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On Monday night, the Oklahoma City Thunder come to within one win away of hoisting the Larry O'Brien trophy, taking a 120-109 victory in Game 5 of the 2025 NBA Finals against the Indiana Pacers. As is always the case against the Pacers, nothing came easy for the Thunder. Instead, they took the game by the scruff of its neck — with OKC's two stars, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams, combining for 71 points in an ever-crucial Game 5 win.
Gilgeous-Alexander, in particular, continues to make history with the torrid NBA Finals series he's been having, scoring-wise. This was the fourth game of this year's Finals in which he scored 30 or more, but on Monday, he didn't just fill up the scoring column. He also added 10 assists, two steals, and four blocks, and in so doing, he became just the fourth player in the history of the NBA Finals to record at least 30 points, 10 assists, two steals and two blocks in a single game, joining LeBron James, Michael Jordan, and Jimmy Butler in that exclusive club (according to StatMuse).
Moreover, as SportsNet pointed out, the Thunder star and 2025 NBA MVP inched to within one more 30-point game from the all-time record for most such games in a single postseason run, as his 31-point outing in Game 5 was his 15th of this year's playoffs (the all-time record is 16, which Hakeem Olajuwon and Jordan hold).
Gilgeous-Alexander has been a major thorn in the Pacers' side, and he followed up his Game 4 heroics with yet another dominant effort, this time flexing his all-around game to help the Thunder to victory lane. For all of the talk about how Andrew Nembhard has disrupted Gilgeous-Alexander in the Finals, the sheer pressure that the reigning MVP puts on the Pacers defense strains them past their breaking point, which, in turn, opened up the likes of Williams and the rest of the Thunder supporting cast to do damage.
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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander takes backseat to Jalen Williams in Thunder's Game 5 victory
Williams has had his fair share of stinkers in this year's playoffs. But he's having no such troubles navigating the Pacers' defense. His downhill pressure creates so much chaos and puts Indiana's defense in rotation, and he made mincemeat of Indiana in Game 5, scoring a playoff career-high 40 points on 14-25 shooting — including 11 points in the fourth quarter — to power the Thunder to a crucial win.
There is no ‘I' in team, and the Thunder definitely won Game 5 as a unit. And there was no better indicator of that than Gilgeous-Alexander taking a bit of a backseat to Williams, who was on fire for the entirety of the night.
