00:00Oklahoma City. Back-to-back MVP shy Gilgis Alexander committed three turnovers and missed
00:05his first four shots in the field. Getting off to what he described as one of the worst
00:09start to his career in Tuesday's pivotal Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals.
00:14But unlike the previous two games, the Oklahoma City Thunder didn't have a double-digit early
00:20deficit. They had to attempt to dig out against the San Antonio Spurs.
00:23In point of fact, Gilgis Alexander's catch-and-shoot three-pointer with 31.2 seconds remaining in the
00:30opening quarter was the first basket tying the score. From that point, Gilgis Alexander steadied
00:36himself and the Thunder continued to receive significant contributions throughout the rotation,
00:42cruising to a 127-114 win at Paycom Center to regain the series lead. Picks by the editor NBA
00:50playoff takeaways. Thunder win Game 5 to take a 3-2 lead. NBA aficionados as it happened.
00:57Thunder defeat Spurs to take 3-2 lead in Western Conference Finals.
01:02Staff at ESPN, I always say we're a team out there, said Gilgis Alexander, who finished with 32 points
01:08and 9 assists but was only 7 of 19 shooting and committed 6 turnovers. We don't get this far.
01:15I don't have this individual success. This team doesn't have the success without all 15 guys in
01:20the locker room. We proved it tonight. If it was 4 or 5 me's out there, we would have been
01:26down 20
01:26after the first quarter. But the guys were great to start the game. The guys held it down. So I
01:33probably shouldn't start like that again and give us a better chance of winning a ball game.
01:37Chet Holmgren, a power forward who was named to the third team of all NBA, put on his best performance
01:43of the series, scoring 16 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Holmgren's early production was
01:49especially important while Gilgis Alexander got off to a slow start. Half of Holmgren's points came
01:56in the first quarter when he made all four of his shots. As coach Mark Daniels sought to add scoring
02:01punch to the lineup with Jalen Williams, Hamstring, and Ajay Mitchell-Kaff out, guard Jeremy Kane scored
02:0718 of his 20 points in the second half, making his first playoff start of his career.
02:12The Spurs attempted to target McCain on the other end, but San Antonio scored only 11 points on four
02:18of 14 shooting with him as the primary defender, including zero of nine combined by Stephon Castle,
02:26Darren Fox, and Devin Vassell. Alex Caruso, a veteran forward for the Thunder, said to McCain,
02:32one thing with him, you don't have to tell him to be confident, to be aggressive. That's who he is
02:38as a person and as a player, as was the case in the first three games of the series. Caruso
02:44played a
02:45starring role off the bench. He had 22 points, six assists, and three steals in 28 minutes, and the
02:51Thunder outscored the Spurs by 18 points with him on the court. Shy Gilgis Alexander stated,
02:56we would have been down 20 after the first quarter if it was four or five me's out there. But
03:02the guys
03:02were great to start the game. I probably shouldn't have started that way again, but the guys stopped
03:08me. Alonzo Adams slash Emaine Images. He's played in the most big games on this team. Gilgis Alexander
03:16said of Caruso, a two-time champion. That experience you can't recreate or manufacture. AC isn't some uber
03:23talented guy, but he's one of, if not the best competitor in the NBA night in and night out.
03:29He wears that, and he sets that tone for us as a group, and has come full-fledged this series
03:34with
03:34guys out and him having to step up. The only players who had a better plus-minus in the game
03:39than Caruso, Oklahoma City guard Cason Wallace, plus 29 and 31 minutes, and center Isaiah Hartenstein,
03:47plus 24 and 31 minutes. Wallace returned to a reserve role after starting Game 4, when Oklahoma
03:55City had its worst offensive performance in more than five years, and was a defensive menace.
04:00As a primary defender, Hartenstein had 12 points, 15 rebounds, and four assists while limiting Spurs
04:06star Victor Wambanima, three of 11 shooting. It's a team thing. Hartenstein set a defensive effort
04:13on Wambanima, who finished with 20 points on four of 15 shooting. With any great player,
04:19you're not going to stop him with one player. So it's going in there, just making his looks hard,
04:25making sure he just doesn't get anything easy. I think we just did a great job as team just
04:30executing that. Again, he is an excellent player. All you have to do is work together.
04:37Gilgis Alexander scored 23 of his 32 points over the second and third quarters as the Thunder
04:42sees control. It's going to take more than just shy to beat the Spurs, to beat any team at this
04:48point. Alex Caruso, one of the things that I always marvel at with him is his ability to course
04:54correct inside of a game, Danio said. He usually doesn't go a full game struggling like that.
05:00He obviously didn't have his fastball early, but he stays so present. His confidence never wavers.
05:06He really has great trust in himself, and that was on display tonight. The defending champion Thunder,
05:12are 11-2 this postseason, and one went away from earning a return trip to the NBA Finals,
05:18where they would face the Eastern Conference champion New York Knicks.
05:22It's going to take more than just shy to beat the Spurs, to beat any team at this point,
05:27Caruso said. He's number one on the scouting report every game we've played since I've been here.
05:33Might get up into like 40 points, but we're not getting an easy 40-50. He's going to get somewhere
05:3925-35 and work hard for it. There's a bunch of other points and other plays to be made to
05:46the
05:46game for the team to make, and it's just about being confident in each other and going out there
05:51and playing.
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