With Jalen Williams’ 40-point performance to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to a pivotal Game 5 victory over the Indiana Pacers in the NBA Finals on Monday, there’s now a legitimate NBA Finals MVP debate.
Through four games, the common consensus was that regular season MVP Shai-Gilgeous Alexander would waltz to the Bill Russell Trophy, especially after scoring 15 points in the final 4:38 of Game 4 to even the series at two games apiece after falling behind with a Game 3 loss. However, after Williams’ impressive showing, a closer look at his and SGA’s stats through five games indicates that this could be a race that merits a closer look.
The Case For SGA
If Shai Gilgeous-Alexander were to win the Finals MVP, he would join Shaquille O’Neal, Tim Duncan and LeBron James as the only players this millennium to win the regular season MVP in conjunction with the Bill Russell Trophy. Considering the fact that SGA has scored 30+ points in four of the series’ five games and is averaging a historically strong 32.4 points to this point, it almost feels unfair to slight him of such a legendary achievement at no fault of his own.
Gilgeous-Alexander’s 38-point Game 1 performance was the driving force behind the Thunder establishing their eventually-blown lead, and his 34-point performance in response to that shortcoming in Game 2 was instrumental in avoiding what could have been a fatal 2-0 hole to a Pacers team that at that point was playing with tons of confidence. At that point, Gilgeous-Alexander’s 72 points in his first two career NBA Finals games were the most of any player ever.
Points in their first two NBA Finals games:
72 — SGA
69 — MJ
68 — KD
59 — Shaq
58 — Kareem
45 — Steph
39 — LeBron pic.twitter.com/eSo7ok9KQ3— StatMuse (@statmuse) June 11, 2025
After Indiana limited him to 24 points in Game 3 to take a 2-1 lead, Gilgeous-Alexander responded with his 15-point fourth quarter barrage in Game 4 to steal a win when it appeared the Thunder were going to lose and fall behind 3-1 in the series for a significant portion of the game. Even with Williams taking the headlines in Game 5, Gilgeous-Alexander still scored 31 points and registered ten crucial assists.
The Case for J-Dub
The case for Williams starts with his Game 5 performance, of course. The stature of a 40-point performance in an NBA Finals win can’t be understated. Especially at the ripe of 23, making him the third youngest player to achieve the feat in the history of the NBA. However, Williams has at least 25+ points in each of the last three games and he’s averaging 31 points and six rebounds per game across those three games.
In addition to his emergence on offense, Williams has been the series’ most impactful defender. Largely because of Williams’ defensive performance, Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton has only eclipsed the 20-point mark once through five games and has been a relative non-factor. Considering the torture Haliburton put the Eastern Conference gauntlet through, it’s a level of dominance that is truly noteworthy.
While Gilgeous-Alexander still enters a potentially title-clinching Game 6 as a prohibitive favorite to take home the MVP award, another performance from Williams like the one we saw in Game 5 might just be enough to “steal” the award from his teammate Gilgeous-Alexander, who is on the verge of a historic achievement.
If we’re going by 2015 voting Jalen Williams would be the Finals MVP.
— De
ressed Warriors Fan
(@GoIdenState) June 17, 2025
It wouldn’t be historically unprecedented, either. A decade ago this month, we saw Andre Igoudala steal the 2015 Finals MVP award from then-regular season MVP Steph Curry based on his job covering LeBron James. That was despite the fact Igoudala scored nearly 10 fewer points per game than Curry in the series. Never say never, just saying.
Editor’s Pick
Ballislife Exclusive: Chris Brickley Interview
The post NBA Finals: MVP Up For Grabs? appeared first on Ballislife.com.
