SGA is doing Kobe things. And the Thunder are one win away in the NBA Finals

Toronto Star

6 hours ago

It is the time when sporting legacies are cemented, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is making his.
The 26-year-old from Hamilton is one win away from completing the greatest basketball season ever posted by a Canadian after leading the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 120-109 win over the Indiana Pacers in Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Monday night.
Gilgeous-Alexander, with all facets of his game firing on all cylinders, had 31 points, 10 assists and four blocked shots as the Thunder took a 3-2 lead in the series that resumes Thursday night.
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Already the league's regular-season most valuable player, leading regular-season scorer and the MVP of the Western Conference championship series, Gilgeous-Alexander piloted a devastating Thunder performance at home.
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It was his fourth game with 30 or more points in the five games so far, his first double-figure assist game, and the blocked shots are a career playoff high.
It was also his 15th 30-point game of the playoffs, the most in a single post-season since Kobe Bryant did it with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2009.
And with teammate Jalen Williams exploding for 40 points, the Thunder moved to within a win of the franchise's first NBA championship since it relocated from Seattle in 2008.
'Great force. I mean, that's the word,' Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said of Williams. 'We've used that word with him in his development. When he's at his best, he's playing with that type of force.
'That was an unbelievable performance by him, just throughout the whole game. He really was on the gas the entire night. Applied a ton of pressure. Thought he made a lot of the right plays.'
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The Pacers did what they regularly do: grinding their way back into the game after facing a big deficit and giving themselves a chance.
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Trailing by as many as 18 points in the first half and with their best player having his worst game of the season, Indiana made it a two-point game about halfway through the fourth quarter. But Williams got going again, the Thunder defence clamped down and they built the lead back to 14 with about five minutes left.
Oklahoma City forced four consecutive turnovers in about a three-span minute to re-establish a comfortable lead.
'We had 23 turnovers for 32 points,' Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. 'That's the game. We've got to do a heck of a lot better there.'
The Pacers got nothing from guard Tyrese Haliburton, who was clearly feeling the effects of some kind of injury. He fell awkwardly on his left leg in the first half and finished the night with four points, no field goals and had no discernible impact on the game.
'He's not a hundred per cent, it's pretty clear,' Carlisle said of Haliburton, who missed all six shots he attempted in 34 minutes. '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 per cent. There's a lot of guys in the series that aren't.'
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And as good as Pascal Siakam is, he wasn't good enough to carry Indiana on his own. Siakam did have 28 points to lead Indiana, but with the smothering Thunder defence set up to stop him alone, he had no chance to take over.
But Siakam also had six turnovers.
'I've got to be better, especially the first quarter, taking care of ball,' Siakam said. 'I think it just kind of sets a trend a little bit with turnovers that we had in the critical parts of the game. I've got to be better with that.'
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Gilgeous-Alexander, on the other hand, had a perfectly healthy running mate in all-star forward Williams.
Williams was 14-for-25 from the field, made three of five three-pointers and added six rebounds and four assists to his career-best playoff night.
The delightful series has unfolded at a leisurely pace that's been perfect for the stakes. Having extra off-days for travel throughout the series extends it — it'll be an 18-day series if it goes to Sunday's Game 7 — but it has also protected the players.
Every game is a physical battle and any extra time to rest keeps them as fresh as possible.
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'You empty the tank in these games. That's what the games require in the playoffs, and the guys do an unbelievable job of that,' Daigneault said before the game.
'But we recover. The Finals are great because you get extra time in between the games. I think that's huge in terms of rest and recovery at this time of the year. I think it's good for the product. I think it's a good thing, and by the time the ball goes up in the air everybody is going to be ready to play and everybody is going to be excited.'
And the games certainly haven't disappointed. Games 1 and 4 were decided in the dying seconds with surprising comebacks and twists; Games 2 and 3 were one-sided each way to illustrate the strengths of the winners.
'The NBA Finals is one of the great stages in all of sports, and … it shouldn't happen quickly and abruptly,' Carlisle said before tipoff. 'It should happen at the right pace and the right tempo, and the space in between games does help player health. You know, that's a very important aspect of it. So you know, this has been a long 10 or 11 days or whatever it is, but it's gone — it's also gone quickly.'