Shai Gilgeous-Alexander takes over down the stretch of Game 4 in the 2025 NBA Finals, swiping momentum away from the Pacers.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. And sometimes, a team will do something in the fourth quarter of an NBA Finals game that it hasn’t done much of all year.
That was the case on Friday, when the Oklahoma City Thunder made a big adjustment, turning to a little-used action to, perhaps, save their season. The Thunder’s two All-Stars worked together to bring their team back from a seven-point, fourth-quarter deficit and tie the Finals at two games apiece with a gritty, 111-104 victory in Game 4.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander found a matchup he liked and scored 15 of his 35 points in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter. The Thunder got stops on the other end of the floor and scored on 15 of their final 18 possessions, finally outexecuting the Pacers in clutch time and making this a best-of-three series, with two of the three games back in Oklahoma City.
Here are some notes, numbers and film on how Gilgeous-Alexander freed himself of Andrew Nembhard and outscored the Pacers in those final five minutes.
1. The best players make the best screeners
Gilgeous-Alexander is a ball-handler, not a screener. Through the first three games of the Finals, he had set exactly two screens on the ball and seven off the ball, according to Second Spectrum tracking. But the best players can make the best screeners, because their defenders don’t want to leave them.
Midway through the first quarter on Friday, Gilgeous-Alexander set his third ball-screen of the series. He didn’t really set it, but rather just tapped Ben Sheppard on the shoulder as he slid by.
But that was enough for Jalen Williams to get half a step on Sheppard. Nembhard didn’t want to commit to the ball and leave the MVP, and Williams got all the way to the rim …
Williams scored 23 of his 27 points in the paint or at the free-throw line in Game 4. Over the four games, the Thunder are plus-32 in the paint and plus-29 at the line, while the Pacers are plus-48 outside the paint.
Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t set another ball-screen until early in the third quarter. This time, the Pacers switched it to keep Williams out of the paint. He got the ball back to the MVP, who isolated against Aaron Nesmith. Nembhard sat at the nail to help on the iso, and Williams missed an open, catch-and-shoot 3.
2. Targeting Nesmith
With the Thunder down two midway through the fourth quarter, Gilgeous-Alexander set ball-screen No. 3. Again, it was just a tap, and again it allowed Williams to beat his man (Nesmith this time), with Nembhard staying attached to the MVP …
Three possessions later and with the Thunder down four, Gilgeous-Alexander set a solid screen for Williams, taking Nesmith off the ball. Nembhard switched it, so the MVP did his best Dirk Nowitzki impersonation, taking Nesmith to the nail (middle of the foul line) for an isolation. Nesmith got caught with his hand in Gilgeous-Alexander’s space, sending him to the line for two of the MVP’s 10 free throws in Game 4.
Next possession, same thing. Gilgeous-Alexander screen. Nembhard switch.
This time, Nembhard went back to double-team Gilgeous-Alexander. Williams attacked his close-out and passed it back to the MVP for a 3-pointer that put the Thunder within one with a little less than three minutes left …
Most times, teams get the matchup they want by setting a ball-screen with the guy who the target defender is defending. But it can be just as effective for the star offensive player to set the screen on the target defender. That’s how Nowitzki typically got the switch he wanted, then taking an opposing guard to the nail, where he could shoot over top.
3. Pacers prefer Nembhard, Thunder prefer Nesmith
Nesmith did a terrific job defending Jalen Brunson in the conference finals. He’s two inches taller and about 25 pounds heavier than Nembhard. And Gilgeous-Alexander shot 11-for-18 against Nembhard in the regular season, scoring 45 points against the Pacers in a game that Nesmith missed.
The Thunder used their smaller starting lineup in the first three games of the Finals, giving the Pacers the opportunity to put Nesmith on the MVP. But they didn’t take it, sticking with Nembhard. And we saw down the stretch of Game 4 why the Thunder want to get that switch.
On the possession after the 3-pointer, the Thunder didn’t need the switch, because Nesmith was matched up with Gilgeous-Alexander in transition. The other four Thunder players stayed away so the MVP could go to work by himself.
He stumbled after shedding Nesmith, but still drained a step-back jumper to give the Thunder their first lead since the second quarter, with Nembhard a little too late with his help …
Three possessions later and with a little less than a minute left, the Thunder were up two. Gilgeous-Alexander set one more screen for Williams, got another switch, and isolated against Nesmith from the top of the floor. He drove left and drew another foul as he spun back to the middle of the paint.
Nesmith had fouled out, and Gilgeous-Alexander put his team up four with two more huge free throws. Nesmith is now averaging 5.1 fouls per 36 minutes in the playoffs, the highest rate among 82 players who’ve played at least 175 playoff minutes. And that may be the biggest reason why he’s a bad matchup for the MVP.
Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams had set a total of three ball-screens for each other through the first three games of the Finals, according to Second Spectrum. In Game 4, they set nine, tied for the most ball-screens they’ve set for each other in their three years together in Oklahoma City (229 total games together). The seven they set for each other in the final 12 minutes were the most in any quarter in that time.
When they were in serious danger of falling into a 3-1 deficit in the Finals, the Thunder changed things up, and their willingness to adjust paid off.
Expect more SGA-Williams actions in Game 5 on Monday (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC).
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John Schuhmann is a senior stats analyst for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
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