Sports Poets Society

GRACE SMITH/INDYSTAR -  Fans react to Indiana Pacers guard  Tyrese Haliburton going down with an injury on June 22. Pacers could taste title. Now, we’re all sick to our stomachs  25 Jun 2025 - The Indianapolis Star USA TODAY NETWORK Gregg Doyel Columnist   OKLAHOMA CITY – The locker isn’t empty, but almost. A small bag of chips on the cabinet, unopened. A few hangers on the overhead bar, empty. A rolling piece of black luggage nearby, zipped up and ready to go. If it belongs to Tyrese Haliburton — and this was his spot in the visitors’ locker room Sunday at Paycom Center, site of Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals — someone else will need to grab it. Haliburton left the locker room with his hands full. You know. The crutches. Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers are the talk of the NBA today, not the Oklahoma City Thunder, and that’s not the way these things normally go. Normally we celebrate our winners. The team that didn’t win — I’m not calling anyone in this series ...

CHRISTINE TANNOUS/INDYSTAR The party rages on Georgia Street 21 Jun 2025 - The Oklahoman  Indianapolis Star USA TODAY NETWORK Gregg Doyel INDIANAPOLIS – And now, anything can happen. Wait, hang on. Anything has happened. The Indiana Pacers, given no chance against the mighty Oklahoma City Thunder when the 2025 NBA Finals began, have forced a Game 7 with a 108-91 blowout — it wasn’t that close — Thursday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Game 6.The Indiana Pacers bench celebrates a 3-pointer on June 19 during Game 6 of the NBA Finals at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.  Game 7 will be Sunday night at the Paycom Center in downtown OKC. “One game,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said afterward. “This is what it’s all about. This is what you dream about growing up.” Can this impossible dream come true? Think about it: The 2025 Indiana Pacers, two years removed from being a lottery team, are 48 minutes from winning the first NBA title in franchise history. This wasn’t on anyone’s...

CHRISTINE TANNOUS/INDYSTAR - Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton checks the scoreboard on June 16 during Game 5 of the NBA Finals at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City. Wake up, America. Pacers not done yet 19 Jun 2025 - The Indianapolis Star Gregg Doyel Columnist Indianapolis Star USA TODAY NETWORK INDIANAPOLIS – Five games into the 2025 NBA Finals, five strange games — five mostly wonderful games — and people still don’t seem to understand what they’re watching. Not when it comes to the Indiana Pacers. The Oklahoma City Thunder? Different story. People know they’re watching a great team with two or three star players and a loaded roster and a bright future. Do they understand they’re watching two of those teams? PHOTOS BY CHRISTINE TANNOUS/INDYSTAR - Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton shoots on June 16 during Game 5 of the NBA Finals at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City. Because the 2025 Indiana Pacers aren’t here by fluke or chance or whatever folks were saying about their ascension...

CHRISTINE TANNOUS/INDYSTAR - Indiana guard Tyrese Haliburton leaves the court after the Pacers’ Game 5 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on June 16 at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, a night when he went scoreless from the field. Haliburton’s hurting, but no one seems to know how much 18 giu 2025 - The Indianapolis Star Gregg Doyel Columnist Indianapolis Star USA TODAY NETWORT Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton has a towel on his lap and a look on his face. Frustrated? Furious? Probably some of both. He’s just been removed from Game 5 of the NBA Finals after playing 34 minutes and making as many field goals as you did. In two minutes this will all be over, this 120-109 victory Monday night for the Thunder at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, but for Haliburton the frustration – the fury – is just getting started. Because after this game there will be almost 72 hours before the 2025 NBA Finals return to Indianapolis for Game 6 on Thursday night, June 19, at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. ...

CHRISTINE TANNOUS/INDYSTAR  Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton (0)  sits on the bench during the June 8 game against  the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 2 of the NBA Finals at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City. Usually magical Pacer sometimes pulls a disappearing act 10 giu 2025 - The Indianapolis Star Gregg Doyel Columnist Indianapolis Star USA TODAY NETWORK This is the Tyrese Haliburton experience: Sometimes, most of the time, he pulls a rabbit out of a hat. But sometimes, other times, he makes himself disappear. Don’t try to understand it, because he doesn’t. If he did, you think this would happen? Those first three-plus quarters of the Indiana Pacers’123-107 loss to Oklahoma City in Game 2 of the 2025 NBA Finals? “I have to do a better job of figuring out where I can be better,” the Pacers AllStar guard said after the Thunder evened the series at 1-1, with the NBA Finals shifting to Gainbridge Fieldhouse this week for Game 3 and Game 4. Through those first 39 minutes ...

CHRISTINE TANNOUS/INDYSTAR - Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton leaves the court June 5 after winning Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City. Haliburton, resilient Pacers do it again ... To the Thunder? 7 giu 2025 - The Indianapolis Star Gregg Doyel Columnist Indianapolis Star USA TODAY NETWORK OKLAHOMA CITY – Obi Toppin has the ball 60 feet from the basket, six seconds left in Game 1 of the 2025 NBA Finals, and Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle doesn’t want a timeout. The Pacers have never led the Oklahoma City Thunder, not for one second of this friggin’ game in that friggin’ madhouse they call Paycom Center, and this is their chance. And Carlisle doesn’t want a timeout. He’s been here before, see, and not just in these 2025 NBA Playoffs – though Lord knows, as do Cleveland and Milwaukee and New York – he’s been here before in these NBA playoffs. Carlisle was first here, so to speak, 14 years ago in Dallas. The Mavericks had ...