if Tyrese Haliburton will be able to play;<\/a> he\u2019s dealing with a strained right calf and his status won\u2019t be definitively known until Thursday.<\/p>\n\u201cI think that\u2019s all we can do, right? Think about the next game,\u201d Pacers forward Pascal Siakam said. \u201cIt\u2019s a great opportunity in front of our fans. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s going to be a huge moment for our fans. They\u2019re going to be super excited. We have a chance at home, NBA Finals. It\u2019s a good opportunity. That\u2019s all it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pacers coach Rick Carlisle has been stressing two key points: fewer turnovers (Indiana had 23 for 32 Oklahoma City points in Game 5) and limiting OKC\u2019s offensive rebounding. Those areas must be cleaned up whether Haliburton plays or not.<\/p>\n
The Pacers trailed New York 3-2 in the second round last season, came home and won Game 6, then went to Madison Square Garden and won Game 7. Winning from this position is possible, and Carlisle obviously knows it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we need to do is buckle down. Stand strong. I anticipate one of the best crowds in the history of Gainbridge Fieldhouse,\u201d Carlisle said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to find a way. The ultimate is to get to a Game 7. That is the ultimate privilege. It\u2019s the ultimate experience in sports. But we\u2019ve got to take care of home court tomorrow to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
After scoring 40<\/p>\n
Thunder guard Jalen Williams, who had 40 points in Game 5, didn\u2019t get a ton of calls and texts after the highest-scoring playoff game of his career.<\/p>\n
Then again, his friends know he\u2019s not on the phone much right now.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I try not to answer my phone as much, even though that probably sounded like I\u2019m a jerk,\u201d Williams said. \u201cThere\u2019s just a lot of highs and lows throughout the series. You don\u2019t get as many texts if you don\u2019t play well. I try to keep that in perspective, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the brink<\/p>\n
Since 2000, teams are 25-13 in games where they can win the NBA title.<\/p>\n
The Thunder are aiming to go 1-0 in such games this year, something 20 teams have done in the last 25 seasons. The NBA\u2019s most recent champion, Boston, needed two tries at it last season before ousting Dallas.<\/p>\n
Seeking 84<\/p>\n
If the Thunder win Game 6 \u2014 or Game 7 \u2014 it would push Oklahoma City\u2019s win total for the season to 84, including playoffs.<\/p>\n
And that would be rare air. Only three teams have won 84 or more games in a season: the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors won 88 (and lost the NBA Finals), the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls won 87 games, and the 1996-97 Bulls won 84.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/nba<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS (AP) \u2014 Difficult as it may seem, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is desperately trying to not think about what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,329,588,113,126,364,1622,6,446,1220,586,310,475,179,279,1714,209,66,278],"class_list":{"0":"post-108667","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-chicago-bulls","10":"tag-in-state-wire","11":"tag-indiana","12":"tag-indiana-pacers","13":"tag-jalen-williams","14":"tag-mark-daigneault","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-nba-basketball","17":"tag-nba-finals","18":"tag-ok-state-wire","19":"tag-oklahoma","20":"tag-oklahoma-city","21":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","22":"tag-pascal-siakam","23":"tag-rick-carlisle","24":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","25":"tag-sports","26":"tag-tyrese-haliburton"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114707615253938925","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}