By TIM REYNOLDS AP Basketball Writer
OKLAHOMA CITY — Game 6 of the NBA Finals had been over for only about 10 or 15 minutes, and the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder were turning the page. What happened over the previous couple of hours in Indianapolis had already been deemed irrelevant.
The only thing on their minds: Game 7.
“A privilege,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said.
“A great privilege,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said.
A back-and-forth title matchup – Indiana led 1-0 and 2-1, Oklahoma City led 3-2 – will end on Sunday night with an ultimate game, the first winner-take-all contest in the NBA Finals since 2016. It will be Pacers at Thunder, one team getting the Larry O’Brien Trophy when it is over, the other left to head into the offseason wondering how they let the chance slip away.
“We have one game for everything, for everything we’ve worked for, and so do they,” Thunder guard and reigning league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. “The better team Sunday will win.”
History favors the home team in these moments: 15 of the previous 19 Game 7s in the NBA Finals were won by the club playing on its own court.
The Thunder played a Game 7 at home earlier in these playoffs and won by 32, blowing out Denver to reach the Western Conference finals. Indiana’s most recent Game 7 was at Madison Square Garden in last season’s Eastern Conference semifinals; the Pacers blew out New York by 21 in that game.
All-time, home teams are 112-38 in Game 7s (excluding the 2-2 record “home” teams had in the bubble in the 2020 playoffs, when everything was played in Lake Buena Vista, Florida). But in recent years, home sweet home has been replaced by road sweet road; visiting teams have won nine of the last 14 Game 7s played since 2021.
“It’s exciting, man. It’s so, so, exciting,” Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton said. “As a basketball fan, there’s nothing like a Game 7. There’s nothing like a Game 7 in the NBA Finals. Dreamed of being in this situation my whole life. So, to be here is really exciting. Really exciting for our group. What happened in the past doesn’t matter. What happened today doesn’t matter. It’s all about one game and approaching that the right way.”
The fact that Haliburton is playing at all right now is a story in itself. He looked good as new in Game 6 even with a strained right calf, something that he’s needed around-the-clock treatment on this week. The Pacers haven’t had to coax him into it; Haliburton’s own family is offering up constant reminders that he needs to be working on his leg.
“My family has been on me,” Haliburton said. “If they call me, they are like, ‘Are you doing treatment right now?’ … My family has been holding me accountable.”
There’s a lot of accountability going on among the Thunder right now as well. A different kind, of course.
They were massive favorites going into Game 6 – +3000 odds to win the series, according to BetMGM Sportsbook. That means a $100 bet on the Thunder would have returned a whopping $103 or so if they had won the game and clinched the title. A 36-9 run by Indiana turned a one-point lead early in the second quarter into a full-fledged blowout early in the third. And with that, a Thunder team that finished with the best record in the NBA this season now has zero room for error.
Win on Sunday, and all ends well for Oklahoma City. Lose on Sunday, and they’ll go down in history as one of the best regular-season teams that failed to win a title.
“If they had won by one, they would have probably walked out of this game with confidence,” Thunder guard Jalen Williams said of the Pacers before leaving Indy’s arena for the final time this season. “That’s what makes them a good team. That’s what makes us a good team. … They’re going to go into Game 7 confident, and so are we.”
The Thunder flew home after the game on Thursday night. The Pacers were flying to Oklahoma City on Friday afternoon. They’ll spend some time looking at film, then go through the final practices – which won’t be much more than glorified walk-throughs – of the season on Saturday.
And then, Game 7. For everything.
“I think we played to exhaustion,” Pacers guard T.J. McConnell said after Game 6. “But we have to do it again on Sunday.”
GAME 7 BY THE NUMBERS
Home teams are 15-4 in Game 7 of the Finals, but a road team – Cleveland, over Golden State – won the most recent of those games in 2016.
A look inside some numbers surrounding this matchup:
Odds are, nobody’s scoring 40
There have been only two 40-point scoring performances in Game 7 of the NBA Finals – and both came in losing efforts.
Jerry West scored 42 points in Game 7 of the 1969 series, but the Lakers lost to the Boston Celtics in Bill Russell’s final game. And Elgin Baylor scored 41 points in Game 7 in 1962 – another Lakers-Celtics matchup – but Boston prevailed in that one as well.
Bob Pettit had the third-highest scoring total in a Game 7. He had 39 for the St. Louis Hawks against the Celtics in 1957 … and Boston won that game as well.
The highest-scoring Game 7s in a winning effort? Those would be by Boston’s Tom Heinsohn in that 1957 game against St. Louis and Miami’s LeBron James in the 2013 series against San Antonio.
Both had 37; Heinsohn’s was a double-overtime game, James got his in regulation.
Will either team break 100?
Yes, these are high-scoring teams. Oklahoma City was No. 4 in points per game in the regular season (120.5 per game) and Indiana was No. 7 (117.4). The Thunder are second in that category in the playoffs (115.2), just ahead of No. 3 Indiana (115.1).
In Game 7, that might not matter much.
No team has reached 100 points in Game 7 of the NBA Finals since 1988. Or even topped 95 points, for that matter.
The last five Game 7s:
• 2016, Cleveland 93, Golden State 89
• 2013, Miami 95, San Antonio 88
• 2010, Lakers 83, Boston 79
• 2005, San Antonio 81, Detroit 74
• 1994, Houston 90, New York 84
The last Finals Game 7 to see someone hit the century mark was when the Lakers beat the Pistons, 108-105, in 1988.
Expect a close one
The average margin of victory in Game 7 of an NBA Finals: 6.9 points.
Each of the last eight such games have been decided by single digits. Only four have been double-digit wins: Boston over St. Louis by 19 in 1960, Minneapolis over New York by 17 in 1952, Boston over Milwaukee by 15 in 1974 and New York over the the Lakers by 14 in 1970.
The closest Game 7 in the Finals was Syracuse beating Fort Wayne 92-91 in 1955. That was one of six Finals Game 7s decided by three points or less.
By seed
The Thunder are the 22nd No. 1 seed to play in Game 7 of an NBA Finals. Their 21 predecessors on that list are 12-9 in the ultimate game; seven of those games have been ones where both teams entered the playoffs as No. 1 seeds.
The Pacers are the fourth No. 4 seed to make Game 7 of the title round. Their three predecessors went 1-2 (Boston beat the Lakers in 1969, Seattle lost to Washington in 1978 and the Celtics lost to the Lakers in 2010).
Game 7 experience
It will be the fourth Game 7 for Indiana forwards Pascal Siakam and Myles Turner. Siakam’s teams have gone 2-1 in Game 7s, Turner’s have gone 1-2.
Indiana’s Aaron Nesmith is 2-0 in the pair of Game 7s in which he has played, with Indiana winning at New York last year and Boston beating Milwaukee in 2022. Both of those wins were in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Gilgeous-Alexander has averaged 27 points in two previous Game 7s. Haliburton scored 26 points in his lone Game 7 to this point.
No player on either side has previously been part of a Game 7 in the NBA Finals.
New for some refs, too
The NBA doesn’t announce referee assignments until game day, so it won’t be known until Sunday morning who the three-person crew is for Game 7.
This much is certain: for at least two of the referees, it will be the first time on the Game 7 Finals stage.
Scott Foster – who would seem a likely pick this year – worked Game 7 of the Finals in 2013 alongside Dan Crawford and Monty McCutchen, and Game 7 of the title series in 2010 with Dan Crawford and Joe Crawford.
The most recent Game 7 of the Finals was in 2016 and the crew for that game was Dan Crawford, McCutchen and Mike Callahan.
Outside of Foster, no referee in this year’s pool has been on the floor for a Game 7 in the NBA Finals.
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