INDIANAPOLIS — Hanging in the rafters of the Gainbridge Fieldhouse are three Pacers ABA championship banners from the early 1970s — every one of them was won on the road.
The Pacers are now just one more road win away from their first NBA championship.
With its season on the line, the Pacers demonstrated the resilience that had brought them to this point, led by their All-NBA point guard, Tyrese Haliburton, who played through a strained calf, still scored 14 points, and was +25 on the night.
“I felt like he did amazing today. He led us to a win, and he’s a soldier. He’s not going to let no little injury hold him back from playing in the Finals and helping this team win,” Obi Toppin said of Haliburton.
In Game 6, the Pacers played their best game of the postseason — they just kept making plays.
That’s who these Pacers have been all playoffs, and it’s why there will be a Game 7 of the NBA Finals on Sunday after a 108-91 win in Game 6.
The Pacers played with the desperation of a team trying to save its season. Their ball movement was as crisp as it has been these playoffs. More importantly, they cranked up the pressure defense and forced 21 Thunder turnovers — MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 7 made buckets and 8 turnovers on the night — which led to transition buckets going the other way.
This game was decided in the second quarter.
That’s when Indiana’s defensive intensity overwhelmed the Thunder reserves, and things started to spiral. OKC shot 6-of-18 for the quarter and turned the ball over seven times, which sparked a 30-9 run by Indiana to close the second. The turnovers and misses allowed the Pacers to get out in transition, and they thrived in their element with a raucous crowd soaking up every minute of it. By halftime it was 64-42 and Indiana was in total control.
T.J. McConnell got going in the second quarter. It started doing something he has done all series — attacking whenever Aaron Wiggins (or Isaiah Joe) is the defender. But once McConnell got a couple of buckets that way, the basket looked huge and he was hitting midrangers over everyone. He finished with a dozen points on the night.
“We played into their hands,” Alex Caruso said of the Thunder’s night. “We tried to do too much one-on-one. They were active with their hands and aggressive defensively. We were just a little slow to get into rotations on defense and we fell away from the stuff that has been good for us.”
Any dreams of a Thunder comeback were snuffed out when they failed to score on their first eight possessions of the second half. While there was a flicker of life late in the third, the Thunder cut the lead to 19, the game was never really in doubt.
” It was uncharacteristic. It was disappointing,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said of his team’s performance. “It was collective. It wasn’t one guy. Just, we were not where we needed to be on either end of the floor for much of the game. We have to be a lot better before Game 7.”
Indiana did it with balance, led by Toppin, who scored 20 points off the bench. Andrew Nembhard scored 17, Pascal Siakam added 16, and there was Haliburton’s inspirational 14.
“Everybody was tied together, and that’s how it has to be,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “We did better rebounding, we did better on the turnover count, and on Sunday we’re going to have to be better.”
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 21 on 7-of-15 shooting but had eight turnovers. Jalen Williams had 16 points, and as a team the Thunder were 8-of-30 on 3-pointers.
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