The NBA Finals are a best of 3 game series

Through 4 games of the NBA Finals, the series is tied at 2 games a piece and 3 of the 4 games have been awesome.  After running out of gas in game 3 and letting the game slip away, it looked like the Thunder were going to let game 4 slip away too.  Then, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander took over, scoring 15 points in the final 4 minutes and 38 seconds of the game, leading the Thunder to a tied up series.  What happened and what comes next for this series.

Game 3 was a very impressive win for the Pacers.  Their bench was all over the court with Benedict Mathurin scoring 27 points and T.J. McConnell had 5 steals.  Tyrese Haliburton also looked ultra aggressive in that game with 22 points, 11 assists and 9 rebounds.  It looked like OKC had run out of gas, especially Shai, who only scored 3 points on 3 shots in the 4th quarter that the Pacers won 32-18, leading to their game 3 win.  Then, game 4 started and it felt like the Pacers offense had found something against the Thunder’s defense.  The ball was moving around and Indiana scored 24 points in the first 6 minutes of the game.  They were 9/12 from the field including 4/5 from three point range and these weren’t tough shots that Indiana was making, most of them were just wide open looks.  However, the Thunder just hung around and Indiana cooled down which allowed OKC to stay in the game.  Then, when the game got late and the going got tough, it was the league MVP’s turn to take over and will his team to a victory.  Gilgeous-Alexander was brilliant late in game 4.  He scored on three straight possessions to put the Thunder up and they never looked back.  Indiana fell apart in the 4th quarter, going 0-8 from three during the 4th quarter while shooting 28% overall from the field in the last quarter of the game.  They didn’t make enough plays at the end of the game that would have put them up 3-1.  They let it slip away and now they have to find a way to win another game in Oklahoma City because of it.

Indiana’s win in game 3 was about their bench and their defense.  They made it really tough on the Thunder to score through the game behind a massive Bennedict Mathurin game and big games from Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam.  Game 4, they just fell apart offensively late in the game, something that they haven’t during the playoffs thus far.  It will be interesting to see how they adjust for game 5.  They need more from Myles Turner.  He scored 9 points in game 3 and 12 points in game 4, he has struggled with his shot in this series and has started to lose some confidence in it.  Indiana’s biggest adjustment is they need to make shots, which isn’t a real adjustment they can have.  They can do different things to get open looks but this is a team that relies on their shot making so heavily because they are so good at making jump shots.  Indiana has done a good job at limiting their turnovers and will need to keep that up if they are going to win the series.

The Thunder made a starting lineup adjustment ahead of game 4 and I don’t think it worked. After Isaiah Hartenstein started all their playoff games leading into the Finals, OKC put Cason Wallace into the starting 5 ahead of game 1.  He started the first 3 games of the series before the Thunder went back to I-Hart ahead of game 4.  Hartenstein was a -7 for the game and it looked like the Pacers were comfortable picking at him at the start of the game.  A lot of their actions, different screens, cuts and pick and rolls, were run at Hartenstein and it led to a lot of open shots.  He just didn’t have a very good game and I’ll be interested to see if he starts game 5 or not.  Alex Caruso was awesome in game 4, making 7 of his 9 shots and scoring 20 points while also playing the elite defense he always plays.  The Thunder will need to take and make more threes than they did in game 4, going 3/16 from three, and they’ll need to have more assists than they did in game 4 with only 11.  Those stats being that bad makes the win all the more impressive.

My original pick was Thunder in 5 so that is officially wrong.  I still think the Thunder will win the series, I am just unsure of how many games they win it in.  These games have been awesome, the way Indiana has played has at times made it seem like they are the better team.  These Finals have been awesome and hopefully these last 3 games live up to the first 4.