TO THE LIMIT

MADDIE MEYER/GETTY IMAGES

Oklahoma City Thunder players look on from the bench during the fourth quarter against the Indiana Pacers in Game 6 of the NBA Finals at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on June 19 in Indianapolis.

Dream season has reached one game to define legacies

21 Jun 2025 

Thunder Insider Joel Lorenzi 

The Oklahoman USA TODAY NETWORK

INDIANAPOLIS – Half-drank Gatorades and hardly-sipped protein shakes were sprawled across the carpet where the champagne stains would’ve been setting in. Glazed eyes and long stares could not be hidden by protective, celebratory goggles. Their hands fiddled, occasionally running through braids or massaging the disappointment from their chins; they’re another few nights away from their final chance to hot potato the Larry O’Brien.

The Oklahoma City Thunder, having entered Thursday’s Game 6 of the NBA Finals with a 3-2 lead, ended the night framing the opportunity that Sunday is. Thursday’s shot was long gone.

KYLE TERADA/ IMAGN IMAGES - Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton (0) reacts 

after a play against the Oklahoma City Thunder during the first half of Game 6 

of the NBA Finals on June 19 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

History, coaches, Alex Caruso — the only player on either side that’s closed out a Finals — can attempt to illustrate how difficult wrapping a series of this magnitude is. But OKC can’t truly feel that weight until it’s surrounded, Gainbridge howling from every direction. Until its descent upon the Thunder’s title hopes leads to role player roll call; Obi Top-pin was chanted like the national anthem by the third quarter.

Until it’s forcibly sent home to devise a new plan, the next one for the kill.

“Closing out in the Finals is different than a playoff game because it’s the end of the season,” said All-Star Jalen Williams, a minus-40 in OKC’s 108-91 loss to the Pacers. “You play for so long that it just has more weight to it. Obviously, you want to win a championship. You don’t want to feel like it was all for nothing.”

Uncharacteristic. Coach Mark Daigneault rarely underscores a word shot toward him in a question, but this one he isolated.

It was the best way — perhaps the only way — to describe OKC’s threequarter decay, one of the only instances during this dream season where it’s sat its starters in the fourth quarter for the wrong reasons. Indiana led by 30 entering the final period.

“They outplayed us for most of the 48 minutes,” Daigneault said plainly. “That’s the story of the game. They went out there and attacked the game.

“It was disappointing. It was collective. It wasn’t one guy.”

Nor was Indiana’s effort. The Pacers were ravenous. Desperate. The urgency consumed the Thunder, which succumbed to this compounding pounding midway through the third quarter.

Indiana forced 21 turnovers to OKC’s 10. The Pacers had nine more assists. They shot 12 more 3-pointers, making seven more than OKC. The Thunder scored 60 points through three quarters, its fewest points before the fourth in any game this season.

That the Thunder trailed by just three after 12 minutes felt astonishing. Indiana emerged from its first timeout on a 22-7 run. Its true fury had yet to manifest.

The dogged spirit of T.J. McConnell. The replenished abilities of Tyrese Haliburton. The fortitude of Pascal Siakam. The explosiveness of Obi Toppin.

McConnell continued to make his own fortune. This 6-foot-1 shot caller who breached the paint without appointment. He whistled past revered defender Cason Wallace like a harmless janitor. In an eight-point game, he slipped underneath center Isaiah Hartenstein’s reach, the Tom to his Jerry, for an inexcusable offensive rebound.

That feeling that comes when MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander sizes up from 17 feet out, the inevitability of his jumper — McConnell wielded that like an Infinity Stone. Up nearly 30 with mere minutes to play, he remained merciless, picking off careless backcourt passes from remnants of OKC’s Summer League squad.

Game 6 was no fumble. The Thunder’s grip never quite resembled anything more than a slick grasp coated in butter. Enough burying plays that the film sessions that follow could be franchised and stretched further than Fast and The Furious.

Gilgeous-Alexander had eight turnovers, five of them by half, complete with 21 points on 7-of-15 shooting. McConnell even stole jumpers mid-air. Chet Holmgren missed an uncontested alley-oop.

OKC’s window in the third, when it finally strung together enough stops to crawl back, went unanswered. Its first score didn’t come until there was 6:59 to play in the period. Its idea of generating 3s were Lu Dort’s spot-up 3s, not always volunteered.

Haliburton, questionable with a calf strain entering Thursday before tallying 14 points and five assists, lunged toward the sideline to make one of the most memorable plays in the building’s history.

With less than a minute left in the first half of Indiana’s bludgeoning, Haliburton batted away a pass from Williams. He and Pacers legend Reggie Miller nearly came face to face when he finally chased down the ball, keeping it in play to split Williams and Dort with a spiral to Siakam.

Siakam’s cinematic rise summoned Frank Sinatra’s voice on vinyl somewhere. His off-arm wrapped around Williams to ensure punishment. On this game-defining poster slam, Siakam cocked his arm back with the might of Jordan Belfort — I’m not leaving, his mid-air moment screamed. Not yet.

Not until these fighting Pacers secured a fitting final shot against the largely favored Thunder. Who would these Pacers be if not in it? Capable of enforcing two of the worst middle quarters of OKC’s season to keep their own alive. The team with a roach’s resourcefulness and a cat’s number of lives.

As often as the Thunder has welcomed new experiences, this one seemingly weighs like a mass. Strenuous to lug around the ambition of a 17-year-old franchise. Carrying the organization’s previous demons on its shoulder. Altering the breathing habits of a city that’s never been closer to this altitude.

Oklahoma City received one final crash course on urgency. One last taste of blood with the capability of hopping back up, the smelling salt that is its back on the wall. Quicker than the team filed onto the second bus, the Thunder realized it won’t get another.

“We can learn our lessons,” GilgeousAlexander said. “We have one game for everything, for everything we’ve worked for, and so do they. The better team Sunday will win.

“One game for everything you ever dreamed of. If you win it, you get everything. If you lose it, you get nothing. It’s that simple.”