The Oklahoma City Thunder are one game away from winning an NBA Championship after their 120-109 Game 5 victory over the Indiana Pacers to go up 3-2 in the series.

Thursday night could be the end of the 2024-25 NBA season with the Pacers losing in front of their home fans—in front of their hoes.

How did we get here?

Here’s what we learned from the Thunder’s Game 5 win:

1. Jalen Williams is a Sicko

When Jalen Williams entered the NBA in 2022, he was drafted to Oklahoma City alongside Jaylin Williams.

For years, they were the Jalen Williams’s. Indiscernible to me. The Thunder had a bunch of no-name, computer-generated rookies and the Jalen/Jaylin Williams brothers were just two randoms on the team.

That’s over.

There’s only one (1) Jalen Williams.

Jalen Williams Finals 40-ball pic.twitter.com/8n1SLbb59f

— Brett Usher (@UsherNBA) June 17, 2025

Here’s what Jalen Williams did in Game 5:

• 40 points
• 14-for-25 from the field
• 3-for-5 from 3
• 9 free throws
• 6 rebounds
• 4 assists
• 1 steal
• +14

Jalen Williams is a wrecking ball, sacrificing his body to the whims of the hardwood—never fearing the pain awaiting him when he crashes back to earth—only focused on ensuring the ball goes into the basket and his team adds two additional points to their final score.

Falling on the floor, falling on failing defenders, falling on cameramen—Jalen Williams’s body belongs to the game of basketball.

He has fully surrounded himself to the basketball gods, in return, an unstoppable game in which he can hit 3’s, create off the dribble, swish turn-around midrange jumpers and finish at the rim through contact.

Oh, Shai Gilgeous Alexander, the best player on the team, had 31 points himself.

Thunder in 6.

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2. Tyrese Haliburton IS Overrated

Jalen Williams scored 40.

SGA scored 31.

Tyrese Haliburton scored 4.

Here’s what Sir Pass-a-Lot did in Game 5:

• 4 points
• 0-for-6 from the field
• 0-for-4 from 3
• 4 free throws
• 7 rebounds
• 6 assists
• 3 turnovers
• -13

The fuck are we doing?

I’ve praised Tyrese for his postseason heroics.

The Pacers wouldn’t be here if not for Tyrese stirring his cauldron and conjuring spells that save this ragtag group of 6th men from their inevitable fate: vacation.

But for the 4th time in this playoff run, Tyrese scored 10 points or less.

This motherfucker didn’t make a single bucket.

A must-win NBA Finals game and Tyrese was playing like they kept passing him a medicine ball.

It was reported he suffered some sort of calf tightness or soreness—but it’s the NBA Finals—everyone is hurt.

I just praised Jalen Williams for his ability to slam his back onto the hardwood every time he jumps in the air and bounce back to his feet to score 40.

Tyrese’s leg hurts a little and it was like they raised the hoop from 10 feet to 50.

Against Milwaukee and Cleveland, fans chanted “overrated,” and Tyrese returned volley with huge scoring bursts.

But Tyrese is overrated.

His wack ass handle can’t get him anywhere near the paint against this Thunder defense and his jumper takes 20 minutes to load up so his weak little step back move isn’t a factor.

The Ringer ranks him as the 7th-best player in the NBA.

In Game 5, Tyrese Haliburton wasn’t even the 7th best player on the Pacers.

Indiana could’ve pulled Richard Jefferson from the ESPN broadcast and gotten a similar performance.

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3. Don’t let Tony Bradley get hot

Tony Bradley is an NCAA champion—winning in 2017 with the North Carolina Tarheels against Gonzaga.

Bradley scored 5 points in the Championship game.

He was then drafted at the end of the first round by the Utah Jazz—where he’d pretty much spend the first 3 years of his NBA career in the G-League.

From 2021 on, Bradley would spend the rest of his basketball career being traded and waived and assigned to more G-League teams.

Thanks to injuries to Jarace Walker and Isaiah Jackson—along with Thomas Bryant’s inability to play 60 consecutive seconds without slipping on banana peels and James Johnson seemingly just on the roster to throw ninja stars and nunchucks—Tony Bradley—who hadn’t played an NBA game since 2023—is now playing crucial minutes for the Indiana Pacers in the Finals.

And getting saucy wit it:

Too much sauce https://t.co/shNCnN82AV pic.twitter.com/gnxFpc2ynF

— Dreadlef Schrempf (@TheLesterLee) June 17, 2025

Jalen Williams and SGA combined for 71 points in Game 5.

Tyrese Haliburton and Tony Bradley both scored 4 points.

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4. I wonder what team Chet Holmgren will be on in 5 years

3 years in the NBA and Chet Holmgren missed his entire rookie campaign after getting bodied by LeBron James in a pickup game.

He missed 50 games this season with another injury.

And in these Finals, he looks like a guy still learning basketball—like he’s still figuring out how to dribble, how much arch to put on his jumper, how to work in the post.

Here’s what Chet did in Game 5:

• 9 points
• 4-for-15 from the field
• 11 rebounds
• 0 assists
• 1 steal
• 3 blocks
• 3 turnovers

He’s only 23 years old and still provides clutch help defense—sending shots into the concession stands multiple times a game— but the NBA is different now.

You can’t have a “Big 3”—financially.

Jalen Williams has gone out of his way to establish himself as the clear partner in crime with Shai.

Those two brothers will swallow a lot of OKC’s salary sheet.

Plus all these other young role players and the infinity draft picks they have waiting.

Chet’s rim protection is valuable but his offensive game is too inconsistent—and as great as he is swatting away layups—he’s still food as a one-on-one defender—especially on the perimeter.

I pray Chet is renting in Oklahoma and he has a bag packed by the front door after OKC lowballs his contract extension before trading him.

Which I guess would be good news for Chet. He can finally live in a city with more black people he can mimic.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading.

Let me know what you thought of Game 5 of the NBA Finals, leave a comment below. Respond on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. Or shoot me an email at Deadseriousmailbag@gmail.com. Let’s chat, bay-beeeee. 

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