{"id":111676,"date":"2025-06-20T08:48:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T08:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/111676\/"},"modified":"2025-06-20T08:48:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T08:48:11","slug":"pacers-vs-thunder-indiana-defeats-okc-in-game-6-of-the-nba-finals-basketball-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/111676\/","title":{"rendered":"Pacers vs Thunder: Indiana defeats OKC in Game 6 of the NBA Finals | Basketball News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Indiana Pacers, rallying around injured star Tyrese Haliburton, crushed the Oklahoma City Thunder 108-91 to force a deciding Game 7 in the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just wanted to protect home court,\u201d Haliburton said on Thursday. \u201cWe didn\u2019t want to see these guys celebrate a championship on our home floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cBacks against the wall, we just responded,\u201d he added. \u201cSo many different guys chipped in, total team effort. I\u2019m really proud of this group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Obi Toppin led the Pacers scoring with 20 points off the bench as Indiana\u2019s reserves out-scored Oklahoma City\u2019s bench 48-37.<\/p>\n

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, levelled the best-of-seven championship series at three games apiece.<\/p>\n

Haliburton, who said he would do everything he could to play after limping through most of Game 5, showed virtually no sign of his injury as the Pacers grabbed the game by the throat in the second quarter and never let go.<\/p>\n

Indiana led by 22 points at halftime and by as many as 31 early in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, we were going home if we didn\u2019t come out and give everything we have and leave it all out on the floor,\u201d said T J McConnell, who had 12 points, nine rebounds and six assists off the bench for Indiana.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously very happy, very proud, but we\u2019ve got to flush it because we have another one on Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ShaiNBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, right, scored a game-high 21 points for Oklahoma City Thunder [Abbie Parr \u2013 Pool\/ Getty Images via AFP]
\nThunder searching for answers ahead of Game 7<\/p>\n

NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led Oklahoma City with 21 points but had eight of the Thunder\u2019s 21 turnovers.<\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander missed his lone three-point attempt while Jalen Williams \u2013 coming off a 40-point performance in game five \u2013 missed all four of his three-point attempts on the way to 16 points.<\/p>\n

The Thunder, winners of a league-best 68 regular-season games \u2013 pulled their starters after falling behind by 30 going into the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

They will be searching for answers as the series heads back to Oklahoma City for the championship finale on Sunday \u2013 the first Game 7 in the NBA Finals since 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way I see it, we sucked tonight,\u201d Gilgeous-Alexander said. \u201cWe can learn the lessons and we have one game for everything, for everything we\u2019ve worked for.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The Pacers, meanwhile, are in search of a first NBA title. They won American Basketball Association (ABA) titles in 1970, 1972 and 1973 before joining the NBA as part of the ABA-NBA merger in 1976.<\/p>\n

\"ObiObi Toppin, left, was one of six Indiana Pacers players to score in double figures in Game 6 of the NBA Finals [Dylan Buell\/Getty Images via AFP]
\nPacers ride wave of momentum<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, we\u2019ve got one game,\u201d Haliburton said. \u201cAll cards on the table. It\u2019s going to be a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a few minutes, it looked like the Thunder might roll to the title.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Indiana piled on the pressure with a pair of three-pointers and a trey from Haliburton \u2013 his first basket of the night \u2013 pushing their lead to as many as nine points.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

With less than a minute to go in the first half, Haliburton came up with a steal and then found Siakam with a no-look pass for an emphatic dunk.<\/p>\n

Siakam followed up with a turnaround jump shot at the halftime buzzer.<\/p>\n

Toppin praised Haliburton as \u201ca soldier,\u201d but Haliburton said the victory was down to the team effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the finals,\u201d Haliburton said. \u201cAll of us got to give everything we have.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Indiana Pacers, rallying around injured star Tyrese Haliburton, crushed the Oklahoma City Thunder 108-91 to force a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3774],"tags":[7,113,126,3866,6,67,114,275,417,418],"class_list":{"0":"post-111676","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indiana-pacers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-indiana","10":"tag-indiana-pacers","11":"tag-indianapacers","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-pacers","15":"tag-sport","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-us-canada"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114714830703233086","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111676","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=111676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}