Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder wanted an announcement efficiency in Sport 2 of the NBA Finals. After Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers pulled off considered one of their signature comebacks in Sport 1, it felt like a close to necessity for the Thunder to win on Sunday and stop that loss from snowballing right into a legit gap.
Kings of the Bounceback
For those who’ve been following the Thunder this season, you most likely felt extra snug than most relating to their capability to win such a vital bounceback sport. Oklahoma Metropolis is now 17-2 following a loss this season, 6-0 within the playoffs, and it has received these video games by a mean of 17 factors per sport.
“We simply used the chance to get higher,” Gilgeous-Alexander mentioned. “We have finished a extremely good job of that each one yr, and final sport was no totally different. Tonight is similar factor. We did some issues good tonight, we did some issues unhealthy, and we have to have the ability to get higher and prepare for sport three.
There’s Ranges To This
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 34 factors on 11-of-21 taking pictures, allotting eight assists and grabbing 4 steals. He outperformed his famous person counterpart Tyrese Haliburton for the second consecutive sport, as Haliburton was once more held under 20 factors in what was a disappointing 17-point, six-assist sport of hide-and-seek from the Sport 1 hero. Haliburton has scored simply 34 factors in whole throughout the sequence, whereas Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging 36 factors per sport.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the @okcthunder has scored 72 factors via the primary two video games of the #NBAFinals introduced by @YouTubeTV.
That’s the most factors ever by a participant in his first two profession NBA Finals video games.
The earlier excessive was 71 by Allen Iverson (2001). pic.twitter.com/3qHRM0kuck
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) June 9, 2025
Haliburton’s heroics all through the postseason have earned him a legit seat on the desk with regards to famous person conversations, however SGA’s constant sonning of him via the primary two video games (apart from the devil-magic Sport 1 winner) has confirmed that there are nonetheless tiers to those talks. Yeah, which means Haliburton nonetheless has some steps on the ladder to succeed in the SGAs and Jokics of the league.
“They’re kinda displaying like a delicate blitz, typically a full blitz,” Haliburton mentioned. “They’re giving me totally different seems. I’ve obtained to do a greater job of simply determining the place I may be higher. In that sport within the second half, whenever you’re down by a lot, you may select to only take the sport for what it’s and be finished, or you may attempt to proceed to study various things.
“I feel via the course of the sequence and already via these first two video games, I am studying the place my spots are, the place I may be higher. We’ll take the great and the unhealthy, watch movie, and see we you may enhance going into the subsequent sport.”
Stat Sheet
Along with 20 factors from key function participant Alex Caruso, the Thunder additionally obtained a fine addition from Aaron Wiggins within the type of 18 factors on 6-of-11 taking pictures (5-of-8 from 3-point vary). 17 gamers on the Thunder touched the court docket on Sunday, which is presumably a contemporary NBA Finals document or possibly even only a trendy NBA document generally. Contemplating the truth that you may barely discover correct scoring totals from numerous factors within the league’s early historical past, really nailing this truth down would require entry to historic databases that I don’t presently have and even know to exist.
Because of the sport’s blowout nature, the Pacers had 15 of their gamers obtain motion within the sport. Benedict Mathurin and TJ McConnell mixed for 25 factors, whereas the whole thing of the Pacers’ beginning lineup was held under 20 factors for the second sport in a row. Sure, which means the Pacers are but to provide a 20-point scorer on this yr’s NBA Finals. That’s not a sustainable sample for a sequence towards any workforce, a lot much less a 68-win workforce that’s identified to have a suffocating defensive presence that has clearly already snuffed Indiana out.
The Pacers are but to have a 20-point scorer via the primary two video games of the NBA Finals. Looks as if they’ll be going the best way of the ‘01 76ers versus the ‘04 Pistons by way of heavy underdogs who pulled off Sport 1 upsets.
— Will Despart (@WillDespart) June 9, 2025
The Prognosis
Given the best way Sport 2 went, it’s getting arduous to image this sequence getting previous the five-game mark. As superb as Indiana’s Sport 1 comeback was, the truth is that it trailed for all however 0.3 seconds in Sport 1 and solely held just a few transient one-possession leads within the first quarter of Sport 2.
“Basketball is a sport of ups and downs, the season is filled with ups and downs, a sequence is filled with ups and downs,” Gilgeous-Alexander mentioned. “It is the workforce that may keep level-headed and get higher all through the experiences that is going to come back out on high. That is our objective, get higher via each expertise. We did that final sport, we have to repeat for Sport 3.”
We’ll see what occurs with the sequence shifting to Indiana for Sport 3, however I’ve severe trigger for pause relating to the Pacers’ possibilities in a single sport of this sequence transferring ahead. Vegas agrees, as Oklahoma Metropolis is now a consensus -525 to win the sequence regardless of dropping Sport 1.
