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The Oklahoma City Thunder will host the Indiana Pacers for Game 5 of the 2025 NBA Finals on Monday. The pivotal matchup will see who inches closer to a championship as the series is tied at 2-2.
After it looked dire for most of the game, the Thunder had a season-saving 12-1 run to close out a 111-104 Game 4 win. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander put on his Superman cape and carried OKC to the finish line with 15 points in the fourth quarter alone.
With momentum behind them, here are three things the Thunder must do in Game 5 to secure a 3-2 series lead over the Pacers:
Role player step up
The adage goes that role players step up at home. The Pacers can attest to that. TJ McConnell changed Game 3 with five steals in 15 minutes. Obi Toppin would’ve been the hero of Game 4 if Indiana had held on. Back at OKC, expect the Thunder to enjoy similar luck.
The best way to do that will be with their outside shot. No question about it, the Thunder have been bad in the playoffs from deep. It can’t get any worse than Game 4’s 3-of-16 from 3. OKC became the first team to win an NBA Finals game with three or fewer made outside shots since the 2010 Boston Celtics.
You can only go up from there. Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe could be prime candidates to hit on some outside buckets. Maybe Cason Wallace can finally nail his first outside make of the NBA Finals. Of course, Lu Dort has been red-hot from deep this whole series.
Cause turnovers
Since Game 1’s historic turnover rate, the Thunder haven’t had another notable defensive outburst. The Pacers only had 15 turnovers in Game 2, 14 in Game 3 and just 16 in Game 4. One of Indiana’s superpowers has been superb ball security. Besides 25 turnovers in Game 1, it’s shown that against the league’s best defense.
The Thunder need to get back to their bread and butter in Game 5. They’re due a massive turnover number. This defense is too good not to snowball a massive run fueled by their hands.
If the Thunder can get a bunch of steal-and-score sequences, the Pacers could see themselves get buried on the scoreboard before they could even blink. That’s how OKC ran through the regular season and playoffs. That’s also how it had the best point differential ever at plus-12.9.
Don’t mess around
You can’t have a repeat of Game 1. Or even Game 2 to a certain extent. The Pacers have made it this far because of it. Ask the Milwaukee Bucks, Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks. If you give Indiana a chance, it’ll take advantage with some awesome clutch plays.
The Thunder will need to ride their crowd’s momentum and put this one out of reach. While Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren showed they can escape with a thriller in Game 4, a much more secure plan to win Game 5 is to lead by double-digit points for most of the second half.
The Thunder are due a blowout. They’ve had a couple in every playoff series so far. Game 2 is the closest to that, but the Pacers hung around and didn’t let it get to an insurmountable lead. Right now would be a good time to have a pure dominant performance.
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