WON AWAY

NATHAN J. FISH/THE OKLAHOMAN - Oklahoma City forward Jalen Williams (8) 

dunks in the first quarter of Game 5 in the NBA Finals at Paycom Center on June 16.

J-Dub brings ‘great force' again, inching Thunder closer to first NBA title

Joel Lorenzi

18 Jun 2025 - The Oklahoman USA TODAY NETWORK

There’s a peculiar distance between the often bubbly 24-year-old and what might be the greatest performance of his life. Jalen Williams created it himself.

When did you know Monday would be a good night, asked the voice filming his amble down the back hall of the Paycom Center, perhaps his last for a while after a 120-109 win in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, pushing the Thunder a game away from the title.

“After the game was over,” he said, his eyes flickering in search of an answer that’d efface him.

Way to have your moment, a warm, elder voice told him in passing.

SARAH PHIPPS/THE OKLAHOMAN - Oklahoma City’s Jalen Williams (8) 

celebrates a basket in the first half of Game 5 of the NBA Finals against the 

Indiana Pacers on June 16 at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City.

“Appreciate it,” Williams replied in a low-tone as if a door was held open for him.

His most succinct answer was his 35minute display, a Herculean ask-meanything on the hardwood during which he responded to an offseason’s worth of questions — namely what his value could be on a stage like this. One typically cruel and telling of third-year players, especially with his responsibilities.

Forty points, six rebounds, four assists and four steals. Nuff said. So he’ll seemingly choose to button up beyond that, because the most colossal win and outburst of his career is now expected to be followed by the next biggest win. The one above all.

Oklahoma City is one more win from the cigar. For Williams, any of the other smoke is exactly that.

“The biggest game thing,” Williams said, “I’ve gotten kind of numb to. Every time we play in the Finals, it’s the biggest game of your life.”

He later added: “It’s something more that I’ll, like, look back on later than worry about what kind statement it makes. I think the only statement we have right now is we’re up 3-2 and we have to still go earn another win.”

It’s not that he doesn’t know what he did. He reached for Pacers’ throats with vein-popping, primal roars and rim detonations. He was the engine that swung this series back under the direction of the Thunder’s bug-crushing boot. But he might not care for the details.

Williams played the fewest minutes in a 40-point Finals game ever (35). Kobe Bryant and Giannis Antetokounmpo each played 38. He joined Magic Johnson and Russell Westbrook as the three youngest players to score 40 in a Finals game. He became the first player to do so in their first three seasons since Dwyane Wade in 2006.

That Williams rushed to 40 didn’t speak nearly as loudly as the fashion he did it in. His rhythm changed. Tap dance to Krump. He filtered out the moments where he might’ve previously dribbled endlessly, or flailed near the rim, or chucked an 18-footer over a welltimed contest. He went from sidestep jumpers above the free-throw line to a thousand first-quarter cuts. Finesse to force.

He launched from hell’s cannon. Flames followed his trail. His strides peaked 30 miles above speed limit, worthy of a court date in the great state of Oklahoma. He ran and ran, Forrest Gump’s reincarnation. He was 9 for 16 in the paint, just begging for a SLAM magazine poster.

Somehow, the first quarter was his most flawed. But the backdoor cuts, his movement in orbit around center Isaiah Hartenstein, were the tell that Monday night would be explosive. The Pacers were left to readjust their jaw, yet to be blitzed thus far this series the way OKC did Monday night.

The Thunder led by as much as 18 before Indiana did the Indiana thing and severed the lead. It got as close as two points, 95-93, with 8:30 to play. Then Williams drilled the 25-footer that started an avalanche.

It snowballed through steal after steal, six for the Thunder in the fourth quarter. Enough transition fury to bury T.J. McConnell’s nightmare-inducing 18-point uproar. Enough to guarantee that Tyrese Haliburton, noticeably limping after missing all six of his attempts Monday, never rose to the moment.

Game 5 lived a life unlike the remainder of the series. Oklahoma City, weighed down thus far by its lack of ball movement and scarcity of 3-point attempts, shot and made more 3s than the ever-chucking Pacers — it was 14 of 32 from deep.

Its typical turnover-thriving identity fled for the better part of four games. Monday’s game was closer to regularseason dominance, with OKC forcing 22 turnovers and scoring a series-high 32 points off them.

Williams — handsy, overbearing, precise — was at the center of that.

“Great force,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “I mean, that’s the word.”

There isn’t one Daigneault has tied to Williams more. “J-Dub” and “force” have been interchangeable, for better or worse. Early this season, when questions remained of whether the thirdyear budding star could realize his potential, whether he could be the right hand Shai Gilgeous-Alexander needed to hoist the Larry O’Brien, Williams struggled to impose his will.

His rim numbers were abysmal. Free throws were a foreign concept. He quarreled with officials. He pleaded for ways to transcend the midseason plateau that seemingly threatened OKC’s title hopes. He squeezed out basketball blackheads for the sake of being camera-ready in these Finals.

“There’s times earlier in the season where he had some ugly plays, ugly games, trying to establish the type (of ) force you saw tonight,” Daigneault said Monday. “I complimented him back then. But he’s trying to make an All-Star team. He’s an All-NBA player this season. He’s got an individual career that he’s ambitious (about).”

In the 10 games since the Thunder tipped off the West Finals versus Minnesota, Williams has averaged 24 points, 6.1 rebounds and 4.3 assists, all while shooting 40% from 3 on 4.5 attempts. Monday’s outburst was the only one capable of sweeping Gilgeous-Alexander’s 31-point, 10-assist outing under the rug.

Eruptive drives, and-ones that send chills through the Paycom congregation. Sound familiar? Why not? Westbrook’s spirit, at the very least, lives in the fire Williams projects in his screams. That piercing look their victims receive when the at-rim damage is done.

But living up to the last regime is not where Williams exhales. He’d like to be immortalized for doing what his predecessors never could, and for what his detractors questioned he was capable of — not simply being a game away from it.

“I know he’s not satisfied by this performance,” Gilgeous-Alexander said of Williams. “Yeah, he works hard. He played well tonight because of it. It’s no fluke.”

ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt sat across from Williams at midcourt postgame. He peeled back at Williams’ exhaustion. Williams circled a later date when asked about Monday, his moment. Now wasn’t the time to revel.

“Having fun?” Van Pelt quipped. “I am,” Williams shot back, an awkward smile following.

“All business,” Van Pelt determined. Maybe under champagne showers, and only then, will Williams crack that boyish smile at the player he’s become in these playoffs. He’s willing to wait at least one more game.

***

NATHAN J. FISH/THE OKLAHOMAN - Indiana forward Aaron Nesmith, center, falls to 

the court holding the ball in the second quarter during Game 5 at Paycom Center on June 16.

How is Thunder just one win from championship? It 'always starts defensively'

Jenni Carlson Columnist 

The Oklahoman USA TODAY NETWORK

A Lingering near midcourt as the final seconds melted off the clock, Alex Caruso extended an index finger. One.

That’s all that stands between the Thunder and an NBA championship.

Let that sink in. Roll it around in your head. Consider what might happen Thursday night in Indiana. Oklahoma City needs just one more victory in these NBA Finals after a breath-taking, nail-biting victory on Monday night. Thunder 120, Pacers 109. Fittingly, Oklahoma City is on the verge of a championship for the same reason it won so many games and set so many records during this glorious season.

“We were very disruptive defensively,” Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Kind of had them on their heels. Was pressuring.

“Yeah, it always starts defensively for us.”

On Monday, that’s how the Thunder ended the Pacers, too. Yes, Jalen Williams scoring 40 points was magnificent and SGA going for 30-plus points again was critical and four Thunders each hitting three-plus shots from behind the arc was decisive.

But on a night Oklahoma City threw punch after punch and withstood counterpunch after counterpunch, it put away Indiana with a defensive flurry midway through the fourth.

“They’re a team that won’t give up,” Thunder defensive doberman Lu Dort said. “We had to kind of find some more energy towards the end just to close out the game.”

Find it, they did.

Find it, they had to. Because every time the Thunder looked ready to slam the door, the Pacers stuck out a knee or an elbow or a shoulder and blocked the way.

A double-digit lead through much of the first half got trimmed to single digits throughout much of the third quarter. Then with just under 7 minutes remaining in the fourth, a pair of Tyrese Haliburton free throws cut the Thunder lead to two possessions, 103-97. Haliburton hadn’t hit a shot from the floor all night — and he wouldn’t; more on that in a minute — but it felt like the Pacers might find a way to win without him.

But that was when the Thunder decided it was done taking punches. It was going for the knockout. On each of the Pacers’ next four possessions, the Thunder forced turnovers.

Four possessions. Four steals. No shots.

And what’s more, the Thunder turned all of them into points.

Gilgeous-Alexander snagged a slightly wayward Aaron Nembhard pass, drove the length of the floor and took contact from Haliburton, hitting the bucket and converting the ensuing free throw.

Then Gilgeous-Alexander speared another bad pass, this time from Haliburton. The Thunder didn’t convert that steal into points right away, but eventually, Williams drove the lane and made a basket high off the glass.

That forced a Pacers timeout — but it didn’t stop the Thunder’s defensive flurry.

Out of the timeout, Nembhard got lazy again on a pass in the backcourt to Pascal Siakam, and Caruso pounced. He poked at the ball, chased after it and dove on the floor for it. He snagged it and somehow got it to Williams.

He drew another foul and went to the line.

With Paycom Center roaring, the Thunder had one more defensive stand up its sleeve. This one came from Dort, who went chest-to-chest with Haliburton. Every jab was matched. Every spin was countered. When Haliburton finally decided to let someone else have a go, Dort swiped at the ball.

Steal.

A few seconds later, Gilgeous-Alexander got back to the free-throw line, and like that, the Thunder’s six-point lead had ballooned to 16 points.

“We were just kind of on the back foot for a stretch,” Caruso said. “And I think we talked about as a team, ‘Let’s go out here and attack and run through the finish line.’ That was the biggest thing for us.

“Whenever we stay in an attack and an aggressive mindset, we’re a really good team on both ends, and the catalyst for that is usually defense.”

That stretch was indicative of the Thunder’s defensive dominance. Steals: 15.

Turnovers forced: 23.

Points off turnovers: 32.

And then, there was the handcuffing of Haliburton. He didn’t hit a basket. Zero. Zip. Nada.

Now, he is obviously hobbled. Pacers coach Rick Carlisle even said after the game that there was a halftime discussion about whether Haliburton should play the second half, and Haliburton copped to it being a lower leg injury, the same one that had him hobbling after Game 2.

But he was out there, and the Thunder took no chances. It held him to 0of-6 shooting and only four points as all of his scoring came at the free-throw line.

It was the first time in his career that he failed to make a field goal in a playoff game.

“The Haliburton thing is probably more Lu,” Caruso said. “It’s a little team effort, but Lu does the main job on him and just being physical and blowing stuff up and really staying on his tendencies.”

All that tiled up to a defensive performance that Thunder coach Mark Daigneault labeled “really good” and a critical improvement from Game 4. Still, he had plenty of notes. “I thought our conversion off of our defense was hit or miss,” he said. “We had some really good moments. We had some moments that I wish we could have back.

“The second-chance points were a major problem. (Indiana 21, Oklahoma City 17.) They did a great job of crashing to the glass. They beat us in the paint tonight. (Pacers 48, Thunder 42.) It wasn’t a perfect game at all. “There’s a lot of room for growth.” Growth going into Game 6. Growth going back to Indy. Growth with a chance to win a title.

Everyone in the Thunder locker room knows the situation, but no one seemed satisfied, even after a game won by defense. Even the guy who held up one index finger at the end of the game was talking about another number afterward.

“You gotta get to four,” Caruso said. “You don’t get to be champions until you get the fourth one.”

Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at jcarlson@oklahoman.com. 

Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at @jennicarlsonok.bsky.social and twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok, and support her work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.

***

SARAH PHIPPS/THE OKLAHOMAN

Fans celebrate after Oklahoma City’s Cason Wallace (22) dunks the ball in the second half of Game 5 of the NBA Finals against the Indiana Pacers on June 16 at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City.

Thunder supporting cast will do 'whatever it takes'

Justin Martinez 

The Oklahoman - USA TODAY NETWORK

Only two players spoke together during the OKC Thunder’s postgame press conference Monday.

It wasn’t Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the league’s Most Valuable Player. It wasn’t Chet Holmgren, a larger-thanlife 7-footer. And it certainly wasn’t Jalen Williams, who’d just scored 40 points to lead his team to a 120-109 win over the Indiana Pacers in Game 5 of the NBA Finals.

It was Cason Wallace and Aaron Wiggins, who happily took turns answering questions with the same synchronicity they showcase on the court.

Sharing the spotlight is never an issue. It’s what has allowed OKC to receive huge performances from a rotation of role players all season, and Game 5 was no different. Wallace and Wiggins scored a combined 25 points off the bench to help the Thunder claim a 3-2 series lead.

“It’s awesome,” Wiggins said when asked about playing for OKC. “Just a fun experience every night . ... One through 18, every single guy enjoys being a part of this group.”

OKC’s star trio has naturally received a bulk of the recognition for this Finals run.

Much like the diamond chains he wears in nearly every postgame interview, Gilgeous-Alexander has been molded by pressure these playoffs. He has scored the most points ever by a point guard in a single postseason (638).

Williams has also shined on the biggest stage of his young career. The AllNBA forward just scored 40 points in a Finals game, making him the first player to do so within his first three seasons since Dwyane Wade in 2006.

Even Holmgren has reached new heights — which is saying something — with his two-way tormenting of the Pacers. He has recorded a plus-minus of plus-7 this series, which ranks first among all players on both teams.

OKC’s current Big Three has drawn plenty of comparisons to the famed former trio of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden. But head coach Mark Daigneault isn’t focused solely on the success of his stars.

“We don’t look at it like that in terms of second guy, first guy, third guy, anything like that,” Daigneault said. “We’re just trying to help every guy grow and improve and tackle the next thing in front of them . ... When you do that, and when the guys commit to that, they improve.”

The results speak for themselves. OKC has done more than build a Big Three. It has built a big-time supporting cast of contributors, each with their own success story.

Lu Dort went from going undrafted in 2019 to earning an All-Defensive first team selection this season. Wiggins went from a two-way player in 2021 to a source of buckets off the bench.

Isaiah Joe also went from getting waived by the Philadelphia 76ers in 2022 to one of OKC’s top sharpshooters. And Jaylin Williams went from a second-round pick in 2022 to a beloved backup big man.

“I think it’s been good,” Wiggins said of OKC’s culture. “It allows everybody to have that certain sense of trust from (Daigneault) and our coaching staff. He allows guys to go out there and play free. If you get going, it opens the game up for you as an individual and for our team. His trust and his confidence in the guys is huge for us.”

Wallace and Wiggins were the ones who got going for OKC on Monday.

The Thunder only made three 3pointers as a team in Game 4, but Wiggins surpassed that total on his own. He went 4 for 7 from deep (57.1%) to finish with 14 points in 22 minutes.

Wallace also racked up 11 points and four steals in 17 minutes. The sophomore guard came off the bench after starting the first three games of the series, but that change didn’t alter his approach.

“(Daigneault) is going to put us in the best position to win games,” Wallace said. “I can’t be selfish. If it’s a better look or option for us, let’s go with that. My job is to go out there and play as hard as I can every time I’m on the court (and) cheer on my teammates. I’m going to just keep doing that.”

Game 5 belonged to Wallace and Wiggins. But Game 6, which is set for 7:30 p.m. CT Thursday in Indianapolis, could belong to another member of OKC’s supporting cast.

It could be Alex Caruso, a self-proclaimed “Robin” who’s happy to throw on a superhero cape when needed. Or it could be Kenrich Williams, whose superpower is his “invisible work” as a veteran leader.

OKC isn’t picky. Its players are more than happy to share the success, or even the podium.

“That’s the culture of our whole team,” Jalen Williams said. “Everybody is ready to do whatever it takes to win . ... Everybody is really selfless and is willing to plug away at something for the better of the team. It kind of trickles down from everybody.”