Now the most scoring team in NBA history, Oklahoma City Thunder is the best team in the final. If they play in two of the next three matches, pacers are cooked.
Even in one night when the shots for Oklahoma City did not fall out of 16 out of 16-MVP Shai Giljas-Alexander bounced back and lived in paint, on the free-thro line and more physical body-blow defense than Indiana, even shut down the series on 2-3.
“I think you have to be ready to answer as a team. Every game is different. You are simply able to answer when your back is against the wall, and here we are now,” Pacers Guard Tierace Heliberton said Friday night. “Obviously this is a disappointing disadvantage, but as a group, I still have great confidence in myself as a group. We are ready to go there and fight for 48 minutes. It’s a challenge, but this group has been flexible throughout the year. I don’t want to go to war with any other group. I really play the game 5.”
Indiana had no response to a four-guards lineup with Alex Caruso, who had excluded the bench counterpart TJ McConel with 20 points in the game 4 and five stolen. Pamens led to play three minutes, only to lose accelerator at the worst time.
Passers coach Rick Carlisle refused the team who arrived in an empty tank in the fourth quarter. But even with a small ball lineup in court, the Thunder looked like a team that wanted it a little more, winning the turnover battle by winning the war, rebounding war and just one assistance in the final 12 minutes (20 in the first three quarters).
Carlisle assessed the postgame, “Inability to come with the rebound, the inability to get the major stop was a part of it, and then we just became very stable. The ball was not getting adequately advanced adequately,” Carlisley assessed the postgame. “We were not creating problems and we were doing a lot against the clock. Things became very difficult.”
Jalen Williams had a warm hand in two matches in Indianapolis and SGA Game 4 was more like herself. Williams said that when the team went down on the line in the entire season when the team went below 103-99 on Friday night.
“There is a lot of time three minutes. I think it was like 3:52 on the clock at that time. A lot of wealth was left,” Williams said. “Our season is a kind on the line. Looks easy and work for everything at the end. Everything didn’t matter to that point. It was really good if it is just about trying to score.”
The question for Indiana is whether it can stop the speed of OKC and re -achieve the edge before it is too late. Game 6 is Thursday night in Indie, and pacers do not want to return home in a winning position.
SGA scored 15 out of the last 16 OKC points on Friday. Head coach Mark Daigneault has estimated further adjustment from pacers, but will have its own counter as it becomes clear that Oklahoma has more than the best sufficient enough.
“We have grown better now. It is actually a good team that really found some solutions against us,” he said. “As we go home, we have to evaluate things at both ends of the floor.”
