Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 points, and the Thunder beat the Nuggets 112-105 on Tuesday night in Oklahoma City to go up 3-2 in their Western Conference semifinal series.

The top-seeded Thunder overcame a 44-point, 15-rebound night from the Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic. The Thunder can clinch the series on Thursday in Denver.

Gilgeous-Alexander made 12 of 23 field goals and bounced back from a slow start to lead six players in double figures.

“What the great players do is they rise in the face of those challenges and adversities,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “And I just thought he got more and more composed as the game went on. And despite the fact that the pressure was mounting and it got hotter in there, he got cooler and just kind of settled into it, made the right plays, let the game tell him what to do.”

Jokic made 17 of 25 shots. The fourth-seeded Nuggets’ Jamal Murray scored 28 points, but he made just 10 of 27 shots. No other Nuggets player scored more than 13 points.

“This is a really disappointing loss,” Nuggets interim coach David Adelman said. “The guys in there should be disappointed. It’s a heavy loss and we have to bounce back quickly and give ourselves a chance to come back, have a game like this, but finish it.”

Pacers back in East finals: Andrew Nembhard and the Pacers were just happy to make the Eastern Conference finals last year.

After two straight convincing series victories and with a wide-open chase to the NBA title, the Pacers are going to be more confident this time around.

“Last year was more new for us. We were all kind of just excited and maybe too complacent to be here. Now we want to push the limit and see what we can do,” Nembhard said after the Pacers eliminated the top-seeded Cavaliers on Tuesday night in Cleveland with a 114-105 victory in Game 5 of their semifinal series.

The fourth-seeded Pacers now get to rest as they await either the second-seeded Celtics or third-seeded Knicks. Those teams played Wednesday night in a game that ended too late for this edition. The Knicks had a 3-1 lead in the series ahead of the game in Boston.

“We’re talking about eight more wins for an NBA championship. It’s wide open and we have to keep believing,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “We have a formula that works for us when we are steadfast and believe in it.”

The Pacers hadn’t been to the conference finals in consecutive seasons since 2013 and 2014, when they were knocked out both times by LeBron James and the Heat.

The eventual NBA champion Celtics swept the sixth-seeded Pacers in last year’s East finals. The Pacers, though, took two of three from the Celtics during this regular season.

“We still got a ways to go, but it’s a special feeling,” said Tyrese Haliburton, who had 31 points in Tuesday’s win and averaged 17.4 points and seven assists in the series.

The Pacers had six players average in double figures in scoring in the series, and will count on that balance against its next opponent.