Pacers vs Thunder: Indiana defeats OKC in Game 6 of the NBA Finals

Indiana Pacers predominate Oklahoma City Thunder to propulsion NBA Finals to a decisive Game 7 for the archetypal clip successful 9 years.

The Indiana Pacers, rallying astir injured prima Tyrese Haliburton, crushed the Oklahoma City Thunder 108-91 to unit a deciding Game 7 successful the NBA Finals.

Haliburton, cleared to play with a close calf wounded lone a mates of hours earlier tipoff, scored 14 points with 5 assists and 2 steals successful a coagulated publication to a broad squad effort.

“We conscionable wanted to support location court,” Haliburton said connected Thursday. “We didn’t privation to spot these guys observe a title connected our location floor.

“Backs against the wall, we conscionable responded,” helium added. “So galore antithetic guys chipped in, full squad effort. I’m truly arrogant of this group.”

Obi Toppin led the Pacers scoring with 20 points disconnected the seat arsenic Indiana’s reserves out-scored Oklahoma City’s seat 48-37.

Andrew Nembhard added 17 points and Pascal Siakam had 16 points and 13 rebounds arsenic the Pacers, who had mislaid the past 2 games to basal connected the brink of elimination, levelled the best-of-seven title bid astatine 3 games apiece.

Haliburton, who said helium would bash everything helium could to play aft limping done astir of Game 5, showed virtually nary motion of his wounded arsenic the Pacers grabbed the crippled by the pharynx successful the 2nd 4th and ne'er fto go.

Indiana led by 22 points astatine halftime and by arsenic galore arsenic 31 aboriginal successful the 4th quarter.

“Well, we were going location if we didn’t travel retired and springiness everything we person and permission it each retired connected the floor,” said T J McConnell, who had 12 points, 9 rebounds and six assists disconnected the seat for Indiana.

“Obviously precise happy, precise proud, but we’ve got to flush it due to the fact that we person different 1 connected Sunday.”

NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, right, scored a game-high 21 points for Oklahoma City Thunder [Abbie Parr – Pool/ Getty Images via AFP]

Thunder searching for answers up of Game 7

NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led Oklahoma City with 21 points but had 8 of the Thunder’s 21 turnovers.

Gilgeous-Alexander missed his lone three-point effort portion Jalen Williams – coming disconnected a 40-point show successful crippled 5 – missed each 4 of his three-point attempts connected the mode to 16 points.

The Thunder, winners of a league-best 68 regular-season games – pulled their starters aft falling down by 30 going into the 4th quarter.

They volition beryllium searching for answers arsenic the bid heads backmost to Oklahoma City for the title finale connected Sunday – the archetypal Game 7 successful the NBA Finals since 2016.

“The mode I spot it, we sucked tonight,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We tin larn the lessons and we person 1 crippled for everything, for everything we’ve worked for.”

The Thunder are seeking their archetypal rubric since the franchise relocated to Oklahoma City successful 2008, having won it each successful 1979 arsenic the Seattle SuperSonics.

The Pacers, meanwhile, are successful hunt of a archetypal NBA title. They won American Basketball Association (ABA) titles successful 1970, 1972 and 1973 earlier joining the NBA arsenic portion of the ABA-NBA merger successful 1976.

Obi Toppin, left, was 1 of six Indiana Pacers players to people successful treble figures successful Game 6 of the NBA Finals [Dylan Buell/Getty Images via AFP]

Pacers thrust question of momentum

“You know, we’ve got 1 game,” Haliburton said. “All cards connected the table. It’s going to beryllium a batch of fun.”

For a fewer minutes, it looked similar the Thunder mightiness rotation to the title.

The Pacers missed their archetypal 8 shots and fell into a speedy eight-point hole. But they settled successful to link connected six consecutive attempts and took the pb connected a three-pointer from Nembhard midway done the archetypal quarter.

Indiana piled connected the unit with a brace of three-pointers and a trey from Haliburton – his archetypal handbasket of the nighttime – pushing their pb to arsenic galore arsenic 9 points.

Up by 3 astatine the extremity of the first, the Pacers exploded successful the 2nd quarter, stepping up the aggression connected some ends of the level connected the mode to a 64-42 halftime lead.

With little than a infinitesimal to spell successful the archetypal half, Haliburton came up with a bargain and past recovered Siakam with a no-look walk for an emphatic dunk.

Siakam followed up with a turnaround leap changeable astatine the halftime buzzer.

Toppin praised Haliburton arsenic “a soldier,” but Haliburton said the triumph was down to the squad effort.

“It’s the finals,” Haliburton said. “All of america got to springiness everything we have.”