OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma City Thunder and Cleveland Cavaliers, the top seeds in the playoffs and owners of the best regular-season records in the NBA, find themselves in dire need of wins as they host Game 5s in the conference semifinals on Tuesday night.
Oklahoma City might have saved its season with a 92-87 win at Denver on Sunday that tied the Western Conference series at two wins apiece. The Thunder finally won a close game in the series on Sunday after losing Game 1 on a last-second shot and Game 3 in overtime.
''I think we fought, stayed the course, played the game," Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. ''Especially in this series, it's been so random almost. It's throwing different things at us. I think we've been able to stay the course and it gave us a chance late. We closed it out.''
The Thunder regained the homecourt advantage they worked so hard to get in a franchise-best 68-14 regular season. But lose on Tuesday, and they head to Denver down 3-2 and facing elimination.
''I mean there's no relief at all," Thunder forward Chet Holmgren said after Sunday's win. ''It's still a really competitive series with a good team on the other side. There's no relaxing until ... There's just no relaxing.''
Cleveland, the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference with a 64-18 regular-season record, is on the brink of elimination after being blown out 129-109 at Indiana to fall behind 3-1.
The Pacers, who reached the Eastern Conference Finals last season, know there's work ahead to return.
''You've got to be able to go into hostile territory and be able to stay focused,'' Pacers center Myles Turner said. "I think that people are going to start talking about us now, ‘We're this, we're this, we're that.' We've got to keep our heads down, keep our blinders on and just keep rolling.''
