After seeing his impressive NBA Finals debut spoiled by an upset loss, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander sparked for 34 points to rally the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 123-107 drubbing of the Indiana Pacers to tie the series 1-1, in Game 2 at Paycom Center on June 9.

The reigning MVP led a fired-up Thunder squad with an efficient 11-21 shooting night aside from tallying eight assists and four steals before the loud Oklahoma City home crowd.

“[I’m] just trying to attack the game the right way, and I think I’ve done a pretty good job at that so far,” said Gilgous-Alexander, the 2025 NBA scoring champ. Henow holds the record for most points by a player in his first two Finals games at 72 points.

No room for comebacks

Comparing their show in Game 1, the Pacers were duking it out with the Thunder in the opening frame of Game 2 and even managed to take hold of a 20-17 lead with 3 minutes left off of a Tyrese Haliburton trey.

But Chet Holmgren, who had a dim six-point Finals debut, exploded with seven straight points to hand the lead to OKC going into the second frame, 26-20.

Bent on preventing yet another Pacer comeback, the Thunder kept their foot on the gas at the start of the second quarter, which saw them mounting a 23-point margin courtesy of an electric 19-2 run, 52-29, with 4:47 left in the half.

Indiana managed to put up a 10-0 run to pull within 13, 52-39, but a timely Thunder timeout from coach Mark Daigneault zapped the Pacers’ punch-back. OKC ended the first half with a comfortable 59-41 gap.

The second half was no different. The Pacers struggled to chip away the huge Thunder lead arising from the pesky defense of the Western Conference champions.

After scoring only five points on a 2-of-7 shooting in the first three quarters, Haliburton tried putting up some last quarter heroics with 12 points in the final frame. OKC’s margin, however, was too wide to close. Coach Carlisle conceded the game with four minutes left, benching his main clutch guy Tyrese.

Signature defense, better offense

The Thunder defense still proved to be a huge deterrent to the Pacers’ typical overwhelming offense seen in Game 1. Although OKC did not force as much Indiana turnover as it was in the Finals opener, their excellent defense all over the floor limited the Pacers’ production.

The Pacers ended up shooting 45.1% from the field after the buzzer, but it was in the first three quarters where the Thunder put them in tight clamps that made all the difference, holding Indiana to a 38.7% shooting from the field.

NBA All-Defensive First Team Luguentz Dort did an exceptional job in shutting down Haliburton in the first three quarters.

Aside from their expected suffocating defensive showing, the Thunder squad’s offense stole the spotlight in the one-sided win. What improved drastically from their Game 1 performance was the scoring output of the Thunder’s other key players as well as the bench.

Jalen Williams and Holmgren bounced back from a lackluster showing and put up 19 and 15 points, respectively. And there’s the stellar off-the-bench appearances from Alex Caruso and Aaron Wiggins, who tallied 20 and 18 markers, respectively. Caruso and Wiggins caught fire from beyond the arc as they combined for nine triples.

Pacers outpaced

While they are feared for their amazing comeback ability, the Pacers’ weak command of the early quarters is proving to be a huge problem. As in Game 1, they found themselves on the backfoot for most of the game; Game 2 showed them how dangerous it can be to allow a squad like OKC to grab a hold of such huge margins.

“Another bad first half. Obviously it was a big problem,” said Indiana head coach Rick Carlisle in a televised interview. “We just played poorly. A little better in the second half. You can’t be a team that’s reactive and expect to be successful or have consistency.”

The Pacers will look to regain their footing and the series lead in their first home game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, on June 12.

Read more: Pacers vs Thunder: a matchup of contrasting point guards, clashing play styles