Los Angeles, United States: The Indiana Pacers, rallying around injured star Tyrese Haliburton, crushed the Oklahoma City Thunder 108-91 on Thursday to force a decisive game seven in the NBA Finals.
Haliburton, cleared to play with a right calf injury only a couple of hours before tipoff, scored 14 points with five assists and two steals in a solid contribution to a comprehensive team effort.
“We just wanted to protect the home court,” Haliburton said. “We didn’t want to see these guys celebrate a championship on our home floor.
“Backs against the wall, we just responded,” he added. “So many different guys chipped in, total team effort. I’m really proud of this group.”
Obi Toppin led the Pacers scoring with 20 points off the bench as Indiana’s reserves out-scored Oklahoma City’s bench 48-37.
Andrew Nembhard added 17 points and Pascal Siakam had 16 points and 13 rebounds as the Pacers, who had lost the last two games to stand on the brink of elimination, leveled the best-of-seven championship series at three games apiece.
Haliburton, who said he’d do everything he could to play after limping through most of game five, showed virtually no sign of his injury as the Pacers grabbed the game by the throat in the second quarter and never let go.
Indiana led by 22 points at halftime and by as many as 31 early in the fourth quarter.
“Well, we were going home if we didn’t come out and give everything we have and leave it all out on the floor,” said T.J. McConnell, who had 12 points, nine rebounds and six assists off the bench for Indiana.
“Obviously very happy, very proud, but we’ve got to flush it because we have another one on Sunday.”
NBA Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led Oklahoma City with 21 points but had eight of the Thunder’s 21 turnovers.
Gilgeous-Alexander missed his lone three-point attempt while Jalen Williams — coming off a 40-point performance in game five — missed all four of his three-point attempts on the way to 16 points.
The Thunder, winners of a league-best 68 regular-season games — pulled their starters after falling behind by 30 going into the fourth quarter.
They’ll be searching for answers as the series heads back to Oklahoma City for game seven on Sunday — the first game seven in the championship series since 2016.
“The way I see it, we sucked tonight,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We can learn the lessons and we have one game for everything, for everything we’ve worked for.”
The Thunder are seeking their first title since the franchise relocated to Oklahoma City in 2008, having won it all in 1979 as the Seattle SuperSonics.
The Pacers, meanwhile, are in search of a first NBA title. They won American Basketball Association titles in 1970, 1972 and 1973 before joining the NBA as part of the ABA-NBA merger in 1976.
– One game –
“You know, we’ve got one game,” Haliburton said. “All cards on the table. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
For a few minutes, it looked like the Thunder might roll to the title.
The Pacers missed their first eight shots and fell into a quick eight-point hole. But they settled in to connect on six straight attempts and took the lead on a three-pointer from Nembhard midway through the first quarter.
Indiana piled on the pressure with a pair of three-pointers and a trey from Haliburton — his first basket of the night — pushing their lead to as many as nine points.
Up by three at the end of the first, the Pacers exploded in the second quarter, stepping up the aggression on both ends of the floor on the way to a 64-42 halftime lead.
With less than a minute to go in the first half Haliburton came up with a steal then found Siakam with a no-look pass for an emphatic dunk.
Siakam followed up with a turnaround jump shot at the halftime buzzer.
Toppin praised Haliburton as “a soldier,” but Haliburton said the victory was down to the team effort.
“It’s the Finals,” Haliburton said. “All of us got to give everything we have.”
