Jalen Williams’ ambitious NBA Finals arrival has Thunder close to championship glory

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COn this day in 1976, the NBA added four teams from the ABA after its merger with the rival league. The Nuggets, Nets, Spurs and Pacers joined. In my opinion, this is when the NBA history truly started mattering, as the league reached 22 teams. It feels similar to the pre and post-Super Bowl era in the NFL. Here is a trailer for a documentary about the merger.

J-Dub Leads Dubya

Williams’ ascension puts OKC one win from title

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander having 31 points, 10 assists and four blocks in Game 5 of the NBA Finals was impressive, but not totally surprising. Yes, the assists and blocks are higher than normal, but you probably aren’t going to see that statline and outright know that the Thunder took the night 120-109 to pull within one win of their first NBA championship. The league MVP has been performing at an historic pace all season and postseason long.

When you find out that the run Jalen Williams is on just culminated in the best postseason game of his career, his 40-point effort on 14-of-25 shooting from the field and 9-of-12 from the free-throw line? That’s when you know the Thunder absolutely took Game 5.

This was just the fourth time all season these two scored 30 or more in the same game. There was a win against San Antonio this season in which Williams dropped 41 and SGA added 31, pretty close to the same totals last night. In a Thunder loss to Dallas, there was a 33-point effort by Williams with 31 from SGA. And then, there was the pivotal Game 4 semifinals win in Minneapolis to put the Wolves on tilt with SGA finishing with 40 and Williams having 34.

But this performance by Williams has been building all series long against the Pacers, and it’s what has the Thunder on the brink of a champagne celebration.

In every game of this series, Williams has gotten better:

• Game 1: 17 points (6-of-19 FG, 1-of-4 3FG, 4-of-4 FT), four rebounds, six assists
• Game 2: 19 points (5-of-14 FG, 1-of-5 3FG, 8-of-9 FT), five rebounds, five assists
• Game 3: 26 points (9-of-18 FG, 1-of-2 3FG, 7-of-11 FT), six rebounds, three assists
• Game 4: 27 points (8-of-18 FG, 0-of-3 3FG, 11-of-11 FT), seven rebounds, three assists
• Game 5: 40 points (14-of-25 FG, 3-of-5 3FG, 9-of-12 FT), six rebounds, four assists

A lot of this has been due to Williams driving to the basket. He’s been unstoppable doing that. He has hit every defensive slide with a counter, almost looking like an offensive training drill you’d see him practicing in the summer. It’s robotic and effective. His body control, especially through contact, has been Matrix-esque. And his timing is perfect, keeping rotating defenders off-balance with the same hand, same foot layups to speed up the process.

The broadcast keeps reminding us Williams says that pressure is a privilege. It’s like claiming that someone in today’s society has come up with, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” But he has seemed to embrace it after some tricky postseason moments in his young career. Williams struggled in their series loss to Dallas last year. His numbers weren’t disastrous, by any means. He just wasn’t good enough or aggressive enough for what they needed. Such can be life for a 23-year-old in the postseason.

And even in the Denver series this year, he was brutal offensively, needing 95 shots to score 99 points through the first six games and knocking down just 33.7 percent of his shots and 21.2 percent of his 3-pointers. He was making the rim look like a carnival game. But in Game 7, he stepped up and was dominant in a very compact way. Then, he demolished the Wolves. And we’ve seen him build from struggling early in this series to dominating last night.

It’s a reminder too that Williams is only 24 years old and finishing his third season in the NBA. He just made his first All-Star Game, earned an All-Defensive team nod and was named to an All-NBA squad before he even starting negotiations for his rookie contract extension. And one more game like this will bring his first NBA championship. Looks like we don’t have to worry about any postseason jitters anymore, if we ever truly did in the first place.

The Last 24

We found a point guard for you this summer

🏀 Take the lead. Looking for a floor general this summer? John Hollinger knows who to sign.

💰 Mebounds. Angel Reese has received a lot of criticism online for her play. She’s now trying to make money off it. 

🔼 Fever rising. Caitlin Clark is back, and the Indiana is rising. They’re high on the latest power rankings. 

🏀 On the glass. Another reason for the Thunder winning Game 5? Isaiah Hartenstein doing what he does best.

🏈 Fantastic name. This is not related to basketball, but I really enjoyed this story on a no-name QB rising to a projected top pick. LaNorris Sellers, come on down. 

🎧 Tuning in. Today’s “NBA Daily” discusses the Game 5 atmosphere in Oklahoma City.

The Basketball 100

The story of the greatest players in NBA history. In 100 riveting profiles, top basketball writers justify their selections and uncover the history of the NBA in the process.

The story of the greatest players in NBA history.

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Hali-Hurtin’

Is Haliburton’s injury limiting Indy’s title shot?

The big part of the Pacers’ side of Game 5 was the play of Tyrese Haliburton. He was not good. He was not playing to the standard you expect from the star guard who has arguably been the story of the 2025 postseason. His incendiary clutch play has taken the playoffs by storm, and even though the Pacers are now down 3-2 in the series, I’m not sure anybody who has paid attention to Indiana during this run is ready to count out the Pacers … that is if Haliburton can be healthy enough to perform.

Haliburton has been battling a leg injury since Game 2, and we saw him look very limited during his Game 5 performance. In 34 minutes, the Pacers franchise guy had four points on 0-of-6 from the field, 0-of-4 from deep and made all four of his free-throw attempts. He also had seven rebounds and six assists in the game. But this is not the guy you expect to see. You never expect to see him go a full game without making a single shot.

It was the seventh time in his career Haliburton has gone without a make in a game. It happened twice this season in two blowout losses on the road. This is the first time we’ve seen it in the postseason from Haliburton, though. This is obviously a major problem if he can’t get right with two days of rest in between Games 5 and 6 on Thursday. Haliburton told reporters after the game that if he can walk, he’s going to play, but he was entirely ineffective in Game 5.

T.J. McConnell came in off the bench and was massive for them in the third quarter. He had 13 of his 18 points off the bench in that period and helped keep the Pacers close. It was extremely necessary, considering how off Haliburton was. But the Pacers were never going to topple the Thunder in OKC without a much better effort from their top guy.

Indiana’s odds have been all over the place. After going up 2-1, the Pacers entered a realm in which teams up 2-1 in the NBA Finals win 80.5 percent of the time. In that same space, when a team is up 2-1 and at home for Game 4, they were just 9-10 going into this series. That dropped to 9-11. Now, the Thunder winning Game 5 put them in a highly optimistic group. Teams that go up 3-2 in the Finals win the championship 74.2 percent of the time.

For the Pacers to have a chance at being that quarter of history that still perseveres and wins it all, Haliburton has to bounce back from his injury and put on a show.

Roll The Dice?

Should teams not on KD’s list take a chance?

The Kevin Durant trade market might be the biggest move of the summer. Of course, the Desmond Bane trade to Orlando also might be signaling an odd offseason of surprise moves that leave us wondering what exactly anybody is doing at any given time. Such is life in the era of luxury-tax penalties due to the second apron that the NBA has foolishly self-imposed on itself. We know that Durant prefers to be moved to Miami or San Antonio or Houston at this point, but that doesn’t mean Phoenix is going to trade him to those places. It just means Durant and his representation may threaten to not sign an extension with any team outside of those three.

That’s where the Timberwolves (and maybe other teams) come into play. Jon Krawczynski and Sam Amick had a great article about how the Wolves could be the darkhorse candidate to trade for the two-time NBA Finals MVP. And Minnesota hopes the 37-year-old also warms up to the idea, as he hopes to get one more big contract extension of two years and $122 million.

“The Suns have made it clear to Durant’s camp that they need to prioritize the best return for the team in a deal. What’s more, they appear focused on landing the kind of impact players who can help now as opposed to prioritizing draft picks. The Wolves would seem to have options available to offer, with Rudy Gobert or Julius Randle headlining a package that could give the Suns hopes of contending. With the offers from the Spurs, Rockets and Heat coming up short to this point, league sources say the Suns are still hopeful that Durant might warm to the Timberwolves possibility.

“The Timberwolves do not want to make a seismic change to a roster that advanced to the Western Conference finals if Durant is not on board with the move, team sources said. The question now is whether there’s any chance of Durant coming around to the idea.”

OK, this seems highly significant. First, everybody has assumed this would need to involve Randle and him picking up his player option for next season. The idea that the Wolves could move on from Gobert and his nearly $110 million over the next three years at this point would be a massive shift for the franchise, since it’s enjoying its best stretch ever. It’s interesting to think about whether or not it’s a good idea to trade for someone who doesn’t want you, though.

The Raptors did it with Kawhi Leonard, and it resulted in winning the 2019 title. And, as elite as Durant still is at 36 years old, it’s not the same as a 27-year-old Leonard. The Wolves are looking for the right help around the 23-year-old Anthony Edwards, now that they’ve found a way to elevate the franchise. But is this stage of an occasionally healthy Durant the right one to acquire? And, if he doesn’t want to be there, will he curmudgeon his way out of there before it has a chance to gel?

The Marc Lore-Alex Rodriguez era could potentially start with a blowup in their face, rather than a bang, if so.

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(Photo: Alonzo Adams / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)

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