NBA Finals Game 7 "for all the marbles" after OKC no show
Reaction and analysis of Game 6 and a look ahead to Game 7 on
21 giu 2025
The Oklahoman
Joe Mussatto Columnist The Oklahoman USA TODAY NETWORK
INDIANAPOLIS – Mark Daigneault waited as long as he reasonably could have before calling his first timeout Thursday night. It was as if he didn’t want to intervene in the action, instead waiting for his team to show some spunk. To hush the Indiana crowd and halt the Pacers’ run on its own. That wait would be an indefinite one. Game 6 was all Indiana: 108-91 Pacers.
“The way I see it is, we sucked tonight,” said Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, his analysis unimpeachable.
The Pacers played with desperation. The Thunder played like it had a fallback option — a Game 7 wild card tucked away in the recesses of the visitor’s locker room. Which is true of course, but boy oh boy, that’s a dangerous game to play. Anything and everything is on the table in a Game 7. Not closing things out in Game 6 leaves the Thunder susceptible to the whims of the ball bouncing a certain way Sunday. Of Obi Toppin or Aaron Nesmith or Ben Sheppard catching fire from three. Of the Thunder going cold. Of a missed call.
“We have one game for everything, for everything we’ve worked for, and so do they,” SGA said. “The better team Sunday will win.”
The Thunder is the better team, OKC has been the NBA’s best team all season, but Game 7s aren’t much for past sample size. We’ve reached the single-elimination portion of the season.
You can’t help but wonder how much the safety net of a Game 7 resulted in the Thunder’s Game 6 no-show.
“The human element didn’t creep in for me until we got blown out,” Thunder forward Jalen Williams said. “I didn’t start thinking about Game 7 until we walked off the floor.”
Gilgeous-Alexander, who had eight turnovers, turned the page before then.
“One game for all the marbles,” SGA told his teammates, in audio captured on ABC’s broadcast, in the fourth quarter when Game 6 had long been put to bed.
Game 7 is for all the marbles. But for the Thunder, so was Game 6. The Thunder could’ve taken the title then and there in Indianapolis, but the champagne bottles stayed corked. Maybe now OKC will win the title in front of its home crowd, which might be the best of both worlds, but there’s also the possibility of, well, you know.
“Obviously that’s frustrating,” Thunder center Chet Holmgren said. “It’s not fun. Nobody is happy right now. But you can’t let the emotions kind of sidetrack you from what we need to do leading up to and during the game coming up.
“We’ve had wins and losses throughout the playoffs, so it’s kind of a similar mentality: turn the page, don’t forget just what happened, but see where you can be better and try to apply it going forward.”
One of the lessons of this series: Count out the Pacers at your own peril.
Tyrese Haliburton looked awfully spry Thursday night for a guy hobbled by a calf injury. How about that sequence just before halftime? Haliburton stole a Jalen Williams pass (one of the Thunder’s 21 turnovers), and tight-roped the sideline before whipping a no-look, spinning dime to Pascal Siakam for a slam.
It was a highlight that capped a horrific second quarter for the Thunder, one in which OKC was outscored 36-17. The Pacers led by 22 at halftime and that was that. The 10-2 lead the Thunder sprinted out to was but a distant memory.
OKC had no answers to Indiana’s runs. No antidotes for the affliction that has been T.J. McConnell. All McConnell did was tally 12 points, nine rebounds, six assists and four steals. Toppin, another Pacer reserve, had a team-high 20 points.
No amount of timeouts were changing the tenor of Thursday’s game.
“You don’t get an unlimited number,” Daigneault said. “We have to have the ability to play through some things. I tried to stop the play when I could.
“But all the way around, we just weren’t where we needed to be tonight. Our ability to course correct in games is important. We’ve done that well. We have to do that in these games. It’s a 48minute game.”
There’s only one 48-minute game left to play.
And this one, like SGA said, is for all the marbles.
Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman.
Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at jmussatto@oklahoman.com. Support Joe’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
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MADDIE MEYER/GETTY IMAGES
Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton reacts during the second quarter against the
Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 6 of the NBA Finals on June 19 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Justin Martinez Thunder Insider
The Oklahoman USA TODAY NETWORK
INDIANAPOLIS – Myles Turner returned to the bench like a prizefighter, tasting his own blood after the first haymaker.
It came in the form of an 8-2 run by the OKC Thunder to start Game 6 of the NBA Finals. But as Indiana burned a timeout to stop the bleeding, Turner could be seen nodding his head nonchalantly.
He was unfazed by the early jab, and so were his teammates. Indiana ultimately earned a 108-91 home win, forcing a Game 7 in the championship series, and it punched back after that first timeout.
The Pacers responded with a 22-9 run and continued to fight throughout the night to secure the victory. Pascal Siakam recorded 16 points and 13 rebounds, while Obi Toppin poured in 20 points and six rebounds off the bench.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 21 points and eight turnovers for OKC. Jalen Williams added 16 points and three rebounds.
Game 7 is set for 7 p.m. CT Sunday in Oklahoma City (ABC). Both teams will be playing for their first NBA championship.
Here are four more takeaways from the game:
Haliburton played through strain, delivered gutsy performance
Tyrese Haliburton danced with the ball around the perimeter, much like he’d been dancing around questions about his health for the past 72 hours.
But just like Isaiah Hartenstein, who remained glued to Haliburton despite the flurry of dribbling moves, there was no shaking the obvious. Indiana’s star guard wasn’t at full strength.
Haliburton suffered a strained right calf during a Game 5 road loss on Monday, and he was listed as questionable for Game 6.
Haliburton still suited up. And while he didn’t quite have the same burst of speed that he usually does, he managed to chip in 14 points and five assists.
Playing through a strained calf is risky business. A recent example of that decision backfiring is Kevin Durant, who suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon after he opted to play through a calf strain in Game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals.
But the risk of Indiana’s season coming to an end was more important in the eyes of Haliburton, who delivered a gutsy performance to help his team force Game 7.
Indiana feasted on OKC’s turnovers
A green light might as well have illuminated Gainbridge Fieldhouse once Williams picked up his dribble late in the second quarter.
It was off to the races for the Pacers. Haliburton intercepted Williams’ intended pass for Lu Dort and launched a fastbreak. He then zipped the ball to Siakam as he spun around and looked at the crowd.
It told him what happened next. Siakam elevated for a hammer dunk over Williams, which sent Haliburton and just about everyone else in the building into a frenzy.
Indiana fed off the turnovers it forced Thursday, and it had a feast. The Thunder committed 21 turnovers, which the Pacers converted into 19 points.
Meanwhile, OKC only forced 11 turnovers. It converted them into 13 points.
Indiana had a huge advantage in the 3-point battle
Ben Sheppard watched as the ball bounced like a pinball, flying around Indiana’s machine-like offense.
It found Andrew Nembhard, who quickly passed it to Sheppard with about one second left in the third quarter. The sophomore guard then heaved a 26-foot 3-pointer that splashed through the rim.
All OKC’s players could do was slowly walk off the floor. It was just one of those nights.
Indiana had a huge advantage in the 3-point battle. It went 15 for 42 from deep (35.7%), while OKC went 8 for 30 (26.7%).
That gave the Pacers a 21-point advantage in the 3-point department.
OKC head coach Mark Daigneault often says the most important game is the next one.
That has never been more true. OKC will host Indiana in Game 7 of the Finals at 7 p.m. CT Sunday (ABC). The Thunder will be competing for its first championship in franchise history and a proper ending to a historically dominant season.
Indiana will also be competing for its first NBA title. The Pacers are looking to etch their name into the history books with a playoff run that couldn’t be scripted.
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