The Oklahoma City Thunder (83-21 straight up, 65-35-4 against the spread) took a 3-2 lead in the NBA Finals by capturing a 120-109 win as a nine-point home favorite in Monday’s Game 5 at Paycom Center. The 229 combined points went ‘over’ the 223-point total.
Jalen Williams led the way for OKC, erupting for 40 points, six rebounds, one steal and four assists compared to only one turnover. He buried 14-of-25 field-goal attempts, 3-of-5 treys and 9-of-12 free throws.
NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 31 points, 10 assists, four blocked shots and a pair of steals. Aaron Wiggins drained 4-of-7 launches from 3-point range, scoring 14 points and grabbing five rebounds. Cason Wallace was also hot from downtown, hitting 3-of-4 treys in an 11-point effort. Chet Holmgren finished with nine points, 11 rebounds and three blocks.
OKC made 14-of-32 attempts from 3-point territory (44%) and 26-of-32 (81%) from the charity stripe.
“It wasn’t a perfect game at all and there’s a lot of room for growth,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “But our improvement from Game 4 to Game 5 was critical.”
Indiana (64-39 SU, 49-53-1 ATS) had a 50-45 rebounding advantage, but the Pacers committed 22 turnovers compared to only 11 for the Thunder. OKC turned those 22 turnovers into 32 points.
Indiana trailed by 18 points late in the second quarter before cutting the deficit to 14 at halftime.
With Tyrese Haliburton struggling with a calf injury, Pascal Siakam and T.J. McConnell did most of the heavy lifting offensively for Indiana. McConnell hit three consecutive buckets in a 63-second stretch during the third quarter to trim OKC’s lead from 12 down to seven.
Siakam scored 12 points in the first 3.5 minutes of the fourth quarter and his 3-pointer with 8:30 remaining cut OKC’s lead to 95-93. However, Williams answered with a trey and Wallace scored a bucket to push the lead back up to seven.
Starting with the Williams’ 3-ball, OKC made nine shots in a row after Indiana pulled within two. A driving layup by Gilgeous-Alexander gave the Thunder a 120-105 advantage and hooked up ‘over’ backers with 2:54 left.
The spread cover remained in doubt, though, especially after Johnny Furphy’s bucket made it 120-109 with him heading to the free-throw line after he was fouled by SGA. But Furphy missed the free throw with 54.0 seconds remaining.
Indiana had a chance for the backdoor cover after rebounding an SGA miss with 28.1 ticks left, but Bennedict Mathurin lost control of the ball off the dribble. Alex Caruso stole it and dribbled out the clock to secure the cover for OKC supporters.
Siakam produced 28 points, six rebounds, five assists, three steal and two blocked shots. He made 9-of-15 FGAs, 3-of-6 treys and 7-of-8 free throws. McConnell scored 12 of his 18 points in the final five minutes of the third quarter, and he also contributed four rebounds, four assists and two steals in 22 minutes of playing time.
Aaron Nesmith drained 4-of-5 attempts from long distance, finishing with 14 points, six rebounds and one steal. Myles Turner and Obi Toppin were also in double figures with 13 and 12 points, respectively. Mathurin had seven points and eight rebounds, but he made just 2-of-11 FGAs.
Haliburton was limited to a postseason career-low four points on 0-of-6 shooting from the field. He had seven rebounds and six assists.
“He’s not 100%,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “It’s pretty clear.”
Haliburton left the game and went to the locker room late in the first quarter. He came out with his calf wrapped before returning to the game in the second quarter.
“It’s the Finals,” Haliburton said. “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.”
“This is a lifetime opportunity,” Carlisle added. “Not many guys are going to sit, even if they are a little banged up. If you’re injured, that’s a different story. But we’ll evaluate everything with Tyrese and see how he wakes up tomorrow.”
Indiana will be facing elimination for the first time in these playoffs when it returns home for Thursday’s Game 6. As of Tuesday morning, most books had OKC installed as a five-point road favorite with a total of 224.5 points. Circa had the Thunder at -4.5, while DraftKings had the total adjusted to 225 points.
Most spots had the Pacers with +170 to +175 money-line odds.
FanDuel has OKC as a -1600 ‘chalk’ for its updated series price, leaving the Pacers as enormous +900 underdogs.
As for the updated odds to win NBA Finals MVP honors, SGA remained the favorite at -550 odds. The next-shortest odds belong to Williams (+700), Siakam (+1300 or 13/1) and Haliburton (33/1).
Thursday’s Game 6 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse will tip at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on ABC.