Hartenstein's passing proving critical, too

New York Times

5 hours ago

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.
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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.
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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.