After Game 1 of the NBA Finals, all anyone could talk about was the Indiana Pacers’ magic. Another impossible comeback, another last-second shot from Tyrese Haliburton. The question on everyone’s mind was, “How do you even stop these guys?” Well, after Game 2, we have our answer: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The league’s MVP didn’t just get even, he got historical, putting on a dominant show that completely shut down the Pacers’ comeback hopes and etched his name into the NBA Finals record books.
Let’s just get straight to the history, because what SGA did is absolutely insane. With his incredible performance across the first two games, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 72 points are now the most ever by a player in their first two NBA Finals games in league history. Read that again. More than Jordan. More than LeBron. More than anyone.
That’s the kind of legendary air SGA is breathing right now, and he’s doing it on the biggest stage in basketball. And that historic performance fueled a desperately needed and incredibly decisive victory. The Thunder didn’t just squeak by in Game 2; they controlled it from the jump, winning 123-107 to tie the series 1-1.
So, how’d they do it? How did they figure out the puzzle that is this resilient Pacers team? After the game, SGA himself broke down the simple, but incredibly difficult, formula. It was all about focus and a refusal to let up for even a second.“You have to stay focused on the task at hand,” Shai explained.
He then delivered the line that perfectly captured how they finally stopped the Pacers’ comeback magic, acknowledging that against a team this relentless, you can’t just land one big punch and expect them to stay down: “You gotta try to throw all the punches all night and yeah that’s what we did, we threw enough punches tonight to get a W.”
(This is a developing story…)
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