Thunder 141, Pacers 135 (2OT): The Day After Report
- SGA goes even bigger. Another masterpiece—55 points on 15-of-31 shooting, 23-of-26 from the line. He scored 22 after the fourth quarter alone and completely owned both overtimes. On the season, Shai is averaging 45 points per game.
- Thunder survive another double-OT thriller. Second straight game that went to double overtime. First time in NBA history that's happened. And OKC doesn't get much of a break. After taking Friday off, the Thunder plays 3 games in 4 nights.
- Quiet Chet. After coming out aggressively on the offensive side in Game 1, Chet was barely a factor offensively, scoring 15 points on 4-12 shooting (0-6 from three). Interestingly, Holmgren has yet to record a block in 78 minutes.
- We have to talk about Ajay Mitchell. In a good way, of course. Fifteen points in 16 minutes on opening night, followed by a career high 26 against the Pacers. While the offense stagnated at times, especially when SGA sat, Ajay found ways to score, often by attacking the basket (earning him 8 FTs, and he made all of them).
- Three million. That's what Mitchell is earning this season (and the next two). Is this the best contract in the NBA?
- Aaron Wiggins, still saving basketball. Starting with Jalen Williams and Cason Wallace out, Wiggins dropped 23 points on 7-14 shooting and hit five threes—including two huge daggers in the second overtime that helped OKC seal the win. On an off night for Chet, and with JDub still recovering, the Thunder desperately needed Wiggins to show up, and, of course he did.
- Honestly, a pretty fun Finals rematch. The shine on this game supposedly had a little less luster with Tyrese Haliburton out for Indiana, along with TJ McConnell. OKC was sitting almost an entire roster, as Caruso and Wallace joined Dub, Joe, Topic, Sorber, and Kenrich as inactive due to injuries. But this was a fun, back and forth game that saw Bennedict Mathurin show signs of stardom that nearly led Indiana to a small token of revenge.
- There was another timeout controversy. Well, kind of. With 22.5 seconds left in the second OT, Obi Toppin hit a three to bring the Pacers to within 4. Toppin then looked to have a steal on the inbounds before officials stopped play to award the Thunder a timeout. Rick Carlisle was livid, but Mark Daigneault had requested a TO before the steal. Whew.
- Gotta make your free throws. OKC was 45-51 from the charity stripe. Indiana was 30-40. Those 10 misses for Indiana may be hard to stomach for Pacers fans in a 6 point 2OT loss.
- Everybody played. That's right, all 11 guys who suited up got minutes against Indiana. Chris Youngblood also got his first points and first three pointer of his career.
3 Key Takeaways
1. Shai is the reigning MVP. You just have to give it up to him. A new career-high when OKC needed every point. SGA wants another ring, you can tell.
2. Three-point shooting is a question mark. The Thunder was generating good looks from deep, but outside of Aaron Wiggins (and Jaylin Williams), the broadside of a barn would still be too difficult of a target. As a team, Oklahoma City was 10-35, after going 13-52 on opening night. For those math nerds, that's just 26.4% on the season.
3. Thankfully, this team goes deep. We talked about Mitchell and Wiggins having great games, but J-Will had some key minutes and went 2-3 from deep, Brooks Barnhizer was thrown into real rotation minutes. Dieng played 15 minutes. With so many injuries to start the year, the treasure of depth has been tested, and so far, has proven good enough to keep OKC unbeaten. And on this point, Mitchell is the secondary creator OKC needs off the bench. Dude can ball. It will be really interesting to see how Mark handles the bench minutes when Topic comes back.