By Angel Rivera 
Game 5 was nothing short of another magnificent game in these NBA Finals, with the Thunder
taking this one 120-109 against the Pacers. Jalen Williams put up a miraculous 40 points to lead
all scorers. His batman, his dynamic duo Shai Gilgeous-Alexander assisted with 31 points and
10 assists. SGA now has the most 30 point, 5 assist games for a playoff run in playoff history!
He surpassed the two greatest players ever in Michael Jordan and Lebron James, who both had
11 total for a playoff run. You just can’t deny the greatness of SGA, and the empire that’s
starting to form in OKC. As for Indiana, the starters came up small when it mattered.
Ramping up into the first half, you expected this game to start fast paced just like the other 4
games. Indiana struggled with turnovers to start which became a trend throughout the entire
game, they ended the game with 22 of them. This sparked 32 points for OKC off these
turnovers which is unnatural for Indiana. With all the turnovers that Indiana had, it sort of gave
you Game 1 flashbacks when they committed 23 turnovers. Even with all the turnovers and
Tyrese Haliburton fighting an injury, this was still a winnable game for Indiana. T.J. McConnell
was the biggest hope for Indiana in this game. He had 13 of his 18 points in the 3rd, all within 5
minutes. Just when OKC was punching at Indiana, McConnell gave Indiana a chance to stay in
this game.
That would leave me to think, McConnell would stay in the game right? Absolutely not, he sat
most of the 4th and it didn’t make sense. Although Haliburton is your main offensive engine, he
was putting no pressure on OKC’s offense throughout the course of the game and had plenty of
turnovers. You needed Andrew Nembhard out on the floor, of course for defense, but I would’ve
liked to at least have seen Halliburton and McConnell on the floor together before it was too
late. You weren’t getting much offense out of Benedict Mathurin either as he struggled, so you
needed someone other than Pasc Siakam to score for you and with Aaron Nesmith hitting
shots, if McConnell was out there to attack and go downhill, it would’ve left shooters open for
opportunities to score.
The Pacers would bring the game within two close to the eight minute mark, 95-93, and you
thought this game would bring you flashbacks of game one and Indiana would run away with it
late..
But OKC went on another run and they would end up taking this game out of Indiana‘s hands. I
have to give credit where it’s due, Chet Holmgren has been amazing defensively for this series
and so has Alex Caruso. Those have been the two main keys of their defense and whenever
they’re on the floor it just seems like it allows more opportunities for OKC to score in transition
off of missed shots or turnovers. Cason Wallace, Lou Dort, and Aaron Wiggins would hit some
threes as they have been pretty thorough within the series.
Overall, it just felt like OKC‘s game to win, they played the better brand of basketball and they
kept control of the ball with only 11 turnovers. This game needed to be won, as OKC didn’t want
to go back to Indiana facing elimination. Now even though they are up 3-2 in the series, don’t
count out Indiana in Game 6, as this is still a very winnable series.
How healthy will Haliburton be going into Game 6 will be the main question, but this is still a
very winnable series as I mentioned due to the fact that this isn’t just a one-man show type of
team. I understand Haliburton is the offensive engine of this team, but there are other people
who play off of desperation and seem to thrive in moments. I’m expecting Halliburton to be used
more as a decoy with his injury, I can’t really see him being too aggressive but then again it just
depends on how healthy he could be. It’s going to take pretty much everybody in Indiana to rally
to at least force this into a Game 7 and give more time for Haliburton to recover.
All I can say, if you doubted either team to this point, questioned their maturity or attitude, you
have been proven wrong. Both teams have left it all on the floor giving us one of the more
exciting Finals we have seen in some time. Indiana is looking to win on their home floor, expect
a sense of determination and fight as OKC will be in a dogfight to close this out.
Joel Perez