Game 5: Williams scores 40 points
and Thunder win 120-109 for a 3-2 NBA Finals lead over Pacers
[June 17, 2025]
By TIM REYNOLDS
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Game 5 was starting to look like Game 1 all
over again. Oklahoma City, at home, takes a huge lead. Indiana comes
roaring back in the fourth quarter.
Indiana won that one.
This time, the Thunder crafted a different ending — and a 3-2 lead
in the NBA Finals was their reward.
Jalen Williams scored a career playoff-high 40 points, MVP Shai
Gilgeous-Alexander added 31 and the Thunder moved one win from a
title by beating the Pacers 120-109 on Monday night.
“We're learning,” said Williams, whose previous playoff best was 34.
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.
“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.”
Pascal Siakam had 28 points for Indiana, which 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.
“It kind of went away from us,” Siakam said. “But the fight was
there.”
It was, but now everything favors 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%. And teams with a 3-2 lead in the finals have won 40 times in 49
previous opportunities, or 82%.
But Game 5 was not easy. Far from it.
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Oklahoma City Thunder guard Alex Caruso (9) dive for the loose ball
as Indiana Pacers forward Pascal Siakam (43) pursues during the
second half of Game 5 of the NBA Finals basketball series, Monday,
June 16, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
Down by 18 late in the second quarter, the Pacers —
the comeback kings of these playoffs, with as many wins in this
postseason 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 offense because of a leg issue
that he aggravated in the first quarter.
“He's not 100%,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “It's pretty
clear.”
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 from giving
Oklahoma City its first NBA title.
“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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