OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) \u2014 This has been Oklahoma City\u2019s formula all season: Lose one game, respond in the next.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s exactly what the Thunder did in Game 2 of the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 34 points, Alex Caruso added 20 off the bench and the Thunder beat the Indiana Pacers 123-107 on Sunday night to tie these finals at one game apiece.<\/p>\n
Jalen Williams scored 19, Aaron Wiggins had 18 and Chet Holmgren finished with 15 for the Thunder. It was the franchise\u2019s first finals game win since the opener of the 2012 series against Miami.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did some things good tonight. We did some things bad,\u201d Gilgeous-Alexander said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to be able to get better and be ready for Game 3.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tyrese Haliburton scored 17 for Indiana, which erased a 15-point, fourth-quarter deficit in Game 1 but never made a push on Sunday. Myles Turner scored 16 and Pascal Siakam added 15 for the Pacers, the first team since Miami in 2013 to not have a 20-point scorer in the first two games of the finals.<\/p>\n
Game 3 is Wednesday at Indianapolis, in what will be the first finals game in that city in 25 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cA bad first half, obviously, was a big problem,\u201d Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. \u201cAnd we just played poorly. A little better in the second half. But you can\u2019t be a team that\u2019s reactive and expect to be successful or have consistency.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gilgeous-Alexander\u2019s first basket of the night was a history-maker: It gave him 3,000 points on the season, including the regular season and playoffs. And later in Game 2, he passed New York\u2019s Jalen Brunson (514) as the leading overall scorer in these playoffs.<\/p>\n
But the real milestone for the MVP came a couple hours later, when he and most everybody else on the Thunder got a finals win for the first time.<\/p>\n
A 19-2 run in the second quarter turned what was a six-point game into a 23-point Thunder lead. It might have seemed wobbly a couple of times \u2014 an immediate 10-0 rebuttal by the Pacers made it 52-39, and Indiana was within 13 again after Andrew Nembhard\u2019s layup with 7:09 left in the third \u2014 but the Thunder lead was never in serious doubt.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey did a good job being disruptive,\u201d Siakam said. \u201cThey got out in transition. … They were super aggressive, which is what they do.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the noise level in the building often topping 100 decibels \u2014 a chain saw is 110 dB, for comparison purposes \u2014 the Thunder did what they\u2019ve done pretty much all season. They came off a loss, this time a 111-110 defeat in Game 1,<\/a> and blew somebody out as their response.<\/p>\n Including the NBA Cup title game, which doesn\u2019t count in any standings, the Thunder are now 18-2 this season when coming off a loss. Of those 18 wins, 12 have been by double digits.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a long 48 hours when you lose Game 1 like that, coming into Game 2,\u201d Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. \u201cThe guys did a great job of just focusing on what we needed to do to stack to a win tonight. That\u2019s how we got it.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n