{"id":69768,"date":"2025-06-01T08:56:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T08:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/69768\/"},"modified":"2025-06-01T08:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T08:56:10","slug":"siakam-pacers-beat-knicks-in-game-6-to-reach-nba-finals-basketball-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/69768\/","title":{"rendered":"Siakam, Pacers beat Knicks in Game 6 to reach NBA Finals | Basketball News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pascal Siakam starred for Indiana against New York Knicks as the Pacers earned their first NBA Finals appearance in 25 years.<\/p>\n

The Indiana Pacers, fuelled by 31 points from Pascal Siakam and a 21-point double-double from Tyrese Haliburton, beat the New York Knicks 125-108 to reach the NBA Finals for the first time since 2000.<\/p>\n

The Pacers used a big third quarter on Saturday to break open a close game and kept the pressure on in the fourth period to win the best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals four games to two.<\/p>\n

They reached the championship series for the second time in franchise history, and will be chasing their first title when the NBA Finals open in Oklahoma City on Thursday.<\/p>\n

New York had fended off elimination with a dominant defensive display in Game 5, but could not send the series to a decisive Game 7.<\/p>\n

Instead, the Knicks, who earned their two NBA titles in 1970 and 1973, remain in search of their first trip to the finals since 1999.<\/p>\n

Star forward Siakam was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the Eastern Conference finals, bouncing back after a disappointing outing in Game 5, when the Knicks used a dominating defensive effort to extend the series.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter a bad Game 5, we wanted to bounce back,\u201d Siakam said. \u201cAnd I have 100 percent belief in my teammates. Whenever we\u2019re down, we always find a way \u2013 and we did that tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haliburton shook off early shooting struggles to finish with 21 points and 13 assists as seven Pacers players scored in double figures.<\/p>\n

That included 18 off the bench from Obi Toppin and 11 from backup Thomas Bryant as the Pacers\u2019 reserves outscored the Knicks\u2019 reserves 38-20.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really proud of this group,\u201d Haliburton said. \u201cWe had a tough showing last game as a group. We wanted to respond.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did a great job of that,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019m just so proud of this group, and I don\u2019t even have words right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OGOG Anunoby led the Knicks with 24 points on 10-for-18 shooting in Game 6 [Justin Casterline\/Getty Images via AFP]
\nPacers stay ahead on home court<\/p>\n

OG Anunoby led the Knicks\u2019 scoring with 24 points. Karl-Anthony Towns added 22 points and 14 rebounds, and Jalen Brunson scored 19 points and handed out seven assists.<\/p>\n

But Indiana emerged from a fast-paced first quarter that featured five lead changes with a one-point lead and never trailed again, harrying New York into 18 turnovers that led to 34 Pacers points.<\/p>\n

Haliburton, scoreless in the first quarter, warmed up with eight points in the second, including a thunderous dunk after teammate Andrew Nembhard\u2019s steal \u2013 one of 10 of New York\u2019s first-half turnovers.<\/p>\n

Nembhard came up with another steal from Brunson and fed Siakam for a layup to push Indiana\u2019s lead to six points before Anunoby drilled a basket in the final second of the first half to cut the Knicks\u2019 deficit to 58-54 at the break.<\/p>\n

The Pacers opened the third quarter on a 9-0 run and pushed their lead to 15 points, 78-63, on back-to-back 3-pointers from Nembhard and Bryant, sending the crowd at Gainbridge Fieldhouse into a frenzy.<\/p>\n

The Knicks quickly trimmed the deficit back to seven, only for the Pacers to pull away again to take a 92-77 lead into the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

Haliburton, who had just 10 points through the first three quarters, added 11 in the final frame as the Pacers romped home.<\/p>\n

\"PascalIndiana\u2019s Pascal Siakam (#43), who scored a game-high 31 points in Game 6, won the Larry Bird Trophy as the NBA Eastern Conference Finals MVP [Trevor Ruszkowski\/Imagn Images via Reuters]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pascal Siakam starred for Indiana against New York Knicks as the Pacers earned their first NBA Finals appearance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,304,6,1136,191,67,3810,3806,275,417,418],"class_list":{"0":"post-69768","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-knicks","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-knicks","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkknicks","16":"tag-sport","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-us-canada"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114607278284258635","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69768","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=69768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}