That night, Chen Xi himself wasn't in particularly good shooting form. Since they weren't confident they could pull it off, they decided to call it early with four minutes left in the fourth quarter and let this road game go.
By the final buzzer, Chen Xi had played 35 minutes, shooting 13-for-23 from the field, 4-for-7 from three, and 4-for-4 from the free-throw line. He finished with 34 points, 7 rebounds, 8 assists, and 1 steal.
The stats didn't look bad on their own. But compared to Chen's outrageous performance in the previous game, he couldn't help looking a little like he'd been taking it easy...
It had to be said: from the fans' perspective, the result of Game 5 of the Finals was what the Thunder-Nets series should look like at this stage.
After all, even with Anthony Davis injured and out, the Thunder had still managed to beat the Nets by 20 points in Game 4. It was downright absurd, almost "unscientific."
In Game 5, Brooklyn had shown the kind of forceful, relentless offense that Nets fans believed represented the team's true level.
They were convinced that as long as the Nets could keep up that incredible offensive performance, they'd be invincible!
Come back from 0–3 to win four straight?
It wasn't impossible!
But then a new piece of news immediately shattered their hopes.
On the morning of June 7, the Oklahoma Thunder officially announced that Anthony Davis's status had been changed to "questionable."
The meaning was simple: that evening, they'd decide whether he would play based on his physical condition and personal preference.
Meanwhile, in the eyes of a few conspiracy-minded fans,
this was obviously a smokescreen put out by the Thunder!
Maybe Davis had already recovered. They were just listing him as questionable now so