Pacers fight to the end in Game 7 loss

The 2025 NBA Champions needed seven games and one torn Achilles to beat the Pacers Sunday night.
Why it matters: Oklahoma City's triumph brings Indiana's historic — and at times magical — postseason run to a heartbreaking conclusion and keeps our basketball-loving city NBA championship-starved for another season.
Driving the news: The Pacers lost 91-103 to the Thunder.
OKC's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander added NBA Finals MVP honors to his league MVP credentials after dropping 29 points and 12 assists in Game 7.
Zoom in: A gut-wrenching moment for Pacers fans came with 4:55 left in the first quarter when Tyrese Haliburton collapsed to the court in pain.
Reports of a torn Achilles that began to roll in after the All-Star was helped to the sidelines, confirming that Haliburton would once again have to watch his team finish the postseason from the sidelines.
Yes, but: The toughness that defined Indiana's postseason run was on full display as the team continued to trade leads with Oklahoma City for the remainder of the first half despite losing their superstar point guard.
That resilience wasn't enough to keep the Thunder contained after the break, and a third quarter that saw the Pacers outscored 34-20 was too much to overcome without the threat of another Haliburton game-winner in the chamber.
Between the lines: Fans can take solace in knowing one of the best Pacers teams ever may get another crack at NBA title immortality, barring any significant offseason shakeups.
A top priority should be locking down Myles Turner, the longest tenured Pacer, with a new deal. The center is set to enter free agency this summer, and word is the Phoenix Suns have shown interest.
The rest of last night's starting lineup will return: Aaron Nesmith is under contract through 2027; Pascal Siakam and Andrew Nembhard through 2028; and Haliburton through 2029.
Others hitting the free agent market this summer are Thomas Bryant, James Johnson and Isaiah Jackson.
What's next: With the season wrapped up, the team now turns its attention to roster development and the NBA Draft, which starts Wednesday in Brooklyn, New York.
The intrigue: Indiana is already making moves, trading the No. 23 overall pick to New Orleans to reacquire a first-round 2026 pick and clear out about $3.2 million in salary cap space.

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Yahoo

16 minutes ago

• Yahoo

Pacers vs. Thunder NBA Finals: Tyrese Haliburton's devastating injury a brutal reminder of the precariousness of the game

Tyrese Haliburton knew. He knew from the second he planted to try to drive, slipped, hit the ground and lost the ball midway through the first quarter that he wasn't right — that the 'lower leg thing' that had him limping after Game 2 of the 2025 NBA Finals had snowballed into something worse. But it was Game 5 of a tied championship series, and the sun around which the Indiana Pacers revolves knew how much more difficult the Oklahoma City Thunder would be to topple if he wasn't out there giving them advanced math problems to solve on every defensive possession. Advertisement Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said after Game 5 that he and his staff were 'concerned at halftime' about Haliburton's movement on that strained calf — but that his superstar point guard 'insisted on playing' the rest of the way. 'I mean, it's the NBA Finals. It's the Finals, man,' Haliburton said after Indiana's Game 5 loss. 'I've worked my whole life to be here and I want to be out there to compete. Help my teammates any way I can. I was not great tonight by any means, but it's not really a thought of mine to not play here. 'If I can walk, then I want to play.' A follow-up MRI confirmed Haliburton was working on a strained right calf — an injury that, if he'd picked it up during the regular season, may well have put him on the shelf for weeks. In the Finals, though, with the Pacers' backs against the wall, Haliburton and Indiana's medical and training teams explored every option to get him back on the floor as safely as possible. Tyrese Haliburton of the Indiana Pacers remains down on the court during the first quarter as teammate T.J. McConnell and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder check on him in Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals at Paycom Center on June 22, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (Photo by) (Justin Ford via Getty Images) 'I think I have to be as smart as I want to be,' Haliburton said at the Pacers' practice session before Game 6. 'Have to understand the risks, ask the right questions. I'm a competitor. I want to play … I have a lot of trust in our medical staff. I have a lot of trust in our organization to make the right decision. Advertisement 'I think there's been many situations through the course of my career where they've trusted me on my body. … They trust me to make the right decision on my body when the power is in my hands. I'm trying to try my best to do that.' So Haliburton played — and he played great, scoring 14 points with five assists and three 3-pointers in 23 minutes, during which the Pacers outscored the Thunder by 25 points, to help propel Indiana to a series-leveling victory to force a Game 7. 'I just look at it as I want to be out there to compete with my brothers,' Haliburton said after Game 6. 'These are guys that I'm willing to go to war with, and we've had such a special year, and we have a special bond as a group, and, you know, I think I'd beat myself up if I didn't give it a chance.' That chance came only after what Haliburton termed 'an honest conversation' with Carlisle. 'You know, if I didn't look like myself and was hurting the team, like, sit me down,' Haliburton said. 'Obviously, I want to be on the floor. But I want to win more than anything … like I said, if I can walk, I want to be out there.' Advertisement And so, after two more days of round-the-clock treatment that he said Saturday left him 'pretty much in the same standpoint I was before Game 6 — a little stiff, a little sore, Haliburton was out there to start Game 7: the ultimate competitive crucible, the proving ground for the immortals, the situation Haliburton said he'd 'dreamed of being in [for] my whole life.' And he was throwing flames. Five shots in the first five minutes — an extremely aggressive start for a player at times derided for his pass-first play. Nine points on three deep triples to stake the visiting Pacers to an early lead. Confident, sneering; the wolf at the door. And then, midway through the first, Haliburton caught a pass, planted to try to drive, slipped, hit the ground and lost the ball … and he knew. Advertisement Knew from the second he made impact. Slapping the floor, again and again; burying his face in his forearm; grimacing, crying, screaming no, no, no. He couldn't walk. He couldn't be out there. 'I couldn't imagine playing the biggest game of my life and something like that happening,' Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said after the game. 'It's not fair. But competition isn't fair sometimes.' At halftime, Haliburton's father, John, confirmed to ESPN's Lisa Salters the worst-case scenario diagnosis that everyone from NBA superstars to fans on their couches had immediately made: It was the Achilles, and while we don't know yet the severity of the injury, it was impossible not to think of Kevin Durant, and Damian Lillard, and Jayson Tatum, and the miserable gnawing left in the pits of our stomachs as we watched them first writhe, then hobble, off the floor and out of sight. Advertisement The Pacers fought like champions after losing their heart and soul, rallying to take a 48-47 lead into halftime — where, Carlisle said, Haliburton 'was in the locker room, and he was very much a part of a group that believed that they could do this.' (Asked later what Haliburton said to the team at that time, though, Pacers center Myles Turner said, 'Tyrese was getting medical attention at halftime.') Indiana couldn't sustain that surge of adrenaline, though, scoring just 20 points in 23 possessions in the third quarter and committing eight turnovers leading to 18 Thunder points. It was a stretch that laid bare just how badly these Pacers need Haliburton — how everything Indiana is on the offensive end flows from him and through him, and how, without his visionary pace-pushing playmaking, the Pacers just aren't the Pacers — and one that blew Game 7 wide open, sending Oklahoma City on the way to the NBA championship. Haliburton couldn't walk; he couldn't be out there. But, with the aid of crutches, he could greet his teammates after the game, congratulating them on a race well run, offering what he could in one of the darkest moments of all of their careers. 'That's who he is as a person, a teammate,' said backup point guard T.J. McConnell, who tried his damnedest to pick up the slack in Haliburton's absence, scoring 16 points with six rebounds and three assists off the bench. 'He put his ego aside constantly. He could have been in the locker room feeling sorry for himself after something like that happened, but he wasn't. He was up greeting us. A lot of us were hurting from the loss, and he was up there consoling us. That's who Tyrese Haliburton is. He's just the greatest, man.' Advertisement Haliburton spent the last two months captivating the basketball-watching world, delivering moment after moment, hitting some of the greatest clutch shots we've ever seen in the postseason — building a résumé as one of the premier crunch-time assassins the NBA's ever seen in real time. He deserved a better ending than this; the Pacers, their fans, all of us deserved a better ending than this. But competition isn't fair sometimes. 'What happened with Tyrese, all of our hearts dropped,' Carlisle said. 'But he will be back. I don't have any medical information about what may or may not have happened, but he'll be back in time, and I believe he'll make a full recovery.' Haliburton turns 26 in February and is still just approaching his prime; as a big guard whose game is built on his processing speed, passing touch and 3-point shooting, it seems reasonable to be optimistic about his chances of remaining a highly effective player when he returns to the court. The question now hanging over the Pacers' franchise, though: When will he make that return? And what will the team look like when he does? Heading into Game 7, Indiana appeared to be poised for an extended run of contention at the top of an Eastern Conference that figures to be in flux. The Celtics, still reeling from the loss of Tatum, could find themselves needing to shed talent to pare down a staggering luxury tax bill. The Bucks, likewise, will be without Lillard, and enter yet another summer facing existential questions surrounding the prospect of trading Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Knicks just fired the head coach who brought them to the Eastern Conference finals, and have yet to hire his replacement. It remains to be seen whether the Cavaliers will change course after winning 64 games but again failing to advance past the second round — thanks largely to Haliburton and these Pacers. There is no clear and dominant force in the East — no skyscraping juggernaut standing in the way of a team whose relentlessly frenetic style had made them the conference's unsolvable equation. And the Pacers, fresh off consecutive Eastern Conference finals berths and a trip to the NBA Finals, already have nine of their top 10 players locked in for next season, with plenty of pre-free-agency reporting suggesting that ownership's willing to finally go into the luxury tax to retain the 10th — starting center Turner, the floor-spacing 5 who helps unlock Haliburton's freewheeling playmaking and who defended like an absolute demon against Oklahoma City. Advertisement Maybe that's still ownership's plan. Maybe Pacers brass looks at what'll be left in the cupboard while Haliburton rehabs — Pascal Siakam, an absolute dynamo in this postseason; a ton of young talent (Andrew Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith, Obi Toppin, Bennedict Mathurin, Ben Sheppard, Jarace Walker, rising sophomore Johnny Furphy) with room to grow; Carlisle, who just burnished his reputation as one of the game's premier tacticians — and thinks that, with a returning Turner, Indiana still has a chance to make the playoffs for the third straight season, give its rabid hometown fans a team worth showing up to support, and hold down the fort until its signature star can return to lead a roster built on continuity and what Turner famously called 'the power of friendship.' If they take a more jaundiced view, though, and come away thinking that a team built to very exacting specifications cannot properly function without its very particular pilot … well, organizations have made decisions to pivot — to trade present-tense contributors for future assets or financial flexibility reflecting a substantially changed competitive timeline — based on a hell of a lot less. That's the cruel trick of it all, the devastating dislocation of a moment like Haliburton and the Pacers experienced midway through the first quarter on Sunday: that these opportunities are so rare, so fleeting, so difficult to put yourself in position to grasp, and when one slips through your fingers, or is wrested away from you by fickle fate, it can be so, so difficult to get back. 'Chuck Daly once said: If people had any idea how difficult it was to win one game in the NBA — in the regular season, one game — you know, they would be shocked,' Carlisle said after Game 6. '... Not everybody's been deep in the playoffs or to the Finals. But I guarantee you that people have a very good idea what goes on, and how difficult it is to get here, and how challenging it is.' Advertisement That's why Siakam, who won an NBA championship in his third season and wandered for the next six years in search of a shot at a second, spent the last two months telling his teammates and the media that he wasn't going to take this opportunity for granted. That's why Carlisle consistently refused to look back at the past or forward into the future in his news conferences, repeatedly snapping his and his team's focus back to the present, to the process, to the pursuit of this one singular goal. That's why Haliburton was willing to do whatever he could to put himself in position to seize his opportunity. 'We've got one game,' Haliburton said after Game 6. 'One game. Nothing that's happened before matters, and nothing that's going to happen after matters. It's all about that one game.' After that game, though, the sun still rises and you have to face tomorrow. And that's why what happened on Sunday night — not just losing that one game, but losing Haliburton, maybe for an entire year; losing this opportunity without any promise that a franchise that's yet to win an NBA championship will ever see another — hurts so, so much.

New York Times

31 minutes ago

• New York Times

Tyrese Haliburton was making noise in Game 7. Then injury ‘sucked the soul out of' the Pacers

OKLAHOMA CITY — Tyrese Haliburton, judging by his play, was predetermined to pick a fight with history. He showed up to Game 7 with malice in his spirit for any idea he doesn't belong in the annals of basketball history. He opened the scoring for the Indiana Pacers with two deep 3s. He missed his third attempt and stepped back even further and drilled another one the next time. Advertisement And as he roared at the sea of blue inside Paycom Center, with noticeable patches of Pacers gold, his intentions were clear. This was a heist. Haliburton showed up to take what many thought didn't belong to him. He was on the porch of history. Opened the screen door of legendary. Then, as if fate didn't appreciate his audacity, as if the basketball gods ruled agony must precede glory, his right Achilles snapped. 'In this moment, my heart dropped for him,' Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. 'I couldn't imagine playing the biggest game of my life and something like that happening. 'It's not fair. But competition isn't fair sometimes.' Nothing about this felt fair. Haliburton earned a right to take down this season's giant. He deserved a chance for one last heroic ending. But on a simple action, sport flexed its sovereignty, even its mercilessness. Haliburton caught a pass at the top and made a simple step backward with his right foot as he started to go left to evade the approaching defender. But as he planted, the tendon ruptured violently enough to see the vibration. 'He started screaming,' Pacers guard Ben Sheppard said, 'and it's just terrible when someone like that goes down. We know he's going to come back better than ever. We're just praying for him.' With five minutes left in the first quarter and his Pacers even with the mighty Thunder, Haliburton was denied entry into the hallowed hall of Game 7 legends. He lay on the hardwood floor, tears in his eyes, agony unfurling from his soul. He wailed as he pounded his open right hand on the door of history. His wailing was inaudible as he yelled, 'No! No! No!' Most couldn't hear the smack of his hand on the hardwood. But the visual was loud enough. Such determination, thwarted so coldly. A beautiful arrogance humbled so emphatically. Advertisement Basketball is brutal. Game 7s deal only in extremes. Triumph or tragedy. Hallelujah or heartbreak. Haliburton's fate came before the final horn. He knew immediately what happened. Not only is most of the basketball fandom well-versed in detecting a torn Achilles, but also he'd been battling a strained calf since Game 5. He spent this week managing the injury, including a 23-minute stint in Game 6. He played with this risk, that he could blow out his Achilles and flush next season down the drain with it. But Haliburton's resolve outweighed the risk. He counted the cost and still pursued greatness with peril possible. He wanted to shower himself, his family, his Pacers, in the effulgence of Game 7 glory. He's been called overrated. He's been declared below a superstar. He's been expected to be on vacation for the last two months. As the adopted son of the Hoosier state, by decree of its historic love for the game, and as the beneficiary of the burden Reggie Miller once carried, Haliburton went for it. He wanted it badly, for every Pacer that ever wanted it, and for every hooper who didn't fit the traditional mold, and for every player willing to play the antagonist. 'The pain he puts in every day, every night, I don't think there's (anybody) else in the world that wanted it more than he did,' said veteran James Johnson, the 38-year-old Pacers protector who helped Haliburton to the locker room. 'I've been on plenty of teams, and I've seen guys sidelined because of that same injury, and he wouldn't let that stop him from helping us.' But Haliburton left the court a sympathetic hero, carried off the court by his teammates, his right foot dangling in the air as the arena began to realize the seriousness of his injury. A towel draped over Haliburton's head, which hung as low as his spirit. Advertisement He entered the arena bent on making his name immortal. He left the arena having succumbed to his mere mortality. The volatility of humanity on display. 'You don't want to see nobody get hurt, but — I don't know — we needed Ty out there,' Pacers forward Obi Toppin said. 'For him to go down, (in) a game like that, that s— sucked the soul out of us. I ain't gonna say out of everybody, but I don't feel like I played good because I was thinking about it the whole day and I felt like it was my fault.' That this was predictable only makes his sacrifice more valiant. Achilles tears are regretfully trending. Haliburton became the third player to suffer the injury in these playoffs. The Pacers carried on valiantly. Their relentlessness put a scare in the Thunder. But moving forward, Indiana loses the face of its franchise for next season, which severely hampers its chances of getting back to this stage. Perhaps that made Haliburton's decision to play too risky. The price for his choice is two chances at a ring, even if the next one is predisposed to a litany of attacks. This NBA Finals stage is guaranteed to no one. That's part of what made his pain palpable. As much as possible, we know Tyrese Haliburton. We know the pleasure he gets from disrupting the order of things. He may have two voices but one clear mission: To put his name where they said it shouldn't go. Haliburton is an important figure in this league. His jovial spirit, his authenticity, his willingness to engage, his appreciation for the theater of it all are gifts to the league. Haliburton is the face of one of the NBA's most stubbornly lovable underdogs ever. The Pacers embody the very parity the league desires. The suspense of uncertainty. The thrill of novelty. Haliburton is the quality control for a new era of superstars. As LeBron James and Stephen Curry fade from the top, and a new crop vie for the crown, he's there to test their mettle, to measure their worthiness. He'll expose who isn't ready. He'll take down whoever isn't worthy. He was so close to upsetting the story arc of the Thunder, the NBA's newest darlings. He was on the porch, prepared to kick in the door. But when it was over, and the Pacers' magical season was done, Haliburton found himself standing outside a different door. With crutches helping hold him up, and a boot on his right foot, he waited for his teammates. One by one, he greeted them, each player hugging their star, outside the locker room. Where defeat would settle in. Where an uncertain future would start taking shape. When the last player went through, Haliburton turned and went to join them in the struggle. As fate would have it, that door, he could walk right through. (Photo of Tyrese Haliburton: Kyle Terada / Imagn Images)

USA Today

32 minutes ago

• USA Today

Alex Caruso disses Lakers' 2020 championship: 'Now I got a real one'

Former Los Angeles Lakers guard Alex Caruso is an NBA champion once again. On Sunday, his Oklahoma City Thunder outlasted the Indiana Pacers in Game 7 of the NBA Finals and claimed the Larry O'Brien Trophy. Caruso was instrumental throughout the playoffs, just as he was when he won it all with the Lakers in 2020. His stats are usually modest, but he makes an impact that goes well beyond those numbers, not just on the defensive end but in multiple facets of the game. On Sunday, he scored 10 points and added three rebounds, three steals and one block in 32 minutes off the bench. As much as anyone, he has embodied a Thunder defense that people are calling historically great. Following Sunday's victory, Caruso seemed to throw shade at the ring he earned with the Purple and Gold inside of the Walt Disney World Resort bubble. 'Yeah, now I got a real one. Now nobody can say anything. Yeah, I think just because of the way the team is constructed now versus the team I had in 2020, like it was much harder with this team just because of the experience, right? And everybody talked about you need experience, win a championship, and you need this, that, and the other. And I said multiple times through the postseason with this team that the good basketball is good basketball, winning basketball is winning basketball. And the best team can win no matter what happens if you go out there and execute and do the stuff that you need to do to win the game. And I think through the playoffs, this team grew up and learned on the fly, which most teams have to learn through losses and learn through defeat. And I think this team learned through success.' Shai Gilgeous-Alexander completed a sensational season by being named the NBA Finals MVP. He had previously won the regular-season MVP and the scoring title, making him just the fourth player ever to attain all three accomplishments in the same season. Caruso was asked about Gilgeous-Alexander's potential to be the face of the NBA, just as LeBron James was or has been for many years. While he said Gilgeous-Alexander could be the face of the league, he stopped short of comparing the newly minted MVP to James. "Comparing to LeBron is a crazy start just 'cause LeBron was anointed at 18 years old and surpassed everything that has ever been put in front of him," Caruso said. "As far as face of the league and best player on best team, SGA's got that capability." Lakers fans have undoubtedly experienced withdrawal symptoms watching Caruso throughout the playoffs. He left L.A. in the summer of 2021 in free agency after the team unsuccessfully haggled with him over a couple of extra million dollars a year. It was one of several blunders by executive Rob Pelinka that offseason, which essentially dismantled the 2020 championship team and plunged the franchise into purgatory for most of the last four years.