The Thunder collapsed in Game 6 of their ongoing NBA Finals series against Indiana on Friday, with the final score of 108-91 not nearly reflective of how grisly things got. The Pacers led by as many as 31 points, while the Thunder went 8-for-30 from distance and turned the ball over a whopping 21 times.
Now, the series is knotted up as it returns to Oklahoma City for a conclusive Game 7 on Sunday.
According to Marc J. Spears of Andscape, MVP Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is doing his darnedest to shake off a disappointing night.
“One game,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Winner takes all. Give it your best shot. Bring your ‘A’ game. I don’t try to complicate it.”
Gilgeous-Alexander submitted his worst performance of the Finals in Game 6, though he put up 21 points, which was still the highest scoring output for a Thunder player.
“The way I see it is, we sucked tonight,” Gilgeous-Alexander said after accounting for eight of his team’s turnovers. “We can learn our lessons. We have one game for everything, for everything we’ve worked for, and so do they. The better team Sunday will win.”
There’s more out of Oklahoma City:
- Thunder coach Mark Daigneault contends that his team’s face-plant, in what could have been a closeout game, was not reflective of who they have been in the playoffs so far, writes Tim MacMahon of ESPN. “From our standpoint, it was uncharacteristic,” Daigneault said. “It was disappointing. It was collective. It wasn’t one guy. Just we were not where we needed to be on either end of the floor for much of the game. We have to be a lot better before Game 7.”
- The stakes for the Thunder to wrap up an historic 68-game regular season with a franchise-first championship (at least, in Oklahoma City) are monumental. Per Anthony Slater of The Athletic, Gilgeous-Alexander thinks that a Game 7 loss in the Finals would be just as disappointing as, say, as a second-round defeat. Without a championship, he would view the season as a failure. “I see it as the same thing,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “In round two, if we had lost, I would have been just as disappointed. We would have went home and our season would have been over. If we lose (on Sunday), the season is over in the wrong way. Either way, I would have been extremely disappointed, so I don’t think it’s any different.”
- By botching Game 6 against the Pacers, the Thunder have stumbled into a do-or-die contest Sunday, where anything can happen, notes Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman (subscriber link). There’s no room for error anymore. Oklahoma City struggled to even contain Indiana’s top reserves in the game, Obi Toppin and T.J. McConnell. Toppin scored a Pacers-best 20 points, while McConnell notched 12 points, nine boards, six assists and four steals.