INDIANAPOLIS – Tyrese Haliburton has deleted social media apps from his phone for the NBA Finals, but he’s been, in his words, “chronically online” enough in his lifetime to know what will be said about the Pacers between Game 6 and Game 7 with their first championship since they moved from the ABA in 1976 just one win away.
“The narratives are going to be almost poison, you know?” Haliburton said in his news conference after the Pacers’ 108-91 win over the Thunder in Game 6 tied the series and forced Sunday’s Game 7 in Oklahoma City. “To talk about what this would mean to our city and our organization and legacy talk and we played so well and now the pressure is on. Like, you know what I mean? There’s going to be narratives that we can’t really pay attention to.”
The narratives are all, in this case, positive. There won’t be nearly as much talk between now and Sunday about whether Haliburton is overrated or whether his occasional low-scoring games disqualify him from superstar status. No one’s going to spend any more time noting the injuries that have befallen the Pacers’ playoff opponents in the past two seasons and whether that makes their run “fluky” or a mirage of some sort.
Through six games, the Pacers are even up with a Thunder team that won 68 games in the regular season — the fifth-most in league history — with the league MVP in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and an All-NBA wing in Jalen Williams on its roster as well as the NBA’s best defense. The Thunder’s injury sheet has been clean all series except for rookie Nikola Topic, who missed the whole season with a torn ACL. The Pacers entered the series as heavy underdogs — by some metrics the heaviest in NBA Finals history — and they’ve been underdogs in every single game. They didn’t even take a betting-line lead for the series when they took series leads of 1-0 and 2-1 and they are 8.5-point underdogs in Game 7.
But even with that being the case and even the general expectation still being the Thunder will find a way to win Game 7 at home, the Pacers still found themselves in the national media darling role by Friday as reporters noted the potentially historic possibility of an Indiana title. The Ringer’s Zach Lowe said the Pacers have a chance to be “the most unusual, unexpected NBA champion in the history of the sport,” and if they win “we will all talk about this team as long as we live and talk about basketball. We will all do that anyway because of the heroics it took to get here.”
Haliburton, a noted basketball nerd, might enjoy and even participate in that sort of discussion if it were focused on another team and his team wasn’t still playing. But he knows engaging in any sort of big-picture talk risks losing focus on the task at hand, which is defeating a Thunder team also just one win away from a title.
“We’ve got to control what we can,” Haliburton said. “So much of these games has come down to who is going to start the fight from a physicality standpoint, take care of the ball better and rebound the ball better and those are the important things that we need to focus on. I don’t even want to say, you know, celebrate this one tonight and move on. It’s done with. We did our job to take care of homecourt, and we have to be ready to compete in Game 7.”
It’s possible, though, to block out the noise and still embrace the moment. They are part of the first Game 7 in the NBA Finals since 2016 and just the fifth since 1994, so win or lose they will get a piece of history few players ever have or will.
“These are things you dream of as a kid,” Andrew Nembhard said. “This is the opportunity of a lifetime. I can’t wait to get out on that floor.”
The Pacers have two players on the roster with championship rings — Pascal Siakam and Thomas Bryant — plus coach Rick Carlisle who has won championships as a player and a coach. Siakam in particular also acknowledged the importance of embracing the moment and the fact opportunities like this don’t come around often.
“You’re privileged enough to get it at the highest, you know, level ever,” Siakam said. “You know, it’s just a blessing. We’re fortunate to be here. I just always remember the times where I had to go on vacation early. You know, like those things always play in my mind. So be appreciative of the fact that we’re still here, and we have a great opportunity.”
But still, the Pacers are trying to be appreciative by being singularly focused, not looking to put Game 7 in any other perspective other than the fact that it is the only game in front of them.
“I think it’s just about who wants it more, like just playing hard, and leaving it all out there on the floor and living with the results,” Siakam said. “… It’s one game for everything. I think at that point, it’s just about hard play and, again, sacrificing everything.”
Said Carlisle: “Any talk about things in the past are really meaningless. It’s one game. It’s the ultimate game.”
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