NBA Finals: Thunder open one other large lead and preserve management, topping Pacers 123-107

By Tim ReynoldsThe Related Press

OKLAHOMA CITY — This has been Oklahoma Metropolis’s formulation all season: Lose one recreation, reply within the subsequent.

That’s precisely what the Thunder did in Recreation 2 of the NBA Finals.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 34 factors, Alex Caruso added 20 off the bench and the Thunder beat the Indiana Pacers 123-107 on Sunday night time to tie these finals at one recreation apiece.

Jalen Williams scored 19, Aaron Wiggins had 18 and Chet Holmgren completed with 15 for the Thunder. It was the franchise’s first finals recreation win because the opener of the 2012 collection towards Miami.

“We did some things good tonight. We did some things bad,” Gilgeous-Alexander mentioned. “We’ve got to be able to get better and be ready for Game 3.”

Tyrese Haliburton scored 17 for Indiana, which erased a 15-point, fourth-quarter deficit in Recreation 1 however by no means made a push on Sunday. Myles Turner scored 16 and Pascal Siakam added 15 for the Pacers, the primary staff since Miami in 2013 to not have a 20-point scorer within the first two video games of the finals.

Recreation 3 is Wednesday at Indianapolis, in what would be the first finals recreation in that metropolis in 25 years.

Gilgeous-Alexander’s first basket of the night time was a history-maker: It gave him 3,000 factors on the season, together with the common season and playoffs. And later in Recreation 2, he handed New York’s Jalen Brunson (514) because the main general scorer in these playoffs.

However the actual milestone for the MVP got here a pair hours later, when he and most all people else on the Thunder acquired a finals win for the primary time.

A 19-2 run within the second quarter turned what was a six-point recreation right into a 23-point Thunder lead. It may need appeared wobbly a few occasions — a direct 10-0 rebuttal by the Pacers made it 52-39, and Indiana was inside 13 once more after Andrew Nembhard’s layup with 7:09 left within the third — however the Thunder lead was by no means in severe doubt.

With the noise stage within the constructing usually topping 100 decibels — a chainsaw is 110 dB, for comparability functions — the Thunder did what they’ve carried out just about all season. They got here off a loss, this time a 111-110 defeat in Recreation 1, and blew someone out as their response.

Together with the NBA Cup title recreation, which doesn’t rely in any standings, the Thunder are actually 18-2 this season when coming off a loss. Of these 18 wins, 12 have been by double digits.

Initially Revealed: June 8, 2025 at 8:08 PM PDT