Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder wanted an announcement efficiency in Recreation 2 of the NBA Finals. After Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers pulled off considered one of their signature comebacks in Recreation 1, it felt like a close to necessity for the Thunder to win on Sunday and stop that loss from snowballing right into a professional gap.
Kings of the Bounceback
Should you’ve been following the Thunder this season, you most likely felt extra comfy than most relating to their means to win such a essential bounceback recreation. 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 median of 17 factors per recreation.
“We simply used the chance to get higher,” Gilgeous-Alexander mentioned. “We have finished a very good job of that each one 12 months, and final recreation was no totally different. Tonight is identical factor. We did some issues good tonight, we did some issues dangerous, and we have to have the ability to get higher and prepare for recreation three.
There’s Ranges To This
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 34 factors on 11-of-21 capturing, allotting eight assists and grabbing 4 steals. He outperformed his famous person counterpart Tyrese Haliburton for the second consecutive recreation, as Haliburton was once more held under 20 factors in what was a disappointing 17-point, six-assist recreation of hide-and-seek from the Recreation 1 hero. Haliburton has scored simply 34 factors in complete through the sequence, whereas Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging 36 factors per recreation.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the @okcthunder has scored 72 factors by the primary two video games of the #NBAFinals offered 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 professional seat on the desk on the subject of famous person conversations, however SGA’s constant sonning of him by the primary two video games (except for the devil-magic Recreation 1 winner) has confirmed that there are nonetheless tiers to those talks. Yeah, meaning Haliburton nonetheless has some steps on the ladder to succeed in the SGAs and Jokics of the league.
“They’re kinda exhibiting like a smooth blitz, generally a full blitz,” Haliburton mentioned. “They’re giving me totally different seems to be. I’ve obtained to do a greater job of simply determining the place I may be higher. In that recreation within the second half, while you’re down by a lot, you may select to simply take the sport for what it’s and be finished, or you may attempt to proceed to be taught various things.
“I feel by the course of the sequence and already by these first two video games, I am studying the place my spots are, the place I may be higher. We’ll take the nice and the dangerous, watch movie, and see we you may enhance going into the following recreation.”
Stat Sheet
Along with 20 factors from key position participant Alex Caruso, the Thunder additionally obtained a great addition from Aaron Wiggins within the type of 18 factors on 6-of-11 capturing (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 fashionable NBA document generally. Contemplating the truth that you may barely discover correct scoring totals from varied 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.
On account of the sport’s blowout nature, the Pacers had 15 of their gamers obtain motion within the recreation. Benedict Mathurin and TJ McConnell mixed for 25 factors, whereas the whole lot of the Pacers’ beginning lineup was held under 20 factors for the second recreation in a row. Sure, meaning the Pacers are but to supply a 20-point scorer on this 12 months’s NBA Finals. That’s not a sustainable sample for a sequence towards any group, a lot much less a 68-win group that’s recognized to have a suffocating defensive presence that has clearly already snuffed Indiana out.
The Pacers are but to have a 20-point scorer by the primary two video games of the NBA Finals. Looks like they’ll be going the way in which of the ‘01 76ers versus the ‘04 Pistons by way of heavy underdogs who pulled off Recreation 1 upsets.
— Will Despart (@WillDespart) June 9, 2025
The Prognosis
Given the way in which Recreation 2 went, it’s getting onerous to image this sequence getting previous the five-game mark. As wonderful as Indiana’s Recreation 1 comeback was, the truth is that it trailed for all however 0.3 seconds in Recreation 1 and solely held just a few transient one-possession leads within the first quarter of Recreation 2.
“Basketball is a recreation 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 group that may keep level-headed and get higher all through the experiences that is going to return out on prime. That is our purpose, get higher by each expertise. We did that final recreation, we have to repeat for Recreation 3.”
We’ll see what occurs with the sequence shifting to Indiana for Recreation 3, however I’ve critical trigger for pause relating to the Pacers’ possibilities in a single recreation of this sequence transferring ahead. Vegas agrees, as Oklahoma Metropolis is now a consensus -525 to win the sequence regardless of dropping Recreation 1.
