DANVILLE \u2014 Beth Owens, owner of the Big Four Tavern in Danville, noticed a definite difference at her establishment on nights when the Indiana Pacers were playing in the NBA Playoffs.<\/p>\n
That excitement level built all week as the Pacers forced a Game 7 on Sunday night after a 108-91 victory on Thursday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.<\/p>\n
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Owens, herself a Pacers fan, was hoping for a victory celebration but the loss of Tyrese Haliburton in the first quarter to a torn Achilles tendon and a dismal second-half performance were too much to overcome. The Oklahoma City Thunder claimed their first-ever NBA title with a 103-91 victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I didn\u2019t expect them to be in this position when the playoffs started,\u2019\u2019 Owens said. \u201cI was very pleasantly surprised with how well they played and it was a fun ride.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
How about as a bar owner?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was definitely great,\u2019\u2019 she said. \u201cWe had people coming in here every night the games were on TV and it added to the excitement level around the bar.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
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And it wasn\u2019t just fans of the Pacers.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, I\u2019m not a Pacers fan,\u2019\u2019 said Zack Akins, who was glued to the television until the final buzzer. \u201cBut, I was rooting for them, because they are just an hour and half away from here and Beth, the bar owner, is a Pacers fan.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Akins thought the Pacers were going to pull off the Game 7 victory, until the Halburton injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had nine points in the first seven minutes,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cAny team losing their star player is going to be a big killer on their energy and mood.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
But, as a sports fan, Akins appreciated the excitement of Game 7.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou never want a series to be one sided either way,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cThis was a winner-take-all game and both teams were playing their hardest. It was awesome to watch as a fan.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
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Owens hopes the excitement level is just as high this October for the baseball playoffs, especially if her St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs, the two favorite teams of bar patrons can play their way into the postseason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DANVILLE \u2014 Beth Owens, owner of the Big Four Tavern in Danville, noticed a definite difference at her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,29502,440,29501,126,6,11,179,29504,278,29503],"class_list":{"0":"post-155592","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-beth-owens","10":"tag-chicago-cubs","11":"tag-excitement-level","12":"tag-indiana-pacers","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-nba-playoffs","15":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","16":"tag-st-louis-cardinals","17":"tag-tyrese-haliburton","18":"tag-victory-celebration"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114817204483937126","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155592","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=155592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}