Oklahoma City – To reach the NBA final and surprisingly steal its opening match, the Indiana Pacers against all expectations have been better several times and defended harder, in clutch situations. It was a perfect storm.
However, they could not reproduce anything on Sunday in match 2, because Oklahoma City equalized the series to a match each by releasing what was equivalent to a perfect swarm.
And it could be the Thunder’s plan in a championship.
“No individual show,” said Oklahoma City star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, “can win an NBA championship”.
Her victory of 123-107 in the Paycc Center, in which she led by 23 points in the first half and suffocated each attempt to return from Indiana to the fourth quarter, was not only the product of the reception of a more efficient game of Gilgeous-Alexander, the most precious player in the League. After scoring 38 points but needing 30 shots to do so in match 1, he finished with 34 points out of 21 attempts on Sunday.
On this night, Oklahoma City built a two -digit lead for a second consecutive match, and supported it – something that opponents in the playoffs rarely did against Indiana – while showing the full capacity of the deepest list of the NBA.
After scoring four points in match 1, the Chet Holmgren departure center scored 15. Jalen Williams, the star wing, widely held in check in match 1, raised 19 points thanks to an aggressive plan that led nine attempts to launch free. The most revealing was how even Alex Caruso (20 points) and Aaron Wiggins (18) finished with more score than any stimulator. Even when Kenrich Williams, an attacker whose playing time has fluctuated, entered only eight minutes, Oklahoma City outstripped the Indiana at 15. Gilgeous-Alexander did not feel the need to force his shots on Sunday, helping six different teammates.
“They play 48 minutes and you can’t just punch,” said Gilgeous-Alexander. “You will try to throw all the punches all night.”
Defensively, Oklahoma City largely made the star goalkeeper of the Indiana Tyrese Haliburton invisible during the first three quarters, having “many different guys who can keep the ball, fly,” said Haliburton.
Oklahoma City and Indiana reflect the modern NBA, where the rules governing the league wage ceiling have diverted the teams from the last decade model from the signing of two and sometimes three major stars and the assembly of a high -level list with talents, and towards a depth -based model.
Oklahoma City showed in match 2 how effective and aggressive depth can be on both sides of the ball. If Indiana is the author of several improbable returns by wearing opponents, Oklahoma City made the favor. His children – with an average age of 25, this is the second list of the final – turned out to be fast learners. The Thunder is now 12-2 after a defeat this season.
“It would be easy to say that one thing looked better tonight, but it would be an excessive simplification,” said coach Mark Daignault. “I think we were a little better in many different areas of execution, rhythm … Organization, decision -making in painting, aggressiveness in the basket, bringing together the ball. We were just a tick forward in all these areas. ”
The Thunder used the same starting program, with a single big man, as three days earlier, but adjusted by choosing to play larger players in all his positions throughout each programming, which Daigneault saw as an adjustment after his team seized 17 rebounds less than Indiana in match 1. In match 2, Oklahoma City won the rebound battle. For the first time, this series, Oklahoma City played its two great men, Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein, together for four minutes, and ahead of the Indiana by four points.
The size and attention to the details helped the Thunder contain one of the most reliable games of Indiana, the pick-and-roll, to prevent the great men from the staging of the Pacers from finding an open room to pull beyond the 3-point line. And their constant defensive movement, be it the defense of man to man or a 2-3 zone, also blurring the ability of Indiana to drive.
“As you have seen, they have a swarm mentality, keep everyone out of painting,” said Myles Turner, Center Myles Turner. “They sell to painting. They are ready to abandon a multitude of shots, 3, half-plage, whatever the case, so we do not go into painting. Now, it is simply a question of making a decision, enter it.”
“I think there are ways to break the defense. I think that sometimes, easier to say than to do.”
