The Oklahoma City Thunder, fueled by an efficient 34 points from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, thumped the Indiana Pacers, 123-107, on Sunday, punching back hard to level the National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals at one game apiece.
NBA Most Valuable Player Gilgeous-Alexander connected on 11 of 21 shots and added five rebounds, eight assists and four of Oklahoma City's 10 steals as the Thunder bounced back from an agonizing Game 1 defeat on their home floor.
Jalen Williams added 19 points, and center Chet Holmgren bounced back from a lackluster six-point game one to score 15 points with six rebounds for the Thunder, who limited Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton to 17 points, three rebounds and six assists with five turnovers.
Haliburton, who drilled the last-gasp game-winner for Indiana in their 111-110 series opening triumph, had just five points through the first three quarters.
Despite his 12 points in the fourth, the Pacers never looked like mounting the kind of comeback that saw them erase a 15-point fourth quarter deficit in Game 1.
"They play a full 48 minutes and you can't just throw the first punch," Gilgeous-Alexander said.
“You've got to try to throw all the punches all night.”
"That's what we did. We threw enough punches tonight to get a 'W.'"
With their latest bounce-back performance — they haven't lost two in a row yet in these playoffs — the Thunder denied the Pacers the 2-0 lead they had grabbed in their three-prior series.
But Gilgeous-Alexander said there's still room for improvement as the best-of-seven championship series heads to Indianapolis for games three and four on Wednesday and Friday.
"We did some good things tonight," Gilgeous-Alexander said.
"We did some things bad and we've got to be able to get better, get ready for game three."
Alex Caruso scored 20 points off the bench and fellow reserve Aaron Wiggins made five three-pointers on the way to 18 for the Thunder, who closed a back-and-forth first quarter on a 9-0 run to lead 26-20.
With his first basket Gilgeous-Alexander took his tally of combined points for the regular season and playoffs to 3,000, becoming the 12th player in history to reach the milestone.