Williams scores 40, Thunder grab 3-2 lead in Finals with 120-109 win over Pacers

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Jalen Williams scored a career playoff-high 40 points, MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of Hamilton, Ont., added 31 and the Oklahoma City Thunder moved one win from a title by beating the Indiana Pacers 120-109 in Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Monday night.

It was the 10th — and by far, the biggest — time the Thunder stars combined for more than 70 points in a game. Williams was 14 of 24 from the field, and Gilgeous-Alexander added 10 assists.

Former Toronto Raptor Pascal Siakam had 28 points for Indiana, which now trails the series 3-2 and will host Game 6 on Thursday night. TJ McConnell added 18 for the Pacers, who whittled an 18-point deficit down to two in the fourth — then watched the Thunder pull away again, and for good.

“That’s a really good team over there,” Williams said. “You just don’t trip into the finals.”

True. But now, everything favours the Thunder.

Teams that win Game 5 of an NBA Finals that was tied at 2-2 have gone on to win the series 23 times in 31 previous opportunities, or 74 per cent. And teams with a 3-2 lead in the finals have won 40 times in 49 previous opportunities, or 82 per cent.

But Game 5 was not easy. Far from it.

Down by 18 late in the second quarter, the Pacers — the comeback kings of these playoffs, with as many wins in this post-season from 15 points down or more (five) than the rest of the league has combined, including in Game 1 of this series — did what they do, chipping away. And they did it with Tyrese Haliburton reduced to basically playing decoy on offence because of a leg issue that he aggravated in the first quarter.

Led by McConnell, who scored 13 points in just under seven minutes of the third, the Pacers got within five late in that quarter.

Then, Siakam went to work — a pair of free throws with 9:19 left got Indiana within four, then a 3-pointer about a minute later made it 95-93. In the play-by-play era of the NBA, starting with the 1997 playoffs, teams with leads of 15 points or more in the finals were 80-9.

Make that 81-9 now, and the Thunder are one win away.

“That was honestly the same exact game as Game 1,” Williams said. “Learning through these finals, that’s what makes a team good.”

One more win, and his team will be certified as great.

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