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USA Today
11 hours ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Young Thunder falter and now face ultimate test: NBA Finals Game 7
Young Thunder falter and now face ultimate test: NBA Finals Game 7 Show Caption Hide Caption Shaq talks NBA Finals matchup and NBA on TNT Shaquille O'Neal joins Sports Seriously to talk about all things NBA and his upcoming Netflix docu-series 'Power Moves'. Sports Seriously The young Oklahoma City Thunder have absorbed lessons all season – in success and in failure through 82 regular-season games and 22 playoff games. The lessons for the Thunder after six NBA Finals games against the Indiana Pacers are clear. Clearer than ever. Winning closeout games in the conference final round is one thing; winning closeout games in the NBA Finals is another, much more demanding thing. The Thunder need to take the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy because the Pacers aren't going to give it up easily. They're going after it just as hard. The 2025 NBA Finals get a Game 7 because Tyrese Haliburton (and his one good leg) and the Pacers destroyed the Thunder 108-91 in Game 6 Thursday, June 19. 'From our standpoint, it was uncharacteristic,' Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. 'It was disappointing. It was collective. It wasn't one guy. Just we were not where we needed to be on either end of the floor for much of the game. We have to be a lot better before Game 7.' It was one of those games where the margin was not indicative of the beating the Pacers delivered. The Thunder were miserable across the board, but don't be fooled either. The feisty, admirable Pacers had a significant role in Oklahoma City's inability to score or defend. 'Obviously it was a very poor performance by us,' Daigneault said. 'But there's two teams out there. I want to give Indiana credit for the way they defended, the way they competed in the game, the way they played all the way around. They had a lot to do with it." If the Thunder want to win the franchise's first championship since moving to Oklahoma City from Seattle in 2008, they know they can't have a similar performance. Twenty-one turnovers leading to 19 Pacers points won't get it done. Shooting 26.7% on 3-pointers and allowing 15 made 3s won't get it done. Falling behind by 22 at the half and 30 by the end of the third quarter, going scoreless for a nearly seven-minute stretch at the end of the second quarter and start of the third, and eight turnovers by 2024-25 NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won't do the job. Gilgeous-Alexander didn't hide from the result. 'We got exactly what we deserved, what we earned. We have to own that," he said. As dominant as Oklahoma City has been this season, it's also easy to forget it is the second-youngest team to play in the Finals in the past 70 seasons. This group is playing in their first Finals together, and Daigneault just coached his 32nd career playoff game. Sunday is the 20th Game 7 in Finals history, and the first since Cleveland came back from a 3-1 deficit to beat Golden State in 2016. For the Thunder, there are encouraging internal and external signs. The home team is 15-4 in Finals Game 7s, including 4-1 in the past 30 seasons, and the Thunder defeated Denver in Game 7 at home in this season's Western Conference semifinals. They lost two consecutive games just twice during the regular season and have not lost two consecutive playoff games this season. They respond to losses. 'It's a privilege to play in Game 7s. It's a privilege to play in the Finals,' Daigneault said. 'As disappointing as tonight was, we're grateful for the opportunity. We put in a lot of work this season to be able to play that game at home, which is exciting to be able to do it in front of our fans. 'Obviously disappointed tonight. But we'll regroup, get back to zero, learn from it with clear eyes, like we always do. Get ourselves as ready as we can be to play Game 7 on Sunday.' The biggest test is Sunday in a winner-take-all game. 'The way I see it is, we sucked tonight," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "We can learn our lessons. We have one game for everything, for everything we've worked for, and so do they. The better team Sunday will win. ... "One game for everything you ever dreamed of. If you win it, you get everything. If you lose it, you get nothing. It's that simple."
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
In the NBA Finals, one team is part of a legacy that this Detroit legend helped to build
When the Indiana Pacers host the Oklahoma City Thunder June 11 in Game 3 of the NBA Finals, with the series tied, the Pacers will be continuing their quest to capture the franchise's first NBA championship. While it is true the Pacers have never possessed the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy — awarded to the team that wins the NBA Finals — three special banners hanging from the rafters at the Pacers' Gainbridge Fieldhouse reveal that the franchise already knows more than a little something about winning titles. Those banners celebrate American Basketball Association (ABA) championships won by the Pacers in 1970, 1972 and 1973 before the ABA merged with the NBA in 1976. And a driving force on the court for each of those teams was the late, great Mel Daniels, a Detroit native and the pride of Pershing High School, who was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. in 2012 and died in 2015. 'Mel Daniels was the ABA's Bill Russell — a great team player,' said former Detroit Pistons player and head coach Ray Scott, who was able to compare Daniels to the great Boston Celtics center because Scott played against Russell during Scott's NBA career and later against Daniels, when Scott ended his career as a player in the ABA as a member of the Virginia Squires from 1970-1972. 'Those Indiana teams really were loaded with great players like (2013 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee) Roger Brown and Freddie Lewis, and then later with (2017 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee) George McGinnis, who looked like Charles Atlas in a basketball uniform playing alongside Mel to go with all the shooting they had. 'Those teams were exceptional because they looked like an NBA team and Mel gave them that certified big man during a big man's era. If they had all the other players with a 6-6 or 6-7 guy in the middle, they wouldn't have been the same team, but Mel excelled at the center position and there's no doubt that the Pacers could have contended for an NBA championship if the franchise had entered the NBA a few years earlier.' Daniels' excellence in the ABA covered eight seasons, beginning with the 1967-68 season. At six-foot-nine-inches tall, Daniels, known as a relentless rebounder and an efficient scorer, was a seven-time ABA All Star and was named to the All-ABA First Team four consecutive times beginning in 1968. Daniels often saved some of his best performances for the biggest games, which included being the ABA's postseason leader in rebounds during two of the Pacers' three championship runs. However, a trip back in time to trace Daniels' early basketball journey in Detroit, reveals that he was anything but an overnight sensation in the sport. For example, in the March 10, 1963 Detroit Free Press, Daniels, as a senior who played a partial season for the Pershing Doughboys due to being a January graduate, does not appear on the first, second or third team All-Detroit basketball squads. The same was true in 1962 when Daniels was able to play his entire junior season, with the only difference being that he was an honorable mention selection that year. Nonetheless, from humble beginnings, Daniels would begin to make a name for himself at a destination more that 1,500 miles away from Detroit on the campus of the University of New Mexico, where he had a standout collegiate career from 1964 through 1967, which set the stage for his entry into professional basketball. "Mel Daniels' picture could be in the dictionary next to the word improvement," said Scott, who upon arriving in Detroit in 1961 as the Pistons fourth overall pick in NBA Draft discovered a highly competitive basketball scene at all levels that rivaled what he was accustomed to in his hometown of Philadelphia. 'He was the type of person that you want to hold up as an example because he worked and worked and worked to become one of the best players in the game.' On the afternoon of June 10, Ann Connally, the president of the Pershing High School Alumni Association and a friend of Daniels' younger sister, Wanda Daniels, provided insight that helped to explain how Mel Daniels transformed himself into a star basketball player. And Connally's analysis had nothing to do with basketball and everything to do with school and neighborhood pride. 'There is a pride and a belief in the Doughboy mystique that started a long time ago,' said Connally, a 1969 Pershing graduate who also worked in the school office for 30 years and continues to pore over the school's history with help from materials left behind by two Pershing legends — coach Will Robinson, who spent extra time molding Daniels while coaching the Pershing basketball team, and historian Orlin Jones. 'Conant Gardens was one of the first areas in the city where Black people were able to buy and build homes and that was passed down from generation to generation, which let people know that where they lived was hallowed ground. People knew that if you put in the work, you can be successful, and not just our athletes, because we have successful people representing all walks of life.' Connally says the Doughboy pride and mystique she spoke of will be represented across generations in a few weeks at the 2025 Pershing High School Alumni Picnic, which is scheduled for July 27 at Belle Isle. Stories about the many successful people that have come out of the historic high school at 18875 Ryan Road, off 7 Mile, will no doubt fill the air, but Connally revealed that there is also a now world famous greeting that will be heard often because Doughboys think of it as their own. More: Tina Castleberry, owner of The Garden Bug, empowers Detroiters one yard at a time 'There is a rumor, and I think it's true, that the term 'Whatupdoe!' was started at Pershing,' explained Connally, with a tone of authority in her voice that could not be denied. ''What Up Dough' is something our athletes — our football players — used to say to each other and then the term got shortened over time. It's definitely something we have fun talking about among ourselves when we get together. Last year, we had a young man from the Class of 1996 come all the way from Dubai for the picnic. No matter what our graduates go on to do in life, they love to come home and come together." More: 'Work on your body and work on your mind,' raps special friend to a Detroit school Scott Talley is a native Detroiter, a proud product of Detroit Public Schools and a lifelong lover of Detroit culture in its diverse forms. In his second tour with the Free Press, which he grew up reading as a child, he is excited and humbled to cover the city's neighborhoods and the many interesting people who define its various communities. Contact him at stalley@ or follow him on Twitter @STalleyfreep. Read more of Scott's stories at Please help us grow great community-focused journalism by becoming a subscriber. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Mel Daniels' hard work contributed to a winning Indiana Pacers legacy
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
How to Watch the 2025 NBA Finals Online Without Cable for Free
Variety and Yahoo may earn commission from links in this article. Pricing and availability subject to change. If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. At the end of the 2025 NBA Playoffs with thrills and all sorts of surprises, the last two teams battle each other for victory and the chance to hoist the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy at half-court. Advertisement More from Variety For the 2025 NBA Finals, two NBA powerhouses go head-to-head, as Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers face off against Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma starting on Thursday, June 5. Game 1 tips off at 8:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT on ABC. watch 2025 NBA Finals on DirecTV Since NBA Finals broadcasts on ABC, the game is also available to watch online with internet-based cable alternatives, like DirecTV — which offer a 5-day, and start at $59.99 for the first month of service ($89.99/month afterwards) for new subscribers. Advertisement ABC is available with a subscription to and Fubo, Hulu + Live TV and Sling Blue (depending on your local TV market) Tickets to the game are still available on TicketNetwork, and SeatGeek. In fact, you can save $150 off when you spend $500 with promo code VARIETY150, or $300 off when you spend $1,000 with promo code VARIETY300 at Buy 2025 NBA FinalS Tickets at TicketNetwork In addition, you can use code VAR2024 to take $20 off your ticket purchase at or you can use promo code VARIETY10 to save $10 at With Game 1 tipoff at 8:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT, NBA Finals broadcasts on ABC via DirecTV, Fubo, Hulu + Live TV or Sling Blue. Advertisement watch 2025 NBA Finals on DirecTV Below, you'll find a complete NBA Finals schedule: Game 1: Indiana Pacers at Oklahoma City Thunder — Thurs., June 5, 8:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT Game 2: Indiana Pacers at Oklahoma City Thunder — Sun., June 8, 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT Game 3: Oklahoma City Thunder at Indiana Pacers — Wed., June 11, 8:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT Game 4: Oklahoma City Thunder at Indiana Pacers — Fri., June 13, 8:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT *Game 5: Indiana Pacers at Oklahoma City Thunder — Mon., June 16, 8:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT *Game 6: Oklahoma City Thunder at Indiana Pacers — Thur., June 19, 8:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT *Game 7: Indiana Pacers at Oklahoma City Thunder — Sun., June 22, 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT *If necessary Best of Variety Sign up for Variety's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Draymond offers brutally honest NBA Finals take after Knicks' loss
Draymond offers brutally honest NBA Finals take after Knicks' loss originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area You either win an NBA championship, or go home empty-handed. There is no consolation prize. Advertisement A team might make it all the way to the end, but if they don't win, they're in the same boat as the 28 other teams who are trying to figure out what they need to do to successfully scale the NBA mountaintop. Warriors forward Draymond Green knows a thing or two — or four — about winning a championship, but he also is familiar with the sting of losing in the NBA Finals, and explained on the latest episode of 'The Draymond Green Show with Baron Davis' podcast a brutally-honest perspective on teams, like the New York Knicks, for example, who found themselves close to reaching the Finals before losing to the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals, but were not close to hoisting the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy. 'If you want me to be quite honest with you, I personally think making it to the NBA Finals is one of the worst seasons you can have,' Green said. 'And the reason being … going to the NBA Finals and winning a championship, those two things are so far apart. You can get to the NBA Finals and not be close to winning an NBA championship. 'Making it to a conference finals, you're so far away from winning a championship, and it looks like it's close because you're one series away.' Advertisement The Knicks, just like the Minnesota Timberwolves, who lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference finals, had a successful season. By most accounts. However, without that championship trophy, Green believes those teams are left doing a similar level of soul-searching as other teams around the league. 'Even if the Knicks made it to the NBA Finals and didn't win it, that's not some accomplishment to me,' Green added. 'You get nothing for making the NBA Finals except a couple tens of thousands of dollars more than the conference final loser and you get another three weeks short of summer. 'You walk with nothing. The [other] team goes on and celebrates and has this incredible summer and you're kind of left stuck trying to figure out 'Were we really close? Do we need to run it back with this team? What's the tweak we need to make?'' That soul-searching in the wake of disappointment might lead a team down the wrong path. Advertisement ''You're kind of left in this position of 'Ahh, maybe we're one tweak away.' But what you should understand about this thing is one tweak could actually, it's like Jenga sometimes, one tweak on a roster could make the whole thing fall.' Could that one wrong tweak be the Knicks firing coach Tom Thibodeau on Tuesday, for example? While New York and Minnesota might be kicking themselves for failing to make the Finals, either the Pacers or the Thunder soon will be in the same boat, regardless of if they made it all the way. 'Yeah, making it to the Finals is great, but if you don't win it, it's almost worse,' Green concluded. 'You might as well have lost in the first round.' Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
The bland 2025 NBA Finals court sparked passionate fan outrage
Well, NBA fans have delivered their review of ABC's 2025 NBA Finals court presentation: they hate it. Rather than spiffing up the court to prominently display the NBA Finals with a Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy and more official logos to signify the moment, fans were deeply disturbed at how painfully minimal the whole ordeal really was. Advertisement The Indiana Pacers 'Yes 'Cers' rally cry, explained There was no special NBA Finals logo on the court, no patches on the uniform, no regalia on the stanchions, nothing. It's like it was just a normal NBA game you'd half-watch on a Thursday night while eating pizza. NBA Finals 2025: Expert staff picks, bold predictions and more The lack of NBA Finals prominence on the court during the actual NBA Finals deeply confused the fans watching at home. I mean, you look at it. Can you blame the outrage? The regal presentation of years past just isn't there in the slightest. It's a little pathetic if you ask us. There is just nothing to it. As the kids say, this NBA Finals court had no rizz, no aura. The league has to do better about this in the future. Advertisement Like, seriously, what are we even doing here? The old logos had real character, real gravitas for the moment. This is just half-hearted court planning by the NBA. In the future, we hope the league honors the past and puts a little elbow grease into designing what the NBA Finals aesthetics will look like. This isn't just good enough. This article originally appeared on For The Win: The bland 2025 NBA Finals court sparked passionate fan outrage
