Lakers castoff Alex Caruso is 1st player in NBA history with these stats in Finals for OKC Thunder

Billy Heyen

Lakers castoff Alex Caruso is 1st player in NBA history with these stats in Finals for OKC Thunder image

Alex Caruso is one of the Oklahoma City Thunder's most important players.

Both the Los Angeles Lakers and Chicago Bulls chose to let him get away, and they both get to sit at home and watch.

Meanwhile, Caruso scored 20 points (7-9 FG) in 30 minutes off the bench on Friday night as the Thunder rallied to beat the Pacers and tie the NBA Finals up at two games apiece.

He also had 20 points in OKC's Game 2 win.

Those two 20-point outings are historic for Caruso.

It's the first time in NBA history, according to ESPN, that a player has scored 20 points twice in an NBA Finals series after not scoring 20 in a game once the entire regular season.

Caruso isn't known as a scorer. His main roles are as a defensive pest and a distributor.

But he's also got one of the highest basketball IQs on the floor. It's why LeBron James was such a big fan of him.

So when the defense allows Caruso to put points on the board, that's exactly what he'll do.

And with this trend line, the Thunder might need a couple more big scoring nights from their unheralded star guard to win their final game of the season later in the series.

MORE: SGA joins Jerry West in wild NBA Finals history

Billy Heyen

Billy Heyen is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He is a 2019 graduate of Syracuse University who has written about many sports and fantasy sports for The Sporting News. Sports reporting work has also appeared in a number of newspapers, including the Sandusky Register and Rochester Democrat & Chronicle