SGA steals Game 4 with 4th quarter explosion

By: Samson Folk | @samfolkk

Harkening back to the cozy confines of their winning basketball, the Thunder started double big. The Pacers forced the change at the outset of the series and the change in the middle. It was a boon (boon, baby??) offensively for the home team, who got out to their best offensive start of the series, and doing so by pulling the Thunder bigs away from their strengths. Siakam hit a corner triple to punish the sag, then got a seal on a small for another bucket. Haliburton banged from the logo, and Nesmith contributed his own triple after that. A Thunder defense that seemed like it could pressure the Pacers to no end prior, suddenly seemed incapable of chasing them around the court. 

20 points in 5 minutes for the Pacers. The first quarter lid was removed from the basket, and with fervor.  Amidst it all, the Thunder called a timeout to collect themselves and assess the early 8-point deficit; they responded with far better ball pressure, and had a much easier time without Siakam’s ball handling on the floor to counter their pressure on Haliburton. Jalen Williams also did a tremendous job of charging downhill to create looks and get to the line. They found the route back in, and closed the gap to even within a couple minutes of game time. 

Siakam subbed back in and changed everything. Not only was his presence as the low man informative as he shaded towards the Thunder’s drives to cut them off; but he was unbelievable guarding at the level and collected steal after steal with perfectly timed jabs at the Thunder dribbles. He collected four steals in no time, and sprinted out in transition to get to the line and create for others. He also scored on a cross match in the halfcourt. It was an unbelievable stretch from the Pacers' star, and a stretch that carried his team through the end of the first quarter with a lead. 35-34, Pacers. 

The start of the second quarter went well enough that Coach Carlisle went with a lineup featuring neither of his stars, and while the stretch was a definite negative for the team in the points department, the hope was that extra rest would be meaningful. Gilgeous-Alexander started to get loose and began to create advantages for his side. The Pacers got a triple from Ben Sheppard to help keep them afloat, but ultimately found it tough to score and found themselves down by one point with about half the quarter to go. Haliburton checked in, and even though he’s been the biggest motivator of the Pacers winning minutes in this series, they had a rough stretch. The ball pressure forced him into a lot of mistakes — including the kind that send the Thunder on huge fast break run outs — and the Pacers defense as a whole struggled to contain the Thunder’s straight line drives. 

Dreadful stretch for the Pacers, and a very resilient one for the Thunder as they went up 6.

The arena got extremely loud for a corner triple from Nesmith that he followed up by drawing a moving screen on Holmgren. Josh, my roady partner and dearest of friend, texted me to say he could hear the arena erupt on these plays from the hotel room. Wow!!!

A terrific stretch of play from the Pacers' two stars helped them strong arm their way into a three point lead at the half. A stretch that included Haliburton’s first free throw of the Finals. In game 4. The Pacers had gotten an insane shift from Siakam who totaled 14 points, 3 assists, and 4 steals at a +14 in 16 minutes of gameplay. His defense had completely shell-shocked the Thunder at times. 60-57, Pacers. 24 minutes to go. 

The first action the Thunder ran for the second half got plucked by Siakam. His fifth steal, and a run out for a foul and free throws. Unbelievable. The Pacers continued to work actions, drive and kick, and grind, grind, grind for their buckets. They were maintaining the lead, even while mired in a 3-17 stretch from downtown. Mind you, the Thunder were 1-12 from downtown on the other side of things. After a couple big rebounds, and a great low man rotation to force a miss from Holmgren, Siakam was on the positive end of some ping-pong passing and banged an above the break triple. Seven point lead, Pacers. 

Unfortunately, we had a repeated instance of: Siakam leaves the floor and the Thunder’s ball pressure blows up the Pacers' offense. Carlisle quickly remedied this by subbing Siakam back in, and the Pacers broke off a 6-0 run on the back of two Toppin triples - one coming off of a short roll read from Siakam, and another from Haliburton dissecting the Thunder offense and locating him in the corner. 

The close to the 3rd quarter belonged to Siakam and Toppin. Not only did they satisfy as rim protectors, but they provided full court pressure, ball pressure up at the level — the Pacers actually managed to force a shot clock violation and 8 second violation on back to back possessions — rebounding, and combined for the playmaking and play finishing the Pacers needed. A tremendous Williams fader helped pull the Thunder within seven before the buzzer sounded. The Pacers were up, and meaningfully, with 12 minutes to go. Winning time. 

Credit to the Thunder, they came out swinging to start the fourth. They helped to funnel the Pacers into less than ideal offensive possessions, forcing misses and turnovers, getting on the glass, and kept plucking away until they were back in a tie game. A 9-2 run. The teams went punch/counterpunch for the next handful of minutes. Haliburton had a couple strong drives. Turner and Nembhard dug in with some offense. On the other side? Williams was special. Even with Nesmith draped all over him, he still managed to shake loose repeatedly. High ball screen, or isolation - it didn’t matter. 

Hard to overstate how impactful Haliburton’s driving game was. The Thunder wanted to load up elsewhere, were hesitant to provide any help, and Haliburton continued to drive some of the best defenders in the NBA for points. Of course, the Thunder have the MVP on their team and man oh man, he had a very timely seven points in three possessions. Took all comers and found a way to score over and over. On top of that, Haliburton and Turner gummed up a handoff that set Dort loose for a breakaway and a free throw. The Thunder had come all the way back to take a two-point lead with two minutes to go. After Haliburton and Nembhard each missed a jumper, 

Nesmith fouled Gilgeous-Alexander to put him at the line where he made both. Four point deficit. 44 seconds to go. 

Mathurin scraped and clawed for a loose ball after a a Turner triple missed — a lot of missed jumpers here, fellas — and he missed both free throws. An unfortunate lack of Siakam down the stretch. Shortly thereafter, Mathurin was called for a foul before the inbounds was made, and sent the Thunder to the line for a freebie. Then, he stole the inbounds pass and went to the line where he split the pair. He then fouled Gilgeous-Alexander away from the ball on the inbounds, and the MVP made his free throw. 

A LOT OF MATHURIN! 

Gilgeous-Alexander made another pair of free throws to close out the game, to arrive at 35 points on the night, and to steal Game 4 away from the Pacers. His shot making vs. theirs was in extremely stark contrast, and was the difference. MVP stuff. 

Back to OKC, all square, for Game 5. 

Have a blessed day.