thunder, who refused to let Game 5 turn into a repeat of Game 1. They battled back from the brink, answering Indiana's 11-3 run with a 10-4 jolt of their own to push the lead back to eight. And then Oklahoma City's season-long 'superpower' — its league-leading, historically larcenous defense — broke Indiana's back, snaring four straight steals leading to eight straight points to double the Thunder advantage, reach escape velocity … and finally allow those 18,203 true believers in white and blue T-shirts to exhale. Five minutes later, the Thunder had put the finishing touches on a 120-109 victory to take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven NBA Finals, and a Pacers team that had prided itself all year on taking care of the basketball knew it had let that golden opportunity slip through its fingers. Advertisement 'We had 23 turnovers for 32 points,' Carlisle said. 'I mean, that's the game. We gotta do a heck of a lot better there.' The four turnovers that effectively ended the game came off the fingertips of starters Haliburton and Nembhard, Indiana's two best guards all season long. They were not, however, the Pacers' best backcourt options in Game 5. As he did in Indiana's Game 3 win, T.J. McConnell completely shifted the energy of the game on Monday night, scoring 13 points on 6-for-8 shooting in the third quarter and assisting on five more to turn a 15-point deficit into a two-possession game heading into the closing seconds of the frame … before Williams, for the third straight game, hit a tough final-possession shot to give Oklahoma City a little more breathing room. Advertisement 'I found a rhythm and my teammates kept finding me, so I've got to give credit to them,' McConnell said after the game. 'Just trying to put some energy in the game, like I always do, and get us jumpstarted.' Putting that energy into the game came at a cost, though — one that Carlisle said he saw almost immediately after keeping McConnell in to start the fourth quarter. 'He was great in the third. Put him back in earlier than normal,' Carlisle said. 'He was very tired. That's why we got him out. And I think there was a play early in the fourth where it looked like fatigue had set in there.' Haliburton checked back in for McConnell, and while he clearly couldn't summon the same zip off the dribble to create his own shot, he was still able to orchestrate the offense effectively enough to set the table for that 11-3 run. Advertisement 'Just trying to keep pace in the game, impact whatever way I can,' said Haliburton, who finished with four points on 0-for-6 shooting, but did add seven rebounds and six assists in his 34 minutes. 'Just trying to get P [Siakam] the ball in the right spots. Try to get the ball to guys in the right spots if I can.' When OKC responded, Carlisle opted to stick with his starting backcourt, even with Haliburton hobbled and Nembhard struggling to command the offense, and even with McConnell having gotten several minutes of rest. Four turnovers later — two each from Nembhard and Haliburton — and the lead's up to 16, with McConnell still on the bench. 'Yeah, it's always a consideration,' Carlisle said when asked if he'd considered turning back to McConnell at any point before the 3:23 mark of the fourth, with the game pretty firmly out of reach. 'But I haven't gone through the entire game and completely analyzed the whole thing.' Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton reacts during the first quarter of Game 5 against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday. () (Matthew Stockman via Getty Images) Carlisle will have two days to go back and analyze every second of Game 5 before the two teams reconvene for Game 6. He and his staff will pore over the film, considering how to help their players protect the ball against a swarming, smothering, suffocating Thunder defense. They'll break down what worked in Monday's second half, when Indiana scored 64 points on 53 possessions, and see what, if any of it, might be replicable come the first half on Thursday, to avoid going down big early and needing to mount such a furious comeback just to have a shot late. Advertisement And while they break down the tape and make their notes, they'll do it praying that Haliburton — who, for what it's worth, wasn't limping as he left the postgame podium like he was after Game 2, though he was moving gingerly — will be able to provide more than he could on Monday night. 'He's not 100%. It's pretty clear,' Carlisle said. 'But I don't think he's gonna miss the next game. You know, we were concerned at halftime, and he insisted on playing. And I thought he made a lot of really good things happen in the second half. But he's not 100%.' Haliburton said he doesn't know if the injury he tried to work through on Monday was related to the 'lower leg thing' that ailed him earlier in the series, but acknowledged that the issue is in 'the same area.' Even though it limited him, though, he said he never seriously considered not getting back on the court. 'I mean, it's the NBA Finals,' he 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.' Advertisement Carlisle said the Pacers would 'evaluate everything with Tyrese and, you know, see how he wakes up tomorrow.' But he also said he understood Haliburton's mindset. 'I mean, all these guys playing in this series, on both sides … I think it's pretty clear now that we're going into the sixth game, and you know, all the attention and the crowd noise in both arenas, everything — this is a lifetime opportunity,' Carlisle said. 'And not many guys are going to sit, even if they're a little banged up. If you're injured, that's a different story.' Which side of that divide Haliburton falls on remains to be seen. 'He's a fighter,' Siakam said. 'He's been our rock all year. He's a big reason why we're here. I don't know exactly what's wrong, but I know he's fighting and he's going to give us everything he's got. We are 100% behind him and we support him.' Advertisement The Pacers had their chance to make the Thunder blink, and they squandered it, losing consecutive games for the first time since March. Now, they find themselves needing to win on Thursday to stay alive, and give themselves one more chance to play here in Oklahoma City — a Game 7 for the NBA championship. Before they can get there, though, they have to find a way to bounce back from two straight disappointing losses and live to fight another day. 'We've had our backs against the wall many different times over the last two years and had to find different ways to win,' Haliburton said. 'The way that this year has gone, nobody said this was going to be sweet. It's kind of poetic that we're here. 'We've got to be ready to go for Game 6. Our backs are against the wall. It's a really tough team. We're going to have to go home and get ready the next couple days. There shouldn't even be a conversation about Game 7 or anything like this. This is the game, and everybody has to be prepared. It starts with me, and we've all got to be better. That's just point-blank, period.'
Yahoo
an hour ago
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Thunder vs. Pacers: With Tyrese Haliburton hobbled, Indiana now on brink of losing NBA Finals. Do they have anything left?
OKLAHOMA CITY — Tyrese Haliburton ambled into a dribble handoff from Tony Bradley, and even though he was only going about three-quarters-speed at best on a flat right rear tire, the Pacers' premier playmaker still merited enough respect with a live dribble to draw a second defender. Haliburton read the help and kicked to the corner, where Andrew Nembhard was waiting to launch a 3-pointer over a screaming closeout from Thunder reserve Cason Wallace. Nembhard's triple clanged clear, but the ball finds energy, they say, and Pascal Siakam, a 6-foot-9, 230-pound source of coursing current, rose up over the top of 7-footer Isaiah Hartenstein to high-point the offensive rebound and give Indiana a second chance. Advertisement A second later, Siakam lofted his own long ball over the outstretched right arm of Oklahoma City stopper Luguentz Dort. When it found the bottom of the net, the sound that emanated from the stands at Paycom Center was something like 18,203 souls leaving 18,203 bodies. These friggin' Pacers, man. They'd done it again. Despite being down 18 late in the first half of Game 5 of the 2025 NBA Finals … despite looking absolutely dead in the water after again sputtering up a sinful seven first-quarter turnovers to stake Oklahoma City to an early lead that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams seemed intent on expanding … and despite Haliburton clearly hampered by a right calf issue that he seemed to aggravate after slipping on a drive to the basket midway through the first quarter … … they'd clawed all the way back, with Siakam's 3 capping an 11-3 run that drew Indiana within one stinking bucket, 95-93, with 8:30 to play. Advertisement 'Even with the game that we had, we still put ourselves in position [to win] at that point,' said Siakam, who scored 18 of his team-high 28 points in the second half, adding six rebounds, five assists, three steals and two blocks in yet another monster game from him in this 2025 postseason. Eight-and-a-half minutes is an absolute lifetime in an NBA game. An eon of possessions with which to regain control — of the game, of the Finals, of a golden opportunity to put the fear of God into the favorite. A chance to make a 68-win juggernaut's life flash before its eyes, and see if it blinks. But chances come, and chances go. 'They got a second-chance opportunity and scored, and then we had an uncharacteristically bad turnover that turned into a dunk,' Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. 'We called timeout. Came out, I think Myles [Turner] got fouled. Got it back to five. But then, I don't remember — I just looked at part of that sequence to see what happened. Didn't make enough plays, pretty clearly.' Advertisement 'Yeah,' Siakam said. 'Just that fast, it kind of, like, went away from us.' That's how fast it can happen against the Thunder, who refused to let Game 5 turn into a repeat of Game 1. They battled back from the brink, answering Indiana's 11-3 run with a 10-4 jolt of their own to push the lead back to eight. And then Oklahoma City's season-long 'superpower' — its league-leading, historically larcenous defense — broke Indiana's back, snaring four straight steals leading to eight straight points to double the Thunder advantage, reach escape velocity … and finally allow those 18,203 true believers in white and blue T-shirts to exhale. Five minutes later, the Thunder had put the finishing touches on a 120-109 victory to take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven NBA Finals, and a Pacers team that had prided itself all year on taking care of the basketball knew it had let that golden opportunity slip through its fingers. Advertisement 'We had 23 turnovers for 32 points,' Carlisle said. 'I mean, that's the game. We gotta do a heck of a lot better there.' The four turnovers that effectively ended the game came off the fingertips of starters Haliburton and Nembhard, Indiana's two best guards all season long. They were not, however, the Pacers' best backcourt options in Game 5. As he did in Indiana's Game 3 win, T.J. McConnell completely shifted the energy of the game on Monday night, scoring 13 points on 6-for-8 shooting in the third quarter and assisting on five more to turn a 15-point deficit into a two-possession game heading into the closing seconds of the frame … before Williams, for the third straight game, hit a tough final-possession shot to give Oklahoma City a little more breathing room. Advertisement 'I found a rhythm and my teammates kept finding me, so I've got to give credit to them,' McConnell said after the game. 'Just trying to put some energy in the game, like I always do, and get us jumpstarted.' Putting that energy into the game came at a cost, though — one that Carlisle said he saw almost immediately after keeping McConnell in to start the fourth quarter. 'He was great in the third. Put him back in earlier than normal,' Carlisle said. 'He was very tired. That's why we got him out. And I think there was a play early in the fourth where it looked like fatigue had set in there.' Haliburton checked back in for McConnell, and while he clearly couldn't summon the same zip off the dribble to create his own shot, he was still able to orchestrate the offense effectively enough to set the table for that 11-3 run. Advertisement 'Just trying to keep pace in the game, impact whatever way I can,' said Haliburton, who finished with four points on 0-for-6 shooting, but did add seven rebounds and six assists in his 34 minutes. 'Just trying to get P [Siakam] the ball in the right spots. Try to get the ball to guys in the right spots if I can.' When OKC responded, Carlisle opted to stick with his starting backcourt, even with Haliburton hobbled and Nembhard struggling to command the offense, and even with McConnell having gotten several minutes of rest. Four turnovers later — two each from Nembhard and Haliburton — and the lead's up to 16, with McConnell still on the bench. 'Yeah, it's always a consideration,' Carlisle said when asked if he'd considered turning back to McConnell at any point before the 3:23 mark of the fourth, with the game pretty firmly out of reach. 'But I haven't gone through the entire game and completely analyzed the whole thing.' Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton reacts during the first quarter of Game 5 against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday. () (Matthew Stockman via Getty Images) Carlisle will have two days to go back and analyze every second of Game 5 before the two teams reconvene for Game 6. He and his staff will pore over the film, considering how to help their players protect the ball against a swarming, smothering, suffocating Thunder defense. They'll break down what worked in Monday's second half, when Indiana scored 64 points on 53 possessions, and see what, if any of it, might be replicable come the first half on Thursday, to avoid going down big early and needing to mount such a furious comeback just to have a shot late. Advertisement And while they break down the tape and make their notes, they'll do it praying that Haliburton — who, for what it's worth, wasn't limping as he left the postgame podium like he was after Game 2, though he was moving gingerly — will be able to provide more than he could on Monday night. 'He's not 100%. It's pretty clear,' Carlisle said. 'But I don't think he's gonna miss the next game. You know, we were concerned at halftime, and he insisted on playing. And I thought he made a lot of really good things happen in the second half. But he's not 100%.' Haliburton said he doesn't know if the injury he tried to work through on Monday was related to the 'lower leg thing' that ailed him earlier in the series, but acknowledged that the issue is in 'the same area.' Even though it limited him, though, he said he never seriously considered not getting back on the court. 'I mean, it's the NBA Finals,' he 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.' Advertisement Carlisle said the Pacers would 'evaluate everything with Tyrese and, you know, see how he wakes up tomorrow.' But he also said he understood Haliburton's mindset. 'I mean, all these guys playing in this series, on both sides … I think it's pretty clear now that we're going into the sixth game, and you know, all the attention and the crowd noise in both arenas, everything — this is a lifetime opportunity,' Carlisle said. 'And not many guys are going to sit, even if they're a little banged up. If you're injured, that's a different story.' Which side of that divide Haliburton falls on remains to be seen. 'He's a fighter,' Siakam said. 'He's been our rock all year. He's a big reason why we're here. I don't know exactly what's wrong, but I know he's fighting and he's going to give us everything he's got. We are 100% behind him and we support him.' Advertisement The Pacers had their chance to make the Thunder blink, and they squandered it, losing consecutive games for the first time since March. Now, they find themselves needing to win on Thursday to stay alive, and give themselves one more chance to play here in Oklahoma City — a Game 7 for the NBA championship. Before they can get there, though, they have to find a way to bounce back from two straight disappointing losses and live to fight another day. 'We've had our backs against the wall many different times over the last two years and had to find different ways to win,' Haliburton said. 'The way that this year has gone, nobody said this was going to be sweet. It's kind of poetic that we're here. 'We've got to be ready to go for Game 6. Our backs are against the wall. It's a really tough team. We're going to have to go home and get ready the next couple days. There shouldn't even be a conversation about Game 7 or anything like this. This is the game, and everybody has to be prepared. It starts with me, and we've all got to be better. That's just point-blank, period.'
