Oklahoma Metropolis star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander stated the Thunder should persist with the rules that made them the perfect group within the NBA common season as they search to bounce again from a devastating loss to Indiana in sport one of many NBA Finals.
HT Picture
The Thunder, who led the league with 68 regular-season victories, had by no means trailed and led by 15 early within the fourth quarter of the championship sequence opener.
However the tenacious Pacers rallied and seized the 111-110 victory on Tyrese Haliburton’s pull-up basket with three-tenths of a second remaining.
“As much as we can, we just got to treat it like every other game, every other situation we’ve been in,” Gilgeous-Alexander stated. “Yes, we haven’t been in this situation , but that doesn’t mean our character has to change, or what we did last time.
“It is nonetheless basketball, the sport of basketball we grew up enjoying. The principles do not change as a result of we’re within the Finals.
After Indiana pulled inside one with with 48.6 seconds remaining, Gilgeous-Alexander the 26-year-old Canadian who supplanted Denver star Nikola Jokic because the NBA Most Helpful Participant this season had an opportunity to place the Thunder forward by three however his fadeaway shot try did not fall, leaving the door open for Haliburton’s heroics.
“I thought I got a pretty good look, felt good, didn’t go in,” he stated. “Then they got a look, and it went in. Can’t do anything about it now. Just got to be better for next game.”
Thursday’s final result recalled the opening sport of the Western Convention semi-finals, when Denver’s Aaron Gordon drained a last-gasp three-pointer to elevate the Nuggets to a 121-119 victory over the Thunder.
Oklahoma Metropolis went on to beat the Nuggets in seven video games, and Gilgeous-Alexander stated it will be no more durable to bounce again after one other slim defeat.
“Me personally, how you lose doesn’t really matter,” he stated. “Obviously it sucks, last-second shot, the energy in the arena and stuff like that. But we lost at the end of the day. We lost game one. We’ve lost game one before.
“The sequence is not first to 1, it is first to 4.”
bb/rcw