The NBA Finals between the Thunder and the Pacers is heading back to Oklahoma City with the series tied at two games apiece following fourth quarter heroics from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. As Tim MacMahon of ESPN writes, Gilgeous-Alexander scored 15 of his 35 points in the game’s final four-and-a-half minutes to help the Thunder overcome a two-possession deficit.
“I knew what it would have looked like if we lost tonight,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I didn’t want to go out not swinging. I didn’t want to go out not doing everything I could do in my power, in my control, to try to win the game.”
Gilgeous-Alexander’s 11 points in the final three minutes are the most during that stretch of a Finals game in 50 years, per MacMahon. The Thunder’s defense also held the Pacers to just one point in the final 3:20.
“I relish those moments, love the moments, good or bad,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “When I was a kid shooting at my driveway, I’d count down the clock for those moments. Now I get to live it. It’s a blessing, it’s fun, and I relish it.”
We have more notes from the NBA Finals:
- Game 4 of the NBA Finals felt “eerily reminiscent” of Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals between Oklahoma City and Denver, Tim Bontemps of ESPN writes. The Thunder trailed on the road in that game by multiple possessions before rallying and ultimately winning that series in seven. For the first time all series, it felt like the Pacers tired in the fourth quarter, missing all eight of their three-point attempts in the period after making 39% in the first three quarters.
- Gilgeous-Alexander’s chill demeanor is shining through in these playoffs, and his legendary Game 4 performance showed no moment is too big for him, Sam Amick of The Athletic writes. “You wouldn’t know if it was a preseason game or it’s Game 4 of the NBA Finals down 2-1 with him,” teammate Alex Caruso said. “That’s why we have such a good mentality as a group. That’s why we are able to find success in adversity. No matter what’s going on, you look at him and he’s the same. Underneath that stoic personality or (his) look on the court is a deep, deep-rooted competitiveness. That is sprinkled throughout the whole team. …He never blinks, never shies away from the moment.“
- The Pacers let little things slip in their Game 4 loss, The Athletic’s Shakeia Taylor writes. Indiana missed eight free throws, including some late attempts from Bennedict Mathurin, while the team committed more fouls, lost the offensive rebound battle, turned the ball over more, and allowed far more second chance points. Still, the Pacers are confident they’re still in a good spot as the series heads back to OKC. “We’ve won some games on the road before, so I think we just gotta go out there with our confidence,” Pascal Siakam said. “We’ll watch [film on] what we did wrong and try to get better at those things. We just gotta go out there and do things that we’ve done in the past.“
Off topic
Internets rumors say Durant has traded to Wolves for
Gobert
Donte
Dilingham
Wait to be announced
IMO
Speculation
Very off topic.
The Internet also says the earth is flat…And a whole bunch of other things that if I mentioned here would have me banned for life.
OKC must ride the momentum of the win. They shot the 3 terribly and SGA had no assist. Caruso was the only bench scorer, Kenrich probably gets more min. Coach Dags realized he got too cute with line up and stuck with double bigs more.
The massive ref help in the 4th Q happened.
Tough to watch Hartenstein and Holmgren’s blatant moving screens getting SGA open shots, SGA get 10 free throws and most of the contact on the Pacers ignored.
The NBA is SO predictable.
Great game and great series. Anyone who doesn’t enjoy this or thinks the market size matters is simply not a fan of basketball.
Has anyone figured out why Sillivan types in riddlespeak?
I don’t think anyone has, but I figure it’s one of two things.
It’s either a language barrier even after eight years of this stuff, or as most say it’s a BOT of some kind, which I definitely don’t understand the workings of.
I think it is a language barrier. Bots can be pretty coherent even if they are spinning a fantastic tale.
Maybe it’s a poor attempt at a Haiku.
Big time performance by the MVP. A game where he didn’t get to live at the foul line and with his teams season on the line made all the difference in the 4th quarter.
So 10-10 ftas (of the Thunder’s 38) didn’t happen?
Did you even actually watch the game? He made 6 of those in the final 44 seconds with the thunder up and icing the game. So for 47 minutes he shot 4. I swear half of you people don’t even watch the games or do any research before you critique other peoples posts you just looked at the box score and throw crap at the wall hoping it sticks.
Exactly this. SGA was shot making in the clutch for that win. Too many people pick from one of a few prepackaged narratives/opinions and don’t watch games anymore. Just take stuff talking heads say and run with it.
Unfortunately Hero of gm 3 mathurin singlehandedly blew gm 4. Missed 3 ft & committed 2 fouls in final 30sec
Brutal
I don’t get why they went away from Obi? He was COOKING them in the third? Also I really didn’t like they going after 3’s with the first 3 possessions in the start of the 4th Quarter. Up 9, you had a chance to push it to double digits and didnt have a killer instinct. That’s where they blew the game. Up 9 and didnt push it to 12-15 first few minutes, and settling for 3’s instead of ball movement and spacing.