Thunder wilt in first crack at NBA title, setting up Game 7 for 'everything' or 'nothing'

INDIANAPOLIS On the second Oklahoma City Thunder possession of Thursdays Game 6, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wandered into danger and lost his dribble to a pair of Indiana Pacers more ready to grapple and pounce on a loose ball.

A minute later, they didnt even need to double-team to pick his pocket.

Andrew Nembhard took the ball from Gilgeous-Alexander on a slow-developing post-up.

This was the earliest alarm bell for what would develop into arguably the Thunders worst performance of the season at their potential pinnacle moment.

They had a chance to win an NBA title.

They instead fell down 31 points and were blown out 108-91 .

The way I see it is, we sucked tonight, Gilgeous-Alexander said.

We can learn our lessons.

We have one game for everything.

For everything weve worked for.

And so do they.

Advertisement Those were two of Gilgeous-Alexanders eight turnovers, tying a career-high in any game.

The high-usage, low-turnover, typically sharp guard who entered the night as the presumed finals MVP if his team could win its 84th game of the season, instead delivered a sloppy, unfocused night of point guard play.

His team followed suit.

The Thunder finished with 21 turnovers, their most in any of their 104 games this season.

We tried to do too much one-on-one, Alex Caruso said.

They were active with their hands and aggressive defensively.

We were just a little slow.

The desperate Pacers flew around.

The Thunder arrived with a level of carelessness that played directly into their hands, throwing away enough possessions to deliver enough transition points to fuel a team and arena that felt tense before they blew it open into a Game 6 party.

Thats uncharacteristic for us to turn it over like that, Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said.

That led to fast-break points.

I thought thats what ignited them.

Heres an example.

Jalen Williams gets a defensive rebound in the middle of the first quarter.

He attempts to fling it upcourt.

T.J.

McConnell senses it, throws his arms up in the air, deflects it toward the sideline, outhustles the Thunder to a steal and then sets up Obi Toppin for a wide open 3 to juice up the crowd.

The Game 6 loss was reminiscent of the Game 3 loss.

Gilgeous-Alexander had six turnovers that night, tying a season-high that hed surpass on Thursday.

The Thunder turned it over 19 times.

McConnell stole three inbound passes.

The Thunder offense only generated 22 attempted 3s.

Thats been a problem on the road in this series.

The Thunders three biggest turnover games in these playoffs are the three Indianapolis games and, those three nights, theyve gone 10 of 22, 3 of 17 and now 8 of 30 on 3s.

Thats an accuracy problem 30.4 percent and a volume problem.

Advertisement Thats 23 attempts per game for a team that averaged 38.8 per game in the regular season.

They went 1 of 11 in the first half and didnt create a corner 3.

Its definitely been an issue in some of these games, Daigneault said.

Game 4 comes to mind.

I think we got 17 (attempts) in that game.

I thought we found some things in Game 5.

I thought they did a really good job on us tonight.

The low volume and the accuracy was reflective of the way they guarded us and our inability to create a rhythm.

The Thunder will be significant favorites at home in Game 7, but they were significant favorites in Game 1 and lost.

Theyve delivered themselves into serious danger again, similar to the Denver series.

The Thunder went down 1-0 and 2-1 against the Nuggets, crawled ahead, delivered a Game 6 no-show and then survived with a Game 7 blowout.

I see it as the same thing, Gilgeous-Alexander said.

In Round 2, if we had lost, I would have been just as disappointed.

We would have went home and our season would have been over.

If we lose (on Sunday), the season is over in the wrong way.

Either way, I would have been extremely disappointed, so I dont think its any different.

The Thunder blew the Nuggets out by 32 points in Game 7.

They dont need a repeat margin, but a win or loss either way will ultimately define their season as success or failure.

One game for everything you ever dreamed of, Gilgeous-Alexander said.

If you win it, you get everything.

If you lose it, you get nothing.

Its that simple.

(Photo of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images).

This article has been shared from the original article on theathleticuk, here is the link to the original article.