Oklahoma City Thunder coach Mark Daigneault described Jalen Williams' display in their Game 5 victory over the Indiana Pacers as "unbelievable". 

Daigneault watched on as Williams led the Thunder to a 120-109 victory and take a 3-2 lead in the NBA Finals ahead of Game 6 on Thursday in Indianapolis. 

Williams scored a career-playoff-high 40 points, while also going 14 of 24 from the field, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander adding 31 along with 10 assists. 

The pair combined to score or assist on 103 points, the most by a duo in an NBA Finals game in the past 50 years, but Daigneault was full of praise for Williams. 

"Great force," Daigneault added. "That's the word, and we've used that word with him in his development. When he's at his best, he's playing with that type of force.

"That was an unbelievable performance from him just throughout the entire game."

Despite lauding Williams for his display, Daigneault insisted that there was room for improvement from all of his team heading into Game 6. 

"It wasn't a perfect game at all and there's a lot of room for growth," Daigneault added. "But our improvement from Game 4 to Game 5 was critical."

The Thunder can clinch the franchise's first title since relocating to Oklahoma City in 2008 on Thursday. The Seattle SuperSonics captured the 1978-79 NBA championship by defeating the Washington Bullets in five games.

JOB'S NOT DONE. pic.twitter.com/amwPziMpxw

— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) June 17, 2025

And history now favours Oklahoma, with teams that won Game 5 of the NBA Finals that were tied at 2-2 going on to win the series 23 times out of 31, a success rate of 74%. 

Teams with a 3-2 lead in the finals have also won 40 times in 49 previous opportunities, or 82%, but Williams did not want to rely on what has happened in the past. 

"We're learning," said Williams, whose previous playoff best was 34. 

Williams also finished 9 of 12 from the free-throw line. During the Finals, he is averaging 25.8 points.

He scored 13 points in the third quarter, helping Oklahoma withstand a strong push from the Pacers, then added 11 more in the fourth as the Thunder pulled away.

But Williams was quick to bat down questions about his display, saying: "My team-mates instil a lot of confidence in me to go out and be me.

"And [coach] Mark [Daigneault] has done a good job of telling me to just be myself. I don't got to be anything more and that's given me a lot of confidence.

"That was honestly the same exact game as Game 1. Learning through these finals, that's what makes a team good."