This MJ, not the real one, is exhausted. That was some epic shit in the fourth quarter last night as the OKC Thunder saved their hopes for an NBA championship by being clutch the last six minutes of what in essence was an elimination game for the Thunder had they lost.
If Indiana goes on to lose these Finals in either six or seven games they will look back on those final six minutes with acute regret for the rest of their collective basketball lives.
This game will need two recaps from me in that I feel this game was that important. You could say it was Denver-Game 4 deja vous all over again. But it wasn’t. It was more than that.
It was an NBA Finals performance from Shai and his teammates which ‘should’ forever remove the stench from the Thunder’s epic collapse versus the Warriors in Game 6 circa 2016.
It was that kind of fourth quarter for the Thunder, but all good instead of self-inflicted disaster.
Winning Time is when it matters in the NBA Playoffs and Shai put his guys on his back and carried his team to a 31-17 fourth quarter win. But even more daunting is the fact the Thunder outscored the Pacers 13-1 during the game’s final three minutes.
13-1 on the road in an ELIMINATION GAME….on the road. See Michael’s ’98 tongue wagging. Seriously.
Shai scored 15 of those Thunder points in the 4th quarter and was 8-8 from the line on close out free throws.
And he got some significant help from his two AT&T buddies, Alex Caruso, and his coach who finally pulled his head out of his ass and made the common sense changes which needed to be tweaked in this critical Game 4.
My Four Stars go like this…1 Shai, 2 JDub, 3 Alex Caruso, and 4 Chet.
This MJ is whipped. It’s starting to rain at the Deer Creek mini-ranch. I’m not playing that Fleetwood Mac song though. I need my sleep. I’ll do a more exhaustive recap later on the nuanced changes Mark Daigneault made which gave the Thunder a chance to win this Game 4.
That was epic. Don’t think it wasn’t.
MJ