Despite Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's scoring outburst, a shorthanded Thunder squad couldn't overcome the Pacers' clutch plays in a narrow loss.
The Oklahoma City Thunder entered Friday night’s home matchup at Paycom Center against the Indiana Pacers severely depleted. In fact, the Thunder had only eight players from its standard 15-man roster available to play. Luckily for Oklahoma City, one of those eight was Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who scored 47 points in the 117-114 loss and gave everything he had.
The four games since Jalen Williams went out with a hamstring injury have seen Gilgeous-Alexander reach another level. He’s now averaging 39 points per game over that four-game stretch, and Friday was another elite performance from the reigning MVP and likely repeat MVP this season.
On paper, this was a matchup between last season’s NBA Finals squads. In reality, with both teams missing a significant number of players, it didn’t carry the same shine as a true Finals “revenge” spot. Still, the Pacers got their revenge, grinding out a three-point win.
The Thunder scored the first basket of the game and led for eight seconds, but never led again. Indiana built a lead as large as 17, but Oklahoma City kept chipping away behind Gilgeous-Alexander’s shot-making. The problem was that every time the Thunder pulled it back to one possession, the Pacers had an answer. Sometimes it was Pascal Siakam, often it was Andrew Nembhard, and Aaron Nesmith hit a handful of massive buckets in the biggest moments.
Indiana got 20+ points from three different players — Nembhard, Siakam, and Jarace Walker.
Walker finished with 26 and delivered one of the defining stretches of the game at the free-throw line. Late in the fourth, the Thunder intentionally fouled him multiple times while down three, trying to create a path to tie it. Walker calmly knocked down free throw after free throw to keep the lead at three and effectively ice the game.
In the final seconds, Isaiah Joe had a tough, fading corner three to tie it, but it didn’t fall. And that’s what this game came down to: Indiana hit the big shots, and Oklahoma City couldn’t get the one it needed at the end.
It’s a frustrating loss for the Thunder. They were shorthanded, yes, but it was still a game they had a real chance to win, and they didn’t. Now, Oklahoma City gets a day off before taking on the Toronto Raptors on Sunday night.