Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and OKC Thunder recalibrated and have Pacers in trouble

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Maybe this won’t be much of a series after all.

That was the initial thought after Oklahoma City mauled the Indiana Pacers on Sunday, making up for a stunning Game 1 loss in the NBA Finals.

This Thunder team is a juggernaut (you don’t win 68 games easily) and the team looked much more like its usual self in tying things up.

Some takeaways from Game 2:

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander never really looks uncomfortable — his cool, calm demeanour is part of his unflappable package — but like his teammates, he wasn’t quite himself in Game 1. He forced some shots (30 in all, just the sixth time in his career he has attempted at least 30, including two in these playoffs) and seemed to be recalibrating to how Indiana was keying on him.

Well, mission accomplished. Sunday was vintage Gilgeous-Alexander, as the Canadian guard dominated.

He looked to facilitate a lot more and attacked, with 12 of his 21 attempts coming in the paint, but was probing with more of a purpose than in the previous game. He actually drove more in Game 1, but had more turnovers and fewer assists and shot a lower percentage.

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This time, Gilgeous-Alexander generated 12 trips to the free-throw line and six of his eight assists were on three-point makes, with three of the assists coming off drives.

Nobody can stop Gilgeous-Alexander from driving, he’s the best in the NBA at it for a reason, but when he also knows what’s coming and does exactly what he wants to — which happened far more often Sunday than in the opener — it makes Oklahoma City extremely tough to handle.

STICKING WITH IT

Thunder coach Mark Daigneault had thrown a curve ball ahead of Game 1 by going small. Out was centre Isaiah Hartenstein, who had started 53 of 57 regular-season appearances and all 16 in the playoffs until then, and in was guard Cason Wallace. The move was made even though the previous lineup had gone 12-4 in the playoffs and 9-4 in the regular season.

The old adage might be “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” but Daigneault tinkered anyway.

It didn’t pay immediate dividends (Chet Holmgren, who had spent about 40% of the time at power forward, became the lone big man on the floor and struggled mightily, shooting 2-for-9 for six points, Wallace went 3-for-9) and defensively they couldn’t keep the Pacers in check.

But the Thunder stuck with the move Sunday (perhaps because they had been 6-0 with this group during the year) and Holmgren, the team’s third-best player, who had been all but invisible to start the series (one basket after an early layup), broke out.

Holmgren again got an early bucket (a layup after missing a first attempt and grabbing his own rebound), and he looked a lot more involved.

The stretch big man was the main reason the Thunder led by six after a quarter and he had another strong stretch in the second when the game got broken open with a block, dunk and assist setting up a three-pointer.

Holmgren was pretty quiet the rest of the way, but he’d made his impact.

Meanwhile, Hartenstein was great off the bench (even if his stats didn’t indicate that), the reserves dominated Indiana (Alex Caruso and Aaron Wiggins each had more points than any Indiana player), and the smaller, quicker first group was disruptive.

STATS PACK

In picking our favourite stats from Game 2, a common theme emerged — Gilgeous-Alexander’s season for the ages just keeps on going:

• Gilgeous-Alexander eclipsed Allen Iverson for most points by a player through his first two Finals games.
• He tied Michael Jordan and LeBron James with 11 games in one playoffs with at least 30 points and five assists.
• The Thunder has still only lost two straight games twice all year, not once in the playoffs.
• Indiana’s the first team without a 20-point scorer through two games since Miami in 2013.
• OKC’s 33 free-throw attempts were the third-most by a team in a Finals game since 2016.
• And one for Caruso, the elite defensive guard who isn’t known for his scoring. Caruso’s 20 points tied his playoff high (also done against Denver) and most amazingly, he only has scored at least 20 five times in 417 career regular-season games.

@WolstatSun