The Oklahoma City Thunder moved one win away from an NBA championship after defeating the Indiana Pacers 120-109 in Game 5 of the Finals on Monday night. Head coach Mark Daigneault, speaking postgame at Paycom Center, highlighted his team’s development and focus under pressure.
Jalen Williams led the Thunder with a career-high 40 points, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander added 31 and 10 assists. But Daigneault’s focus was on process over stat lines.
“That was an unbelievable performance by him,” Daigneault said of Williams. “He really was on the gas the entire night, applied a ton of pressure, thought he made a lot of the right plays.”
The Thunder seized early control, building an 18-point lead before the Pacers stormed back. Indiana cut it to two midway through the fourth, but Oklahoma City responded with key stops and transition buckets.
“I thought our defense tonight was really good,” Daigneault said. “The conversion off of our defense was hit or miss… but our improvement from Game 4 to Game 5 was critical.”
The Thunder forced 16 turnovers and turned those into 32 points, a stark contrast from their Game 1 output off takeaways. Aaron Wiggins and Cason Wallace, both quiet in Game 4, delivered timely contributions off the bench.
“Wigs only played eight minutes in Game 4. I didn’t think Cason played great either,” Daigneault noted. “And they both came ready to go tonight and gave us a massive lift.”
The Oklahoma City crowd also earned praise for creating a charged environment.
“They’ve been unreal forever,” Daigneault said. “They just put the wind at our back… We have to play with the type of togetherness and competitiveness and spirit that they can relate to.”
Though the Thunder sit one win from the title, Daigneault stressed a commitment to staying grounded.
“We’ve got to stay present and compete together in every possession,” he said. “These games are a challenge. It can pull you into the future. It can pull you out into the past.”
When asked about Williams’ emergence in the Finals, Daigneault deflected the idea of ranking players by role.
“Respectfully, we don’t look at it like that — second guy, first guy, third guy,” he explained. “We’re just trying to help every guy grow and improve and tackle the next thing in front of them.”
Oklahoma City’s improvement on both ends was clear, especially in the late-game execution. Gilgeous-Alexander again controlled the tempo in crunch time.
“He’s just in such command with the ball,” Daigneault said. “And Dub was doing that tonight too… they controlled the clock, controlled the game down the stretch.”
With Game 6 set for Indianapolis, Daigneault emphasized humility over celebration.
“We’ve got to take the humility to understand there’s still a lot we can get better at,” he said. “If we want to go on the road and win a game.”
