NBA Finals Game 5 FULL REACTION 🍿 Thunder defend home court to take series lead | SC with SVP

NBA Finals Game 5 FULL REACTION 🍿 Thunder defend home court to take series lead | SC with SVP

game five of the NBA Finals this evening in Oklahoma City felt like a got to have it game history tells us you win game five you’re more than likely to win the finals early on this is a key moment as Ty Hallebertton hits the deck and apparently hurt his calf in the process as he goes down leads to an Alex Caruso layup and Hallebertton would leave with right leg tightness there you see that right lower leg wrapped up it’s a 10-point lead for the home team hallebertton comes back in and the turnover caruso the kick ahead and the explosiveness of Jaylen Williams and and one and it’s a 13-point game should Alexander you know this game is all threes and dunks but he is very capable of finding his spot in the two-point game and hitting buckets on this night it wasn’t just driving into the cup lou Dort kicks to Williams who buries a three williams had three of those on this night hallebertton didn’t have a field goal in the first half in the third quarter Pacer team hanging around in large part because of this man TJ McConnell he was screaming “They got to guard me.” I don’t know if you screamed “I’m a dog,” but he’s done that in the past and he was living up to his fiery rep giving his team a chance toe on the line here takes him a long time to get that long distance shot off but he buries what is a long two and he had a 13-point third quarter into the fourth it’s a five-point game seakum the Pacers get a second chance and Pascal Seakum didn’t touch it enough late in game four but he hits the three and it’s a two-point game but then a Williams three on the other end followed by this Case Wallace steal on the giveaway from Nemhart and the lead is pushed back to seven but Carlile calls timeout can his guys find the gear that they found in game one in a one-word answer no there goes the MVP for an and one and this is getting away from the Pacers the lead is 11 shay Williams ball fake they cannot stop him from getting to the cup and the paint too strong with the ball a quick seven nothing run in a minute and again it’s Williams this one I don’t know if it’s sacrilege to compare it to MJ and Kobe but there are certainly the fingerprints of those greats from the past on that little fadeaway bucket good hallebertton his status a question mark his coach said he’s not 100% this Pacer team now needs to go home and win as the Thunder do their job on home floor kendrick Perkins Richard Jefferson alongside i’m going to let you get the first swing at this so you can’t take a shot at my guy i’ll still take a shot at him trust me don’t worry about that all right all right well we’ll leave that alone i just I’m going to ask you your thoughts on the on the performance tonight of Jaylen Williams 40 in the finals it was one of the most impressive performances that I’ve seen balanced you talk about Shay Gilis Alexander and the pressure that he’s going to get where you need someone to make them pay for that pressure and he attacks and attacks and continues to attack but it’s the variety in which he attacks with threes uh off the dribble the high off the glass that’s such a difficult shot and he hit a he left hand on the dribble drive he can do it all 40 piece all flats perk what did you enjoy most habanero style at that i mean look Scott it was one of the greatest game five finals performances that I’ve seen i thought of 91 Pippen you remember 91 Pippen and game five oh you was too young way behind the little small ears that you have but here’s the thing hey Scott here’s the thing though right but you look at the duo right sga didn’t get in his way we saw SGA go out there he had he had 31 but he also had 10 assists and Chad Homegrred i thought the defense the the sound the tone set that was blocking shots but JDub you know what he what he’s doing he’s growing Scott right in front of our eyes right now maturing because like Richard just said he’s getting it done in all phases like from attacking off the dribble to getting to the free throw line he got it done tonight and he this was one of this was an all-time great performance it was an alltime great performance and I said it reminded me and obviously Shay didn’t go for 40 but when I watched Kyrie and LeBron both go for 40 in Golden State in 2016 I had a front row seat just like I had on this one but what I like about Jub is that Mark Dagnald said something that I’d never heard he said his floor is so high that even if he was going to be two for 13 he would still play him 35 minutes because he defends he rebounds he gets other players involved so he does so many things well and then when he has an offensive night like that like that left hand high off the glass this boy has been in the lab he’s got some skills that you only get if you work on them consistently and he is massively unimpressed by himself when he comes and sits down i’m just I mean you’re just trying to get a smile out of the young man and he’s just all business which I totally appreciate and respect because he’s got the perspective of the the job’s not done yet oh you say he’s unimpressed we asked him why when he didn’t perform to his level in game six uh against Denver and then he came out had a great game seven they’re like what gives you that confidence he looks at us he goes cuz I know I’m nice and it’s just like you know what that was and it’s not a it’s not humility it’s like I believe in the work that I’ve put in and I have confidence in myself and my teammates do too he’s he’s on a he’s on a list now that includes Shaquille O’Neal and Penny Hardway in 95 what is that players 26 or younger to both go for 30 plus in a finals like the stage and the lights don’t get bigger and brighter and he was great tonight i’m curious if you share this the opinion that Stephen A and I were talking about from Indiana’s perspective i think you have to leave uh TJ out on the floor given that Hallebertton is clearly compromised and he and what did McConnell have tonight he had 18 points and was keeping him in it when it looked like he was going to get away from him scott I 1,000% agree with you he should have been out there on the floor i I think you know Rick Holler has done an excellent job in this NBA finals but I thought tonight his substitution pattern was messed up you got to leave Hallebertton on the bench if you’re injured if you’re hurt if you can’t go out and be aggressive and we’re talking about the NBA finals and the way TJ McConnell was handling it that third quarter and also getting others involved you got to ride that out you got to ride that out and you have to make the business decision in my opinion I agree when you let me just say this you want to give Tyrese Hallebert he’s done too many things late game so you want to give him an opportunity but but again we could sit up here and kind of evaluate i think Rick has done a great job but als ultimately I think TJ McConnell could have gotten on the floor sooner but I completely understand why in the last five six minutes you want Tyrese Hallebertton on the floor because he has always found a way to make something happen there is no doubt that’s been demonstrated over and over and over carile couldn’t get the answer to solve that and part of the problem for them is the issue for Tai Hallebertton what do we know about that he’s not 100% it’s pretty clear um but I don’t think he’s going to miss the next game and you know we were concerned at halftime and uh he insisted on playing and I thought I thought he made a lot of really good things happen in the second half but he’s he’s not he’s not 100% you know and there’s a lot of guys in this series that aren’t so pretty obvious that Tyres Hallebertton is not 100% stephen A smith very obvious stephen A smith alongside always 100% um the young man let I want to get to Tai in a minute the young man that was just sitting where you’re sitting spectacular i mean he’s 24 you and I have been around sports for a long time yeah what what really impresses me most about him in particular it’s he’s just all business and what won’t even I asked him like “What do you It’s the finals.” He’s like “Well maybe some point you know when I look back on it I just I’m amazed at how these guys comport themselves it’s just a very mature group isn’t it he’s trying to win.” And I think the loss to Dallas in the postseason last year helped them immensely because they were number one seed last year and then they ran into Kyrie and Luca and them in Dallas and losing that series in six games knowing that had he played better they could potentially have beaten Dallas but that didn’t happen i thought having to live with that all off seasonason long coming into the season with expectations and then watching Shay Gilis Alexander once again return averaging 30 plus again and answering the call and ultimately capturing the league MVP honors instead of finishing with runner up you come into this postseason you know it’s all about him nobody doubts the skill set of Jaylen Williams you know he’s the total package has great size on them one of only two players in the NBA who made an allNBA team and an alldefensive team him and Evan Moley of the Cleveland Cavaliers over the last three games 26 27 and tonight a a career postseason high of 40 just put on an absolute show and then think about what Dagno did he basically put the ball in his hands as a point forward to take some of the pressure off of Shay because they were pressuring Shay and Shay looked a bit exhausted and fatigued in game three so now you put the ball in Jaylen Williams hands but you know you’re usually doing that to take some pressure off of SGA except in this case he’s saying “Wait a minute i can handle these brothers i can be the number one option.” And that’s how he played tonight and that’s why they won this game i just I asked and he gave his teammates credit which again is him just being mature they can’t Stephen A they cannot stop him going to the bucket they can’t if he puts his head down he’s physically too big and strong they Indiana has with the ball handling skills correct with the pull-up jumper with the mid-range his struggle coming into this game was from three-point range 21% from three-point range everything else getting to the basket finishing at the basket hitting his free throws etc he was doing all of those other things he just couldn’t find his three-point shot that obviously wasn’t the case tonight he did what he wanted when he wanted how he wanted and he was obviously helped by SGA helped by Wiggins and Wallace coming off the bench of the first half giving them a spark plug as well chad Homegrren playing elite defense give him a lot of credit but they were also helped by Hallebert but he’s a dump truck going downhill with a ball in his hands there’s no stopping him and particularly from the Indiana perspective that I don’t know what the answer is if they don’t have a Hallebertton who’s healthy and clearly we just heard his coach say and we saw it from the jump like that something’s wrong and he’s has no burst and no ability to be on the floor something is wrong definitely you have to say that because there’s no excuse for him not having a single field goal for the entire game about seven minutes left in a in a game he had two points and about four assists or whatever it was a horrific performance but again he’s probably injured he’s probably hurt he clearly is not 100% cuz we know that Hallebertton can do more than he’s done having said that Rick Carile an exceptional championship hall of fame caliber coach we know that he could have made a different decision because the way TJ McConnell was playing in the third quarter he kept them in this game guess what with Hallebertton hurt I’m leaving TJ McConnell in the game he wasn’t just in there being aggressive being assertive playing downhill but he was making shots and I’m not taking him out of that game the way that he looked combined with the way Hallebertton looked I’m going to roll the dice knowing I got a game six okay let me not put you out there let me make sure I don’t tax your body as much i’m going to put Hallebertton on the bench say you don’t have it tonight you got game six back in Indie if necessary if we could push that to a game seven we don’t need to have you out there tonight i would have left TJ McConnell in that game i entirely agree uh that’s not the way they went but now they’ve got game six at home and now they have to have it stephen A we will see you there yes you will appreciate the two straight games Dubs come up huge how much is your job easier when he’s playing like this and for all I know he’s going to keep playing like this the rest of his career how much does that make things easier on you uh a lot easier um not only for myself but for the rest of the guys he uh can shoulder a load i’ve said this before he does so many things for us as a basketball team on both ends of the floor when he’s the best version of himself um yeah he like you said he was great tonight uh makes the world of a difference when when he’s that good for sure tim second row McMahon ESPN what stood out to you most about Dub’s uh performance tonight yeah he was like really gutsy tonight he stepped into big plays felt like every time he needed a shot he made it he uh he wasn’t afraid he was fearless tonight and um whether they went in or or or didn’t and obviously tonight they went in one and they didn’t but uh he stepped into the the plays with confidence for sure williams and Shay Gil just Alexander become the third duo in the last half century to each score at least 30 in an NBA Finals game at the age of 26 or younger as I mentioned earlier Shaq and Penny back in 95 the most recent before that and I get the folks in Seattle little prickly as it relates to this particular franchise your history belongs to you dennis Johnson and Gus Williams for the Sonics back in 79 tim Leggler is alongside as we’re watching in the back room you’re taking your notes I’m taking mine and I’m thinking is this another one of those nights when everything’s about the Thunder and it’s going to be the Pacers that steal it again it’s a two-point game in the fourth and I don’t know how the hell it is and then it’s not what do you got on the touch screen that shows the way the Thunder were able to finally put this Pacers team down tonight let’s give Indiana credit on a night when Tyres Hallebertton didn’t give him really anything offensively they put a lot of anxiety in this building and here they are in the fourth quarter they make their big run and then it comes down to execution both sides of the ball let’s start off with offensively i thought this was the biggest shot of the game cut it to five and when you come down and execute like this uh this is a big momentum play in the game and it starts right here very very important defensively i talk about it all the time you have to know where your containment is if the defender on the screener is coming up on this side if you’re Nemhart you’ve got to get your feet moving in this direction and that’s going to force Shay into the traffic area right here instead watch what happens he’s able to get loose around the outside and now leaves two in the dust and so now you’ve got to make some bad decisions on the backside you have no choice here if you’re Halleurn you’ve got to step up you see you got a backline defender doing it as well but that now means that you’ve got Lou Dort right here circling to this wide open three scott when you go cut it to five all the tension in the building and you hit a three immediately to get that thing to eight now okay we’re three possession game everybody relax now the defense and this was a major theme over the last 6 minutes of the game you gave Jaylen Williams a lot of love offensively as you should have i’m going to give him some love right here defensively cuz not a lot of guys this late in the game you know you want to fight over a pick watch what he does right there first things first over the top of the pick nowhere to go for Nehart now they execute this second one perfectly you’re going to get Hallebertton coming here a dive by Mile Turner watch the way Oklahoma City executes this you got Chad jumping out right there jaylen Williams takes the dive man so you get nothing out of the action and now the tail end of this is really what the end of the game was all about forcing turnovers getting out and running lou Dort with a great close out you’re going to see right here chases him off the line when this penetration comes down the lane watch Jaylen Williams step up but the key guy is right here sheay is going to stunt as if he’s going down to sink on Miles Turner the whole time he knows he wants to play that passing lane so you see Jaylen Williams steps up shay drops he reads the pass perfectly again eight-point game now you’re out in the open floor for an and one it goes to 11 so it’s five on defense to 11 two trips later after a three and then a stop and a conversion so Oklahoma City really buckled down and executed down the stretch when they had to the 22 turnovers were significant the number of threes the Thunderhead early to make this a game that largely followed game scripts that they’ve enjoyed most of this season I think was huge but the Hallebertton piece is the mo the biggest question mark his coach says he’s not 100% that was obvious i’m interested in and what we were talking about in the back watching it McConnell I get as a spark but if that if that spark is more than your best player right don’t you have to stay with it definitely I was talking to you about this in the fourth quarter in the green room because it was obvious to me at that point that Tyres Hallebertton wasn’t going to turn this around it wasn’t like something like hey maybe there’s a big play to be made here or a big shot not tonight he couldn’t get by guys he was not putting any pressure on them defensively in a lot of ways they were playing four on five offensively Rick Carile was trying to stand up for his guys saying he thought he did some nice things down the stretch you had a player out there that was just not impactful oklahoma City knew it they didn’t have to play him the same way look I don’t know if they win the game if you go with TJ McConnell most of the fourth quarter but I do know this he was moving where he wanted to on the floor he was repeatedly collapsing their defense now you’ve got a chance once you get it to five if you continue to do that it’s a good three-point shooting team you have a chance to potentially make some shots late so I just thought it should have been obvious and I think Rick Carl went a little bit too far with his guy i get it you want to give him the benefit of the doubt i I just didn’t see that happening tonight and now I think that is the biggest factor as we change cities go to Indianapolis for game six what is the status of Tyres Hallebertton can he look more like himself hallebertton has a thousand% earned that buyin from his head coach this team that fan base he’s been the guy for them but tonight he was not and now as they go back home and it’s a it’s a wild card that neither of us or anybody knows the answer to if they don’t have Hallebertton in some some percentage close to what he’s been is this is this a game that’s winnable in that frenzy building as great as it is can they will a win i would normally say no cuz you take away the engine of this team but look at tonight they’re in a onep possession game in the fourth quarter somehow miraculously and you look they had some other guys not play well offensively in this game so maybe you get more from some of those guys as Ben Matan really struggled tonight and he’s been a key factor in the series so I wouldn’t completely rule it out but certainly that they need to see their guy out there pushing pace pushing tempo being the tone setter for their offense they’ve really got none of that out of him and they were still somehow in the game on a night when Oklahoma City hit them with some big punches you call Hallebertton the engine you’re right but I mean TJ is the little engine that can that guy gets anywhere he wants on the floor and was a monster spark in this game if it’s got to be more on his plate I I I think we know for certain he’ll say “Put it on there i can I can stand up i’ll give you a shot.” Bird and his coach Rick Carlo said he’s clearly not 100% here he is on his decision to play through an injured right leg i miss NBA Finals it’s the finals man uh I’ve worked my whole life to be here and I want to be out there to compete um you know help my teammates any way I can um you know I was not great tonight by any means but uh you know it’s not really a thought of mine to to to not play here you know if I if I can uh you know walk then then I want to play so um you know they understand that and uh you know is what it is and uh you know got to be ready to go for game six first round on the right jamal thought is if you lose the season’s over you know so our backs are against the wall um you know we we uh take pride in in playing at home in front of our fans and our fans are amazing so you know we know they’re going to come out with a ton of energy you know in game six um you know so we’re going to have to be able to respond be better um and uh look forward to you know the challenge you know we got to take this a day at a time our backs are against the wall i I mean you got to look at game six like it’s a like it’s game seven you know losing is uh you know if you lose your season’s over so you know we got to go in and and um you know take care of business just approach the game the right way see if we can get better in film and um you’ll be ready to compete they get about 60 some odd hours worth of recovery before now and Thursday night back at home brian Winhor is alongside we’ve all been raving about Jaylen Williams and his performance in this game stoic buttoned up i’m impressed by all of it you think that we’re seeing this performance in the postseason this year fueled by what happened last year i do i I was here for media day in September god it feels like a year and a half ago i bet it does and uh he was talking about how he had to force himself to watch the bad stuff from the playoffs last year he laid a few eggs last year it wasn’t terrible game five here in this building when it was 2-2 against Dallas he just didn’t get it done and he had to force himself to watch the games and so he was saying this in September he’s like “I got to get better right when I get back to those spots he gets to the NBA Cup people probably don’t remember the NBA Cup he has scored 81 points against the Bucks okay he was not good in that game and people are like “Well here we go again jayla Williams in a big game.” Well that’s been obliterated he’s had four or five absolutely brilliant games and we could spend 48 hours litigating whether Hallebertton should have played tonight and what should have happened i don’t think there was any way Jaylen Williams and Sha Alexander were losing this game on this court tonight i think it’s because he worked so hard after what happened in the disappointing finish where this team got upset in the second round last year we agree uh I don’t know that what was going to prevent it although Pacer fans will go “Hey it was a two-point game in the fourth quarter.” I can’t prove it i just believe it i Fair enough i believe this i believe that this is a star-driven league and they have the MVP but I also believe that if if Williams continues on this trajectory then the conversations could be we have to talk about Batman Robin this and that duos big threes whatever this guy is a superstar in this league i don’t like saying this and I worked with him for years and was one of the biggest honors I’ve had at ESPN i worked alongside Scotty Pippen i got guys I respect the NBA comparing him to Pippen yeah because he can defend everybody he played center at the beginning of the year okay when they were down he he defend centers he can defend point guards he was a point guard all the way through like junior junior high in high school and like part of college so the other night when they need him to play point guard he can play point guard look it’s so early he’s 24 years old it’s not really fair but like I got people saying it who I respect yeah but you also had people throughout the year and you’ve told me this and on all the other shows you’ve gone on all year long that were kind of like “Yeah but with this team yeah but not really i don’t know we’ll see.” What are they saying now what can you say you can say they’re 48 minutes from winning a championship and my god if they start how when are they going to stop

Scott Van Pelt is joined on SportsCenter by Kendrick Perkins, Richard Jefferson, Stephen A. Smith, Tim Legler and Brian Windhorst as they react to the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 120-109 win over the Indiana Pacers in Game 5 of the NBA Finals.

0:00 Pacers vs. Thunder Game 5
2:34 RJ & Perk react
6:53 Rick Carlisle on Hali’s injury
7:37 Stephen A.’s reaction
11:22 SGA on J-Dub’s performance
12:48 Tim Legler breaks down Game 5
18:14 Haliburton’s press conference
19:31 Brian Windhorst joins

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