Pacers force winner-take-all, rout OKC in Game 6 of NBA Finals
INDIANAPOLIS — Obi Toppin scored 20 points, Andrew Nembhard added 17 and the resilient Indiana Pacers sent the NBA Finals to a winner-take-all Game 7 by rolling past the Oklahoma City Thunder 108-91 on Thursday night.
Pascal Siakam had 16 points and 13 rebounds for Indiana, while Tyrese Haliburton — playing despite a strained calf — scored 14 points for the Pacers, who started slowly and then turned things into a blowout.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 21 points for the Thunder, who pulled their starters after getting down by 30 going into the fourth. It was a rough night for Gilgeous-Alexander, who tied a career high with eight turnovers, tied for the most in an NBA Finals game in the past 40 years, according to ESPN Research. He shot 7 of 15, marking the first time since Dec. 7, 2022, that he had more turnovers than made field goals.
Jalen Williams added 16 points for Oklahoma City.
Game 7, the first one in the NBA Finals since 2016, will be Sunday night in Oklahoma City. Good news for the Thunder: Home teams are 15-4 in the ultimate game to decide a title. Bad news for the Thunder: Cleveland won at Golden State in the most recent NBA Finals Game 7 and one of the three other home-team losses was in 1978 — by Seattle, the franchise that moved to Oklahoma City three decades later.
Indiana missed its first eight shots and got down 10-2. Fans at the arena, roaring just a few minutes before at the start, quieted quickly. Hall of Famer Reggie Miller, sitting courtside in a Jalen Rose Pacers jersey, was pacing, kneeling, generally acting more nervous than he seemed as a player.
No need.
After the slow start, the Pacers outscored the Thunder 68-32 over the next 24 minutes. An Indiana team that hadn’t led by more than 10 points at any time in the first five games — and that double-digit lead was brief — led by 28 early in the third quarter. The margin eventually got to 31, which was Oklahoma City’s second-biggest deficit of the season.
The worst also came in these playoffs: a 45-point hole against Minnesota in the Western Conference finals. The Thunder came back to win that series and now will need that bounce-back ability one more time.
The Thunder, desperate for a spark, put Alex Caruso in the starting lineup in place of Isaiah Hartenstein to open the second half. There was no spark. In fact, there was nothing — neither team scored in the first 3:53 after halftime, the sides combining to miss their first 13 shots of the third quarter.
The Thunder did not score until the 6:57 mark, the third-longest scoring drought to begin a half in an NBA Finals game in the past 50 years, according to ESPN Research.
T.J. McConnell, the spark off the bench again, finished with 12 points, nine rebounds and six assists for Indiana.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.