INDIANAPOLIS — They are more than one player. They are an ecosystem. They are underdogs that share a single beating heart.
The Indiana Pacers have crafted that identity for themselves as they have put together a run to the NBA Finals that only they would have predicted. It was a good story: The team that rides opponent injury luck to the Eastern Conference Finals a year ago comes out of the gate at 10-15 to start the season, but pulls their socks up in time to show at the very least, last season’s success wasn’t as fluky as it seemed.
But it was supposed to end Thursday night.
The Pacers had done their part by proving themselves a surprisingly difficult speed bump for the Oklahoma City Thunder on the latter’s path to destiny and dynasty, but their job was done.
Indiana had lost two games in a row, including a heartbreaker in Game 4 at home. The Thunder had mostly dominated them in Game 5, and in Game 6, with offensive spark Tyrese Haliburton playing with a strained calf that would keep him out weeks, not days if this were the regular season, the biggest question was whether the Thunder would end them softly or quickly and brutally.
But with NBA commissioner Adam Silver in the building and the Larry O’Brien Trophy on hand, ready to be awarded to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder, minting them as the young team that could dominate the NBA, the Thunder were cut down to size.
Instead of a coronation, the Pacers served up a blowout in front of a rabid, yellow-clad crowd at Gainbridge Fieldhouse that was in a constant roar during a 108-91 win that forced Game 7 on Sunday night.
The Thunder’s dream of capping their 68-win regular season off with a title will have to wait, if they come true at all.
Were they distracted by the chance to win a championship, to accomplish their goals in one fell swoop?
“(It was) definitely in the back of our minds, for sure,” said Gilgeous-Alexander, who finished with 21 points, four rebounds, two assists and eight turnovers, a new playoff high for him and tied for the most he’s had in any NBA game. “Now, we didn’t play like it at all. That’s why the night went the way it did. We got exactly what we deserved, what we earned. We have to own that.”
Instead of Gilgeous-Alexander and Thunder teammate Lu Dort giving the Finals their ultimate dose of CanCon, it was Andrew Nembhard, their Olympic teammate, who rose to the occasion
Not only was Nembhard glued to Gilgeous-Alexander defensively, forcing the normally sure-handed MVP into fumble after fumble, but it was the Pacers guard from Aurora, Ont., who delivered so many punchy offensive plays in addition to three steals that helped the Pacers create offence with Haliburton not 100 per cent.
It was Nembhard, who finished with 17 points on 5-of-7 shooting, who hit two threes in the early minutes of the first quarter when the Thunder jumped out to a brief early lead, and which settled the Pacers down. And it was Nembhard who hit the big triple to answer for a three-point play by Gilgeous-Alexander as part of a brief 15-5 run in the third quarter, when OKC showed signs of life by cutting the Pacers’ lead to 18 points — a deficit that was at least in the neighbourhood of manageable. In the end, that was just the launching point for another Pacers run that put Indiana up 90-60 at the end of the third quarter and prompted the Thunder to empty their bench.
If the Pacers were feeling the pressure of the moment, they weren’t showing it, and if anything, were inspired by it.
“Honestly, I felt good going into the game. I wanted to be aggressive, leave it all out there and not have any regrets,” said Nembhard in the Pacers locker room later.
But it might have been former Raptor and now Pacers veteran Pascal Siakam who provided the game’s lasting image as Haliburton tipped away a Jalen Williams pass late in the second quarter, was able to gather possession and flipped a pirouetting behind-the-back dish to a hard-charging Siakam who slammed the ball home even as Williams climbed up high to try and block him at the rim. Siakam ended the half with an exclamation point 40 seconds later when Nembhard hit him for a buzzer-beating jumper that gave the Pacers a 64-42 lead at halftime.
“It felt like college a little bit. Just baby bounce,” Siakam, who scored 13 of his 16 points on 5-of-7 shooting in the first half, said of his slam. “But sometimes that happens. I was just trying to bring the crowd into the game. They were amazing, by the way, like shout out Gainbridge, like that place was rocking. The support that they have given us all year has just been so amazing. I’m super blessed to be a part of this, and when we are out there, we just want to do everything that we can for them just because they give us so much support from the beginning of the year, and we just want to do it for them.”
The entire night was less Thunder and more avalanche. Haliburton wasn’t his typical water-bug self, but he was effective, contributing 14 points, five assists and two steals in 23 minutes. And anything he did offer seemed like it was worth double, such as his deep three over Thunder ace defender Alex Caruso that was from just over half, seemingly, that got the Gainbridge crowd to turn it up a few more decibels.
“I just look at it as I want to be out there to compete with my brothers,” Haliburton said of his decision to play with a calf strain. “These are guys that I’m willing to go to war with and we’ve had such a special year, and we have a special bond as a group, and you know, I think I’d beat myself up if I didn’t give it a chance.”
Whether Haliburton was going to play or not, the Pacers’ plan was pretty evident from the jump: Use Nembhard to cut off or at least extend Gilgeous-Alexander’s drives long enough that his teammates could swarm him on his spins and crossovers. No single move was enough for Gilgeous-Alexander to get to one of his comfortable spots. Instead, he had to dig into his endless bag of tricks to even get a look, but just as often it seemed the normally sure-handed Thunder star would find himself in a crowd and have a spider’s worth of hands reaching and clawing.
“I don’t even know, they just turned us over a bunch,” said Gilgeous-Alexander of the Thunder’s 21 total turnovers, a new season high, regular-season or playoffs. “They didn’t pressure full court like they have been, which led to more turnovers? I wouldn’t have expected that, but whatever it is, they did it right, and if we want to win on Sunday, we have to take care of the ball better.”
They have to do a lot of things better. They need to shoot better — the Thunder were 8-of-30 from three compared to Pacers, who were 15-of-42 from deep — and they need to play harder and smarter.
“No team is just going to roll over and go home,” said Chet Holmgren, another member of the Thunder’s young core that struggled with a chance to win a title on the line. “No team is going to give you any favours.”
The Pacers, especially. With one more win lying between them and one of the bigger on-paper NBA upsets in recent memory, they are committed to one thing:
“I think it’s just about who wants it more, like just playing hard, and leaving it all out there on the floor and living with the results,” said Siakam, who is gunning for his second championship in nine NBA seasons after having won one with the Raptors in 2019. “I think that’s all you can really say. In a case where if you lose, you go home, or if you force a Game 7 and then you get to Game 7.”
The Pacers have a chance to write an ending for a story that no one saw coming.
The Thunder, with their path to their destiny having been so rudely interrupted, have one more chance to get it right.
“It’s one game for everything you ever dreamed of,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “If you win it, you get everything. If you lose it, you get nothing. It’s that simple.”
