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The Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of Oklahoma City Thunder learned a lesson to open the finals of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
“You can’t just punch,” Gilgeous-Alexander said after match 2 of the NBA final against the Pacers Indiana visiting Sunday evening. “You have to punch all nightfall.”
Gilgeous-Alexander and the rest of the Thunder launched a lot of helps, helping their team at a 123-107 victory in the 1-1 series in match 3 of Wednesday in Indianapolis.
It was a start of match 1 last Thursday, when the Thunder led by 15 in the fourth quarter before the return of the Indiana to win the 111-110 match on a basket in the last second.
Gilgeous-Aalexander paved the way on Sunday for Oklahoma City, marking 34 with eight assists, five rebounds and four interceptions, and went 11 out of 12 on free throws.
There were many areas of improvement in match 1 for Thunder coach Mark Daignault, to emphasize after the victory.
Oklahoma City was more successful by transforming Indiana’s turnover into points at the other end, obtained a better production of Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams, has almost double the assists after having published a season of season 13 in match 1 and obtained an offensive spark of the bench of Alex Caruso and Aaron Wiggins.
Daigneault said that none of these was the difference, but that everything met for a much better result for his team.
“I think we were a little better in many areas,” said Daignault.
The biggest section of the match occurred in the second quarter, when the Thunder snatched a 19-2 race fed by its defense and the Gilgeous-Alexander finishes at the other end.
At this point, the defense of Oklahoma City had not forced many reversals, and that had not benefited from the few he had caused.
But during this big race, Gilgeous -Alexander scored seven of the last nine points of Oklahoma City – all of Pacers reversals.
Indiana quickly responded with a sequence of 10-0 to make 52-39, but never approached this 13-point deficit.
The Thunder has ahead of the Pacers 26-12 in the painting in the first half and, for the series, has now led 88-68 in this category.
“They are the best team in the league to keep the ball outside the ball,” said Pacers coach Rick Carlisle. “It’s a difficult task.”
In match 1, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren combined to shoot only 8 on 28 from the ground, Holmgren only making 2 for 9 with six points.
Holmgren seemed much more installed at the start of match 2, hitting five consecutive shots after missing his first in the match.
Although Williams was not too effective, marking 19 out of 5 points of the 14 shots, he went 8 for 9 on the free throw line and added five assists.
Holmgren finished with 15 points, while Caruso added 20 and Wiggins 18 on the bench.
Tyrese Haliburton, the star of match 1 after hitting the winning shot in the last second, led the pacers with 17 points, although 12 of them came in the last quarter with the match fairly well in hand for Oklahoma City.
During the first two games in the series, Haliburton is a combined 3 for 9 with nine points before half-time.
“I have to understand how to be better at the start of the games,” said Haliburton. “Bravo to them; they are a large defensive team.”
A large part of the defensive success of the Thunder against Haliburton was thanks to Luguentz Dort. He spent a lot of time to keep Haliburton but was on the other side of the ground for the winner of the match 1 of Haliburton.
Dort finished with only three points, although Caruso gave him a lot of credit for the victory.
“He knows the role he must play so that we win the series and pick up this trophy at the end,” said Caruso.
Myles Turner added 16 for Indiana, while Pascal Siakam scored 15 points on the 3 out of 11 shot.
