Associated Press
Jun 13, 2025, 11:40 PM ET
INDIANAPOLIS -- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 15 of his 35 points successful the 4th quarter, and the Oklahoma City Thunder rallied from a 10-point second-half shortage to bushed the Indiana Pacers 111-104 connected Friday nighttime and necktie the NBA Finals astatine 2 games apiece.
Jalen Williams added 27, Alex Caruso had 20 and Chet Holmgren finished with 14 points and 15 rebounds for the Thunder. They did it the hard mode - with a season-low 3 3-pointers, and nary assists from Gilgeous-Alexander for the archetypal clip each season.
Pascal Siakam scored 20 for Indiana, which got 18 from Tyrese Haliburton and 17 from Obi Toppin.
Game 5 of the bid -- present fundamentally a best-of-three -- is astatine Oklahoma City connected Monday night, with the Thunder present having reclaimed home-court advantage.
And the Thunder fundamentally saved their realistic accidental astatine winning the title. Teams with a 3-1 bid pb successful the NBA Finals person gone connected to triumph the title 37 times successful 38 past chances. The Pacers looked good connected their mode to being the 39th squad with specified an edge, earlier the Thunder recovered their crippled successful the nick of time.
The MVP led the way, too. Gilgeous-Alexander had 9 consecutive points down the agelong arsenic the Thunder took control.
The Pacers came retired flying, scoring 20 points successful the archetypal 4:59 - lone the 2nd clip each play the Thunder gave up truthful galore truthful quickly. They led by arsenic galore arsenic 9 early, but were incapable to propulsion away.
And things got chippy for the archetypal clip successful the series: Toppin was called for a Flagrant 1 connected Caruso midway done the 2nd quarter, past Toppin was the recipient of a Flagrant 1 from Lu Dort conscionable earlier the half. The Pacers closed connected a 15-6 run, taking a 60-57 pb into the break.
Toppin's baseline dunk precocious successful the 3rd enactment Indiana up 86-76, its archetypal double-digit pb of the bid coming precocious successful the 15th 4th of the series. Back came OKC: A 13-3 tally tied the crippled aboriginal successful the 4th astatine 89, the archetypal of a fistful of those down the stretch.
Tied astatine 91. Tied astatine 95. Tied astatine 97.
And, finally, the lead: Gilgeous-Alexander's step-back with 2:23 near enactment the Thunder up 104-103, their archetypal pb of the 2nd half. They kept it the remainder of the way.
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