If the lesson of these NBA playoffs is the speed with which fortunes can change, then the last example is the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Three days after the Thunder seemed apparently out of offensive, fatigued options and headed towards a 3-1 series deficit in the best NBA finals, they are now just a victory to claim a NBA championship.
Calling the same heroic offensive and a defensive tenacity that saved his season in the last quarter of the game 4 on Friday, the Thunder on Monday opened a two-digit advantage to start game 5 on his local court, then retained the attempt to return Indiana to win 120-109 and lead the 3-2 series.
Oklahoma City can close the NBA finals and win the first franchise championship since it moved in 2008, already in game 6 on Thursday, in Indianapolis.
It is the first time since March that Indiana has lost consecutive games, and also the first time at any time during the postseason that she has followed in a series. They were made by the professional game of the third year wing of Thunder Jalen Williams, who scored 11 of his 40 points in the fourth quarter. Of his 14 baskets, nine were scored at the foot or inside the feet of the edge, his aggression continually hit the holes in an Indiana defense that, only a few days before, had continually frustrated the city of Oklahoma.
Williams and co-star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander also combined to drink 26 free throws between them, 30 attempts from the indiana complete team.
The Pacers, after falling into 16 points at the beginning of the quarter, lowered only two with 8:11 remaining in the regulation, preparing the stage for what seemed another unlikely road return in a postseason full of them. This would have been one of the most impressive because Little had worked in favor of the Pacers all night, with nothing as harmful as the inefficiency of the star guard Tyrese Haliburton, who played through a persistent injury and ended without a field goal, losing the six field goal attempts. Haliburton finished with four points, seven rebounds and six assists.
“It’s not 100%, it’s quite clear,” said the coach of the Pacers, Rick Carlisle. “But I don’t think the next game is going to be lost. We were worried in part time and insisted on playing and I thought that many really good things happened in the second half.”
In the middle of the first quarter, Indiana had already committed six ball losses and followed by 10. It was not the only sinister sign for the Pacers; In the minors of the first quarter, Oklahoma City had already made more triple (four) than in the entire game 4, and Haliburton, according to the reports, playing through the veal from game 2, left the game to return to the costume for treatment.
When he left the tunnel, far from the court, Indiana’s hopes seemed to retire with him. When Haliburton finally returned almost six minutes later, wearing an orthopedic device around the right leg while he was on the bank, Indiana still lowered 10. As the Pacers lost shots on the edge and the free throws, Oklahoma City advanced in up to 18 points late in the first half and 14 in the part -time.
The gap between the teams was the product of many factors, but it was more evident in the comfort levels of their respective All-Star guards, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scoring 13 points before part time, to zero for Haliburton, the first time he failed to score during a first half in the playoffs in 36 career playoff games. He scored his first points with 7 minutes for the third quarter.
Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 31 points, including 10 assists, remarkable since he had gathered zero in game 4, since Oklahoma City made a tactical change to limit his opportunities to start the offensive of his team as a way to keep him cooler for the fourth quarter. It worked: the gilgeous-alxander dot gust at the end of game 4 even the series that returned to Oklahoma City on Monday was produced.
With its variety of two -digit returns in this postseason, Indiana was the last team to be intimidated by a two -digit deficit. And when he had reached nine points in the middle of the third quarter, only two at the beginning of the last quarter, the control of Oklahoma City became dim.
However, in the next two minutes, Indiana committed four losses of the ball and Oklahoma City scored from each one, a sequence that quickly doubled the leadership of Thunder. Indiana finally committed 23 ball losses that Oklahoma City turned into 32 points.
“That is the game,” said Carlisle. “We have to do much better there.”
