Shai Gilgeous-Alexander might not have liked the way he started on Tuesday night.
But the Oklahoma City Thunder star came up big in the second and third quarters — getting plenty of help from the cast around him — as the Thunder beat the San Antonio Spurs 127-114 at home to take a 3-2 lead in the Western Conference finals.
“I thought we were first to the fight tonight on both ends and I thought we weren’t the other night,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “I just loved the way we approached tonight on both ends of the floor.”
Oklahoma City will have a chance to close out the series in Game 6 Thursday in San Antonio.
It was a rough start for Gilgeous-Alexander, who missed his first four shots and had three first-quarter turnovers.
“If it was four or five me’s out there, we would’ve been down 20 after the first quarter,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Probably should never start like that again.”
But even with the back-to-back Most Valuable Player’s struggles, the Thunder led after a quarter thanks in part to Gilgeous-Alexander’s seven points in the final two minutes.
In Sunday’s 103-82 loss, Chet Holmgren, Alex Caruso and Jared McCain combined for just 14 points on 4-of-19 shooting.
In Game 5, the trio all came up big.
McCain was inserted into the starting lineup for his first playoff start, as Daigneault went with McCain over Cason Wallace with the Thunder playing without both Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell for the second consecutive game.
“We just thought he could give us some good stuff with that unit just based on where we are right now with a couple guys out,” Daigneault said. “And he did. He was really good. … He’s got great moxie and confidence and he showed that.”
McCain didn’t make much of an impact on the stat sheet early, with just two points on 1-of-5 shooting in the first half, but Diagneault said McCain still made a big impact on both ends of the floor from the start.
In Tuesday’s game, the trio combined for 58 points, going 18 of 38 from the floor.
McCain scored 18 of his 20 points after the break and didn’t have a turnover in the second half.
Holmgren finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds.
Caruso, who averaged 21 points off the bench over the first three games of the series before being held scoreless on just one shot Sunday, got going early and finished with 22 points, six assists and three steals.
“He’s one of, if not the best, competitor in the NBA night in and night out,” Gilgeous-Alexander said of Caruso. “He’s huge for us.”
Gilgeous-Alexander eventually got going, scoring 12 points in Oklahoma City’s 40-point second quarter and 11 more in the third, finishing with 32 points on 7-of-19 shooting and handing out nine assists.
“That’s one of the things that I always marvel at with him is his ability to course correct inside of a game,” Daigneault said. “He usually doesn’t go a full game struggling like that. He obviously didn’t have his fastball early.”
Oklahoma City was 48.2% from the floor after shooting just 33% in Game 4.
Spurs star Victor Wembanyama finished with 20 points on 4-of-15 shooting to go with six rebounds.
After averaging 20.5 rebounds per game in the first two games of the series, Wembanyama has just 18 total over the last three games.
Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said Wembanyama was going to have to be a bigger force offensively if his team is going to be able to turn the series around and advance to the Finals.
“He’s going to have to take more than 15 shots even with the free throws,” Johnson said. “He’s going to have to score more than 20 points for sure.”
Stephon Castle, who led San Antonio with 24 points, expressed frustration afterward with the way the games have been called.
Tuesday, the Thunder attempted 38 free throws, six more than the Spurs.
“I just think with the way they guard, how physical they are, we don’t get that same luxury to be able to play as physical on the other end at times,” Castle said. “Offensively, I think we do a good job of screening and playing through it. I think we create a lot of advantages but I think we just missed a lot of open shots tonight.”
The Thunder carried an 11-point lead into halftime and extended the margin coming out of the break, scoring the first nine points of the third quarter.
San Antonio didn’t go away quietly, cutting the deficit to eight twice late in the third quarter.
The Spurs never could pull closer, though, as Oklahoma City closed out the game to bounce back from the Game 4 loss.
–Field Level Media
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