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Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Fantasy Basketball: Tyrese Haliburton injury looms large for Indiana Pacers after NBA Finals loss
The playoffs are where stars rise and weaknesses get exposed. For every team sent packing, we've analyzed the standout players primed for growth and a major question mark that could impact the team's fantasy value ahead of the 2025-26 season. Now, we arrive at the Eastern Conference champs, the Indiana Pacers ... The Indiana Pacers' improbable, epic postseason run came to a close on Sunday night, with the Oklahoma City Thunder taking Game 7 and winning the first NBA championship in their franchise's history. Advertisement The Pacers were unbelievable, a fourth-seed that had countless unforgettable moments, paired with an insatiable resilience that saw them produce one of the most exciting playoffs ever. The Pacers defied expectations, going to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2000 and finishing one win shy of hoisting the Larry O'Brien trophy. The season was a success, and while they're the last loser of the postseason, Indy will also have to endure the next season without its star point guard. All the best to Tyrese Haliburton Haliburton was cooking seven minutes into the first quarter of Game 7 before the basketball gods intervened, ruining the game, the series and arguably next season for the Pacers. Haliburton suffered a torn Achilles injury, which will likely keep him out for the entire 2025-26 season. It's a brutal blow for fans and fantasy basketball managers, as we've lost three potential first-round talents (Damian Lillard, Jayson Tatum and now Haliburton) all to Achilles tears just in this postseason. Haliburton blossomed into a superstar during the 2025 NBA Playoffs, so to see him fall victim to a serious injury with a championship in reach was devastating. The Pacers have no shortage of roster depth, but not having their two-time All-Star in the lineup heading into next season is a massive gut punch. What's next for the Pacers Most of the Pacers' rotational players are under contract for next season, with Myles Turner being the exception. Turner's the longest-tenured Pacer and will officially be an unrestricted free agent in July. He will undoubtedly have suitors in the market for what he brings as a shot-blocker and floor-spacer. However, it appears that he and the Pacers could finalize a new deal before rival teams are given the chance. Time will tell, but bringing back Turner to anchor the backline of their defense is key. Advertisement He doesn't play like a traditional big. However, Turner remains one of the best shot blockers in the game and has become an asset for 3s in fantasy. Andrew Nembhard's ADP and fantasy stock will skyrocket ahead of next season. Nembhard averaged 11 points, 3 rebounds and 6 assists in eight games without Haliburton this season, and over his career, he's at 13/3/7 when Haliburton is out of the lineup. Pascal Siakam slightly underperformed relative to his fourth-round ADP, finishing 59th in 9-cat formats. I'd feel comfortable that he'll return to a top-50 player with a likely jump in assists and usage without Haliburton. Advertisement The Pacers were the surprise of the Eastern Conference, making consecutive trips to the Eastern Conference Finals and, this time, getting to the NBA Finals for the first time in a quarter century. The Pacers' depth and coaching were their differentiators, and they'll be leaning on that even more as they approach the 2025-26 season without their star player. The NBA and fantasy landscape will look significantly different without Tatum, Lillard and Haliburton, so we could see even more parity than we did this year.
CNN
8 hours ago
- Sport
- CNN
Oklahoma City Thunder cap off incredible season with a hard-earned NBA title
On Sunday night, the Oklahoma City Thunder finished what they started back in late October and put the rest of the NBA on notice that there's a new sheriff in town. With an average age under 26, the Thunder capped off one of the winningest seasons in league history with a seven-game triumph over a pesky Indiana Pacers team to win the Larry O'Brien trophy. It was a tight affair in the early-going, indicative of the back-and-forth nature of the entire series, and then disaster struck for Indiana. Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton, who had been instrumental in a string of incredible comeback wins for the Pacers this postseason, went down with a non-contact injury to his lower right leg. He writhed in pain, slapping the floor in a mixture of frustration, heartbreak and physical discomfort. His father later confirmed to broadcaster ESPN what many had suspected – it was an Achilles injury for the 25-year-old. With every excuse to throw in the towel, the Pacers instead rallied around their injured leader. Led by Eastern Conference Finals MVP Pascal Siakam and a hard-nosed defense, Indiana took a surprising 48-47 lead into halftime. As the adrenaline began to wear off though, the Thunder started to impose their will in the third quarter of the game. In the blink of an eye, the game went from tied at 56-56 to a nine-point OKC lead after three consecutive long range shots from the Thunder's 'Big 3' of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams. The Thunder never looked back from that point. OKC, which boasted the league's best defense in the regular season, began swarming all over the short-handed Pacers. The Thunder held Indiana scoreless for the first 4:31 of the fourth quarter as Oklahoma City's lead grew to 22 points. The Pacers showed their trademark determination and never quit, trimming the deficit down to 10 points with two-and-a-half minutes left. But without their late-game hero Haliburton, the mountain was just too steep to climb for the Pacers, and the Thunder ultimately won the game 103-91. Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said afterwards, 'The way this season started and everything, (the Thunder) may have had those buses painted up back in December. So they will have a great parade. They have great fans. This was a great series.' Gilgeous-Alexander had a game-high 29 points and earned Finals MVP honors, becoming the first player since LeBron James in 2013 to earn both regular season and Finals MVP awards. SGA also became just the fourth player in NBA history to win the league MVP trophy, the scoring title and win the Finals, joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan and Shaquille O'Neal. 'It doesn't feel real,' Gilgeous-Alexander told ABC's Lisa Salters after the game when asked about accomplishing his childhood dream of winning an NBA title. 'So many hours, so many moments, so many emotions, so many nights of disbelief, so many nights of belief. It's crazy to know we are all here. But this group worked for it and this group put in the hours and deserved this.' After looking listless at halftime, the Thunder closed their season in the same fashion that they had been playing since October: Intense defense, lightning quick runs and leaning on Gilgeous-Alexander's near-perfect basketball to take home the title.
New York Times
10 hours ago
- Sport
- New York Times
How Alex Caruso, Thunder won Game 7 — and how the NBA might copy it
OKLAHOMA CITY — A few hours before Thunder guard Alex Caruso hoisted his second Larry O'Brien trophy, the 31-year-old positioned himself in the right corner of Paycom Center on Sunday, both of his feet firmly planted in the ground. Technically, Caruso was only here to warm up and get shots up before Game 7. But the veteran was less concerned with the mechanics of his jump shot and more engrossed with the mechanics of his footwork. Advertisement Each sequence was the same; left foot back one step, right foot back two steps, catch, shoot. The motions Caruso made were deliberate, like he had been rigorously studying the latest TikTok dance. But more importantly, Caruso was present in the moment — away from the rising temperature in the arena and the anxiety building up to the biggest game of the Thunder's lives. Caruso was simply where his feet were. It's a mantra that Oklahoma City has adopted. Being cognizant of the moment, whatever moment it is, supersedes anything else. And it's especially pertinent to Caruso, the Thunder's most dependable two-way player, the happy medium between small ball and size and the X-factor to head coach Mark Daigneault's system. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the water that carries this organization on a nightly basis, but Caruso is the straw that stirs the drink. Without him, none of this works. The smartest players learn early on what their role is and maximize it to the fullest capacity. Caruso, now a two-time NBA champion, is that. 'I think just through my career, I figured out that I can do stuff that's not necessarily sexy or not necessarily the mainstream offensive or even defensive skill set that people recognize,' Caruso said. 'I just leaned into it. I practiced being great at the stuff that nobody else does, carving a role for myself in the league. I think through the years, I've just kind of perfected that stuff.' The veteran's selfless approach and unusual skill set — as well as the other talent 6-foot-6 and shorter on the roster — make it possible for Daigneault to enact his mad-scientist plans. En route to its first title, Oklahoma City consistently trotted out lineups that featured four guards and a lone big, contrary to the belief that their biggest strength was a Chet Holmgren-Isaiah Hartenstein tandem. Advertisement For most teams, this would be a risky approach. But the pairing of Hartenstein and Holmgren works so well because they're dominant even when separated from one another. According to Cleaning the Glass, Oklahoma City played 2,644 regular-season possessions with Hartenstein on the floor and Holmgren off, with a plus-11.7 net rating. The inverse, Holmgren on and Hartenstein off, played 1182 possessions, with a plus-16.1 net rating (98th percentile). That security blanket allows Daigneault to get creative with his pairings, seen in the possession below. Indiana trotted out multiple zone looks in Game 7, a wrench thrown on a night where Tyrese Haliburton exited the game with a right leg injury. The approach from Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle was smart — the Thunder's offensive efficiency during the finals had been far below their regular-season standards. But Oklahoma City, which had gotten through three rounds already, was used to shape-shifting zones at this stage of its season. Caruso's inclusion is important because it opens up guard-to-guard screening, a Daigneault favorite. Pound for pound, Caruso is one of the better screen-setters in the league, being strong enough to connect with a defender and quick enough to slip — the best counter to an aggressive defense. Caruso is off to the races before a Pacer can even compute what's going on. It's an added bonus that Hartenstein is an adept playmaker and knows how to hit cutters on time. Caruso equals speed, speed equals optionality. Pay attention to the screens being set by guards, setting up some fancy Spain action (screening the screener). Gilgeous-Alexander coming over to set a pindown for Jalen Williams, who in turn has a back screen set for him courtesy of Caruso. The defense is so focused on Gilgeous-Alexander receiving a handoff from Hartenstein — and also having to commit a man to his dive — that they forget about Caruso, a 42.1-percent shooter. At the other end of the floor, the Thunder's small-ish ball allows them to cover the entire halfcourt while maintaining their defensive integrity. The combination of Caruso, Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams and Luguentz Dort allow Oklahoma City to zip around screens and cut off driving lanes. Just look how much ground these defenders cover in the span of seconds, Hartenstein included. Even a gamble is masked by crisp rotation and recovery. There is no breathing room for an offensive juggernaut and a late shot ends up being an airball. Oklahoma City's belief in its approach is so pure that as long as Caruso and a big are on the floor, a seldom-used wing like Kenrich Williams can be inserted and the Thunder can produce similar positive results. When both bigs have been on the floor, Indiana has attempted to drag them out, extending Oklahoma City's defensive shell well beyond their intended shape. When they play small, like below, their shape is compact — with multiple defenders having at least one foot in the restricted area. The Pacers coughed up the ball 23 times against the Thunder, turning those turnovers into 32 points at the other end. When Oklahoma City strikes as fast as lightning, like below where Caruso's aggression meets Hartenstein's length, solutions are few and far between. Attempting to set high ball screens, like Tony Bradley below, is just asking for trouble. 'I'd say it's all about tradeoffs,' said Holmgren, who finished Sunday night with five blocks, the most in Game 7 history. 'For as many compliments as I have for myself and Hart, we don't move our feet quite like some of these guards. The guards we have are special on defense with their ability to climb up in the ball, play in passing lanes, really cover distance, cover ground quickly. So when you have an extra person out there doing that, we're able to kind of really turn up the heat.' Because of the uniqueness of the Thunder's style at both ends of the floor — and its success — there's a very real chance that rival NBA teams will look to adopt some of their practices. Basketball is a continuum, and the mere idea of small ball can shift depending on which organization you look at. A good portion of teams aren't fully entrenched in the four-guard, lone-big style (most use just three) but could it trend in that direction? Advertisement The Pacers' most-used lineup, with Haliburton (6-5), Aaron Nesmith (6-6) and Andrew Nembhard (6-4), use three guards in tandem with Myles Turner. Same with Boston, with Jrue Holiday, Derrick White and Jaylen Brown all 6-foot-6 or under. Denver's second-most used lineup features Russell Westbrook, Jamal Murray and Christian Braun, none taller than 6-foot-6. The NBA is a copycat league and there's no better template than the world champions. Small-ish ball might be here to stay.
CNN
16 hours ago
- Sport
- CNN
The Oklahoma City Thunder win the NBA championship after defeating Indiana Pacers in winner-take-all Game 7
Update: Date: Title: Thunder cap off incredible season with a hard-earned NBA title Content: The Oklahoma City Thunder Sunday night finished what they started back in late October, and put the rest of the NBA on notice that there's a new sheriff in town. With an average age under 26, the Thunder capped off one of the winningest seasons in league history with a seven-game triumph over a pesky Indiana Pacers team to win the Larry O'Brien trophy. It was a tight affair in the early-going, indicative of the back-and-forth nature of the entire series, and then disaster struck for Indiana. Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton, who had been instrumental in a string of incredible comeback wins for the Pacers this postseason, went down with a non-contact injury to his lower right leg. He writhed in pain, slapping the floor in a mixture of frustration, heartbreak and physical discomfort. His father later confirmed to broadcaster ESPN what many had suspected - it was an Achilles injury for the 25-year-old. With every excuse to throw in the towel, the Pacers instead rallied around their injured leader. Keyed by Eastern Conference Finals MVP Pascal Siakam and a hard-nosed defense, Indiana took a surprising 48-47 lead into halftime. As the adrenaline began to wear off, the Thunder started to impose their will in the third quarter of the game. In the blink of an eye, the game went from tied at 56-56 to a nine-point OKC lead after three consecutive long range shots from the Thunder's 'Big 3' - Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams. The Thunder never looked back from that point. OKC, which boasted the league's best defense in the regular season, began swarming all over the short-handed Pacers. The Thunder held Indiana scoreless for the first 4:31 of the fourth quarter as Oklahoma City's lead grew to 22 points. The Pacers showed their trademark determination and never quit, trimming the deficit down to 10 points with two-and-a-half minutes left. But without their late-game hero Haliburton, the mountain was just too steep for the Pacers, and the Thunder ultimately won the game 103-91. The Thunder's centerpiece, Gilgeous-Alexander had a game-high 29 points and earned Finals MVP honors, becoming the first player since LeBron James in 2013 to earn both regular season and Finals MVP awards. SGA also became just the fourth player in NBA history to win the league MVP trophy, the scoring title and win the Finals, joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan and Shaquille O'Neal. After looking listless at halftime, the Thunder closed their season in the same fashion that they had been playing since October: Intense defense, lightning quick runs and leaning on Gilgeous-Alexander's near-perfect basketball to take home the title. Update: Date: Title: Isaiah Hartenstein's sleeping child steals hearts Content: The lasting image from the celebration tonight will not be remembered by its focal point. Oklahoma City Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein was on the stage, celebrating with his teammates and holding his son who was absolutely zonked out. Lil Hartenstein is slumped 😂😂😂 congrats Okc. The little Hartenstein is a little more than a year old and truly must not be used to late nights because even amid the raucous cheering in the Paycom Center, he was sleeping hard. Hartenstein said he wanted the crowd to make a little noise to wake up his son but it was to no avail. Sometimes, you just gotta sleep. Update: Date: Title: Pacers coach on Haliburton injury: "All of our hearts dropped" Content: An emotional Indiana Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle talked about his star player, Tyrese Haliburton, who went down with an apparent Achilles injury in the first quarter. 'What happened with Tyrese, all of our hearts dropped. 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,' Carlisle told reporters. Haliburton's father told the ABC broadcast that the injury was to his son's Achilles. 'So, he authored one of the great individual playoff runs in the history of the NBA with dramatic play after dramatic play. It was just something that no one's ever seen and did it as 1 of 17. You know, that's the beautiful thing about him. As great a player as he is, it's always a team thing. And so, our hearts go out to him.' Carlisle also congratulated the Thunder for their NBA championship win. 'The way this season started and everything, they may have had those buses painted up back in December,' Carlisle said. 'So they will have a great parade. They have great fans. This was a great series.' Update: Date: Title: SGA on winning title: "It doesn't feel real" Content: 'It doesn't feel real,' Shai Gilgeous-Alexander told ABC's Lisa Salters after the game when asked about accomplishing his childhood dream of winning an NBA title. 'So many hours, so many moments, so many emotions, so many nights of disbelief, so many nights of belief. It's crazy to know we are all here. But this group worked for it and this group put in the hours and deserved this.' Shai Gilgeous-Alexander The Finals MVP said 'the fun' he had tonight with his family is what he will remember the most of the NBA Finals first Game 7 in almost decade. 'The moment was amazing,' Gilgeous-Alexander said. 'The fans were amazing. It was so much fun. Exactly what I expected.' Update: Date: Title: Tears and hugs for the Pacers after coming up just short in championship quest Content: As Paycom Center erupted in joy after Oklahoma City clinched its first NBA title, there was also an outpouring of emotion from the Indiana Pacers, who game up just short in this seven-game rollercoaster of an NBA Finals. Tyrese Haliburton, the Pacers' late game hero so many times this postseason, was waiting on crutches in the tunnel to welcome his teammates after a reported Achilles injury ended his night in the first quarter. The injured star exchanged consoling handshakes and hugs with all of the Pacers' players, coaches and basketball staff as they filtered through the tunnel. Pacers' royalty Reggie Miller was also seen in the tunnel to offer words of encouragement to the dejected Indiana players. The five-time All-Star and hall of famer Miller was part of the only other Pacers team to reach the Finals in 2000, when Indiana fell to the Los Angeles Lakers. Reserve guard TJ McConnell, who stepped up with 16 points off the bench in Game 7 and a whopping 84 points in the series, was inconsolable as the emotion poured out in the wake of the heartbreaking loss. Update: Date: Title: To no one's surprise, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is named the Finals MVP Content: Who else could it be? Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was the regular season MVP and now he can call himself the NBA Finals MVP as well. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the @okcthunder is the recipient of the Bill Russell Trophy as the MVP of the #NBAFinals presented by @YouTubeTV. SGA becomes just the fourth ever player to win the scoring title, regular season MVP and NBA Finals in the same season, joining Shaquille O'Neal, Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Not bad company. Update: Date: Title: The Thunder were reeling at halftime. Then they got back to being who they are Content: Truly a game of two halves for the Oklahoma City Thunder. After a mostly listless opening two quarters in which Shai Gilgeous-Alexander – surely the MVP of these Finals – was the only player on the team in double figures, the Thunder returned to what makes them great. The suffocating defense, the breakneck speed on the offensive end and SGA playing an exquisite game of basketball was more than enough to put away the Pacers. It's been a truly remarkable Finals – most pundits expected the Pacers to be swept or maybe go down in five games – and a second-half blowout and Tyrese Haliburton's devastating injury wouldn't have been on anyone's wishlist for how it would end. But no one can argue the Thunder don't deserve this title, putting together one of the most complete seasons the NBA has seen in quite some time. Update: Date: Title: OKC HAVE WON THE NBA CHAMPIONSHIP! Content: Oklahoma City outlasted a potential signature Indiana fourth quarter comeback to win the NBA championship. The Thunder beat the Pacers 103-91 in Game 7 of the NBA Finals to bring home the franchise's first title since moving to 'The Big Friendly' in 2008. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished with a game-high 29 points and 12 assists to lead the Thunder to the franchise-altering win. The major key of the game for the Thunder was the defense. OKC forced Indiana to commit 23 total turnovers, scoring 29 points off of them. The Thunder, who finished with the NBA's best regular season record, become the second straight team to win the title and have the best regular season record after the Boston Celtics did last year. Update: Date: Title: With 32 seconds left, the Thunder are on the brink Content: The Thunder are on the verge as the bench is emptied and the starters exit to a huge ovation. Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle does the same and it's just about done here. Score: Thunder 103, Pacers 87 Update: Date: Title: The celebration is starting in Oklahoma City as Thunder look to close this game out Content: The Paycom Center is rocking as the Thunder are closing out this Game 7 over the Indiana Pacers. It's now a 14-point game with a minute to go. Score: Thunder 101, Pacers 87 Update: Date: Title: Time running out on the Pacers Content: There were hints that the Pacers maybe had one last miraculous comeback in them, but it's looking increasingly unlikely. The Thunder have a 13-point lead and we are under three minutes to go. Score: Thunder 94, Pacers 81 Update: Date: Title: The Thunder's defense has been the key to this second-half surge Content: Somewhere, Nico Harrison is smiling because it does seem like defense is about to win a championship. The Thunder were the league's best defensive team in the regular season, leading the NBA in defensive efficiency. In the opening game of this series, they forced Indiana to turn the ball over an insane 25 times, making the Pacers' win in that game even crazier. But in this game, the Pacers no longer have Tyrese Haliburton. And they appear to have run out of miracles. The Thunder have forced the Pacers into 19 turnovers and scored 28 points off those turnovers. Particularly in the second half, the Pacers shooting has been disappointing and they're under 40% from the field for the game. It seemed at halftime like this game was going to be a rock fight until the end. But the Thunder opened up the third quarter like a team that remembered what got it here – defense, defense, defense. Oh, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who leads the game with 25 points. Score: Thunder 93, Pacers 80 Update: Date: Title: Pacers cut into deficit as final quarter ticks down Content: Just like that, the Pacers have cut the lead down to 14 points with 4:45 remaining the game. Indiana are currently on an 11-1 run behind two players off the bench – TJ McConnell and Bennedict Mathurin, who both have 16 points. Can the Thunder hold on to the lead or are the Pacers due for another improbable fourth quarter comeback? Score: Thunder 93, Pacers 79 Update: Date: Title: It's been all Thunder in the fourth quarter as they open up a 21-point lead Content: Oklahoma City has all the momentum and they lead by 21 points with under nine minutes to go in the game. The Thunder are firing on all cylinders – offensively and defensively. MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has a game-high 25 points while Chet Holmgren is defending the boards with six rebounds and three blocks. The Thunder can start to see their first title for the franchise since moving to Oklahoma City in 2008. Score: Thunder 89, Pacers 68 Update: Date: Title: TJ McConnell's 3rd quarter heroics keeping Indiana within shouting distance Content: With star point guard sidelined for the rest of the game with a reported Achilles injury and the game seemingly beginning to slip away in the third quarter, the Pacers once again released its secret weapon – veteran reserve guard TJ McConnell. Just as he has time and time again for the Pacers this postseason, the 33-year-old guard came of the bench with a huge shot in the arm for his team. McConnell caught fire for the Pacers coming out of halftime, pouring in 12 points in the third quarter and suddenly leading Indiana in scoring with 16 points in the game. The high-energy reserve also has 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal and 1 blocked shot. Update: Date: Title: Thunder one quarter away from hoisting Larry O'Brien trophy Content: Twelve minutes is all that separates both these teams from being NBA champions. The Thunder take a 13-point lead into the fourth quarter after a huge frame from the NBA's best regular season team. Shai Gilegous-Alexander has a game-high 22 points while TJ McConnell is doing his best Haliburton impression off the bench with 16 points. But the Pacers' turnovers are killing them and it seems like the Thunder rediscovered their identity at halftime. Can the Thunder keep this momentum in the final quarter? Score: Thunder 81, Pacers 68 Update: Date: Title: Defense turning to offense for OKC as they open up a double-digit lead Content: The Paycom Center is rocking with electricity as the Thunder lead by 11 points with under two minutes to play in the third quarter. It isn't the offense thats propeling OKC to the lead, it's their defense. The Thunder have been all over Indiana, forcing them into eight turnovers in the quarter alone. The even more impressive part… they have 25 points off Indiana turnovers. The Pacers have 17 total turnovers while the Thunder have five. Score: Thunder 79, Pacers 68 Update: Date: Title: Thunder starting to pull away? Content: For a second there, it looked like the Pacers finally woke up after halftime. Indy tied the game at 56 on a Myles Turner 3-pointer. But since it's again been all Thunder. And it's not just their MVP that's doing the work. OKC went on a 3-point barrage - three consecutive long range shots from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams. SGA's teammates are stepping up after a quiet first half and that could be the deciding factor in this one. The Thunder hold a nine-point lead – the largest of the game so far. Indiana has had a response to each Thunder run in this game. Do they have a counterpunch ready or is this going to be one of those trademark Thunder runs that breaks the game open? Score: Thunder 65, Pacers 56 Update: Date: Title: Thunder come out of half scorching hot Content: The Thunder look like a different team to start the second half. OKC took the lead on a Chet Holmgren two-point shot and have not looked back since. Luguentz Dort has been one of the few Thunder players shooting the ball well from 3-point land and knocked down a crazy long range Hail Mary as the shot clock expired to expand the lead. Game 5 hero Jalen Williams finally looked himself as he drove to the rim to extend the lead to five points. There is still 9:20 to play in the third quarter. Score: Thunder 56, Pacers 51 Update: Date: Title: How are the Pacers hanging with the Thunder minus their injured star? Content: When Indiana point guard Tyrese Haliburton went down midway through the first quarter with a reported Achilles injury, conventional wisdom would have suggested that the already-difficult prospect of defeating the Thunder in their raucous home arena might have just become an impossible task for the Pacers. But somehow the Pacers are hanging with the NBA's winningest team of the season. Indiana's MVP of the Eastern Conference Finals, Pascal Siakam, is leading the way for the Pacers with 10 points at halftime. The Pacers' tandem of guards Andrew Nembhard and Bennedict Mathurin have scored 9 points and 8 points respectively playing extra minutes. The Pacers' secret weapon at the midway point might just be its in-your-face defense. In the absence of the team's most streaky scorer, Indiana as slowed the game down with its defense grinding on Oklahoma City on every possession. The results speak for themselves, as the Pacers held one of the NBA's most dynamic offenses to just 47 first-half points and took a 1-point lead to the intermission. And in a way, Tyrese Haliburton himself has a big role in the successful first half for Indiana. Before his injury, Haliburton knocked down a trio of 3-pointers, scoring 9 points in just seven minutes played - tied for second most points for Indiana in the first half. His 9 points were already more than he mustered in Indiana's Game 5 loss where he strained his right calf - the injury that precipitated his Achilles injury Sunday night.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Pacers vs. Thunder Game 7: These 7 eye-popping stats have defined an NBA Finals for the ages
The 2025 NBA Finals have been one of the best, most competitive and most energizing championship rounds in recent memory — a distinct break from consecutive one-sided Finals that were tidily wrapped up in five games, fueled by a clash of high-octane styles and high-level adjustments showcasing the very best of what the modern NBA has to offer. It's a series tight and entertaining enough to deserve a seventh game … and, with an emphatic 17-point shellacking in Game 6, that's precisely what the Indiana Pacers delivered. Nobody knows what's going to happen at Paycom Center on Sunday night, when the Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder lock up one last time, with the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy awaiting the winner. But while we wait with bated breath for tipoff, we can, and should, zoom out to better appreciate how we got here — at what the hell has transpired over the last two and a half weeks to bring Indiana, OKC and all the rest of us to the precipice of just the 20th Game 7 in the history of the NBA Finals. Advertisement Let's take a look back at what the Thunder and Pacers have already given us, ripping through seven* fun stats that help define the 2025 NBA Finals — a matchup that nobody predicted back in October, and that has provided some of the best basketball anybody's seen in ages. * There will be some additional stats and sub-numbers, because I am incorrigible and ungovernable. We start, appropriately enough, with: 7 That's how many total points separate these two teams through six games — Thunder 662, Pacers 655. And man, has it felt every bit that close. It didn't feel that way at first. The Thunder opened the Finals doing to the Pacers what they've done to pretty much everybody else over the course of a magical season that saw them win 68 games with the highest average margin of victory in NBA history: smothering Indiana's offense into turnover after turnover after turnover. Ever since the Pacers settled in after halftime of Game 1, though, the run of play has been nip-and-tuck, back-and-forth — anybody's game at any given point. Advertisement Indiana authored yet another breathtaking comeback to steal Game 1 (more on that in a moment). Oklahoma City responded with a decisive win in Game 2. The Pacers returned serve in Game 3, protecting home court behind a stellar game from both their stars and their second unit. The Thunder broke back in Game 4, though, pulling off their own late-game heist thanks to an MVP closing kick from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and critical contributions from their complementary stars — including Jalen Williams, who slipped the surly bonds of the modifier 'complementary' with a 40-point masterclass in Game 5 to get Oklahoma City within one win of the promised land. They wouldn't get that win in Indianapolis, though, as the Pacers roared off the mat with a ferocious 30-9 second-quarter run to turn Game 6 into a blowout and send the series back to Bricktown knotted at 3-3. The tally, then: One commanding home win apiece; one pretty comfortable home win apiece; one skin-of-their-teeth road win apiece. Six games, and a grand difference of seven points. Advertisement And if it'd been five, the Thunder might already be champions. 97.7% That's how high the Thunder's win probability reached at its peak in Game 1, according to Mike Beuoy's charting at Inpredictable — the moment Gilgeous-Alexander hit his second free throw to give them a nine-point lead, 108-99, with 2:52 to go in the fourth quarter. And then … well, you know. That Indiana finish — a 12-2 run over the final 2:52, with Pascal Siakam, Andrew Nembhard and Aaron Nesmith all hitting huge shots to set up Haliburton's game-winner — completely changed the terms of engagement in this series. If just one of those jumpers rattles out, OKC's up 1-0, and maybe the Pacers come away feeling like they'd squandered their best chance to stagger the favorite. Instead, they all found the bottom of the net, making the Thunder just the latest in a long line of opponents to be stunned by the Pacers' late-game shot-making and execution … and making it conceivable that Indiana could pull the massive upset in this series. Advertisement And now, here we are. 28.5% That's the Thunder's 3-point attempt rate in this series — meaning that 28.5% of their total field goal attempts in the NBA Finals have come from behind the arc. That's a drop of more than 8% from the share of their shots that came from deep through the first three rounds of the 2025 NBA playoffs. It's a decline of nearly 10% from the Thunder's regular-season long-ball rate. And it's significantly below the lowest mark of any team during the 2024-25 regular season — 32.1%, belonging to Nikola Jokić's Denver Nuggets. (No team has finished the regular season below 30% since 2020-21.) Advertisement Which is to say: The Thunder just have not been able to get up 3-point attempts in this series at anything like the clip to which they've become accustomed, and in fact have been limited from beyond the arc to an eye-popping degree that's out of step with the rhythm and offensive flow of the modern NBA. 'Yeah, it's definitely been an issue in some of these games,' Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said after Game 6. 'Game 4 comes to mind — I think we got 17 in that game. I thought we found some things in Game 5. I thought they did a really good job on us [in Game 6, when OKC went just 3-for-20 from 3 through three quarters]. I thought the low volume and the accuracy was reflective of the way they guarded us, and our inability to create a rhythm against that the way we've been able to do in some of the other games.' Indiana finished fifth in the NBA during the regular season in limiting opponents' 3-point attempts and has been even better at running teams off the line in the postseason. Its defense — a clear weakness during the 2023-24 season and a work in progress early in the 2024-25 campaign, but a top-10 unit since early December — has been at its best in this series, with timely help, sharp rotations and hellacious closeouts to make Oklahoma City's would-be shooters think better about letting it fly, preferring to put the ball on the deck and try to make hay in the lane. Advertisement (A quick sub-number here: 117.5. That's how many more passes per game the Pacers are throwing per game than the Thunder, according to Second Spectrum tracking — 336 to 218.5. Through the first three rounds, Oklahoma City was averaging 256.6 passes per game; during the regular season, it was 270.7. The way Indiana is defending has forced OKC into more one-on-one attacks, more zero-or-one-pass possessions, and fewer of the sorts of drive-and-kick, swing-swing, ball-finds-wide-open-shooter-in-rhythm trips with which SGA and Co. have punished the league for two years running.) That plan of attack can work. Gilgeous-Alexander is the MVP of the league, Williams is an ascendant All-NBA talent, and the Thunder have no shortage of elite athletes who can finish in the paint. Over a large enough sample, though, trading 3s for 2s becomes a problem; all told, Indiana has taken 48 more 3s than Oklahoma City in this series, and made 18 more — one big reason why the Pacers have been able to not just stick with the heavily favored Thunder, but put themselves in position to wrest the championship from their hands. Speaking of those closeouts … 38.33 That's how many miles the Thunder and Pacers are covering per game, on average, in these Finals — 19.42 for Indiana, and 18.91 for OKC. Advertisement As my colleague Tom Haberstroh noted during this week's episode of The Big Number, that is the longest distance covered for any Finals matchup since the player-tracking era began in 2013-14 — a full 4.5 miles per game more than Boston and Dallas in last year's Finals: And they're not just puttering around all over the court: The Pacers are moving at an average speed of 4.51 miles per hour, while the Thunder are going 4.39 miles per hour, according to Second Spectrum — both higher than any other Finals team since 2013-14, and significantly higher than any team besides the 2014 'Beautiful Game' Spurs. Those speed and distance numbers encapsulate the sheer physical demands of this series: the tendency of both defenses to pick up ball-handlers in the backcourt, turning the full 94-by-50 expanse of the court into a battleground, and the ferocity of the closeouts that turn good looks into contested ones. Advertisement (Another sub-number here: Through the end of the conference finals, the Thunder were taking 56.1 shots per game with at least 4 feet of space from the nearest defender, and the Pacers were getting 52.8 per game. In the Finals, that's down to 50.4 'open' or 'wide-open' shots per game for Indiana, and just 46.7 — nearly 10 fewer per game — for Oklahoma City.) You can feel the revving-into-the-red level of exertion on damn near every possession — a big part of what has made this series, in which the average age of the participants (weighted for minutes played) is just 26 years old, according to analysis by Owen Phillips of The F5, by far the lowest of this century, so energetic and dynamic. We're watching the crowning of the first Gen Z champion in NBA history, and the impact of all those young legs — the ground they can cover in the half court, the way they stretch the floor in transition, the way they get back on defense to prevent easy transition buckets, etc. — really pops off the screen, producing an incredibly compelling brand of basketball for the full 48 minutes … … which makes the contributions of Indiana's relative graybeard all the more impressive. 10 That's how many NBA players have scored 100 points, grabbed 50 rebounds, dished 20 assists, snagged 10 steals and blocked 5 shots over the course of a Finals series, since the NBA started tracking steals and blocks back in 1973. Advertisement That list includes six players with Most Valuable Player trophies: Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hakeem Olajuwon, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. It includes Scottie Pippen and Kawhi Leonard, two of the most decorated championship-winning two-way wing players over the last 40 years. It includes Jimmy Butler, one of the greatest postseason risers in NBA history. And now, it includes Pascal Siakam. The 31-year-old forward is averaging a team-leading 19.8 points and 8.3 rebounds per game in the Finals, while also adding 4.0 assists, 1.7 steals and 1.3 blocks in 32.8 minutes a night. For much of this series, Indiana's best source of half-court offense has been Siakam strong-arming his way into a cross-match against shorter or slighter OKC players — Gilgeous-Alexander, Cason Wallace, Aaron Wiggins, even All-Defensive Team menace Luguentz Dort — and going at them in the paint, or facing up on Chet Holmgren/Isaiah Hartenstein on the perimeter and taking them off the dribble. Siakam also frequently serves as Haliburton's favorite Hail Mary receiver in transition, forever leaking out and relentlessly sprinting the length of the floor in search of early offense and easy baskets against the Thunder's elite defense. Advertisement Siakam has been integral on the defensive end, too. He spent most of the first five games cross-matched against the likes of Dort, Alex Caruso and Holmgren so that he could sag off them on the perimeter and serve as an incredibly disruptive help defender on the interior, loading up in the gaps to keep Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams away from the rim, swiping down for steals and deflections, providing secondary rim protection. After Williams' Game 5 explosion, though, Siakam slid over to pick up a larger share of the primary responsibility on J-Dub in Game 6, limiting him to just two points over 12 possessions when they were matched up against one another. I thought I had a pretty good bead on how good Siakam is; I was writing about him as the Raptors' unsung hero in November of 2018, and as a potential future superstar in February of 2019. But after spending most of the last two rounds traveling with the Pacers, getting an up-close-and-personal look at how well-rounded and overwhelming a difference-maker he can be, first against the Knicks en route to Eastern Conference MVP honors and now against the Thunder, I've got to be honest: I've just been blown away by how freaking good this guy has become. The trade to bring him to Indianapolis will go down as an absolute heist, no matter what the draft picks the Pacers sent to Toronto turn into, even if the Pacers lose Game 7. And if they win Game 7 … well, what do you call a two-time NBA champion (and possible Finals MVP?), three-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA selection who's just a couple of healthy seasons away from 15,000 career points, 5,000 rebounds, 3,000 assists, 700 steals and 450 blocks — numbers that only 31 other players have ever reached in the NBA? The answer very well might be what you call the other nine guys on that list at the top of this section: Hall of Famer. 17.9 That's the on-court/off-court differential of Tyrese Haliburton in the Finals — the highest of any Pacers player getting rotation minutes in the series. (Sorry, Tony Bradley.) Advertisement What that means: In 203 minutes with Haliburton on the court, Indiana has outscored Oklahoma City by 3.9 points per 100 possessions. In 85 minutes without their star/All-Star/superstar/whatever-the-hell-you-want-to-call-him point guard, the Pacers have been outscored by a whopping 14 points-per-100. That's effectively the gap between Indiana performing like a top-10, 50-win club … and like a Division III also-ran facing NBA competition. That stands to reason — not because alternative ball-handling options T.J. McConnell and Andrew Nembhard are terrible, but rather because Haliburton has, ever since coming over in a franchise-shaking trade from the Kings, been the engine of Indiana's fast-paced, high-octane, pass-heavy, turnover-light attack. The Pacers turn the ball over more frequently and generate 3-pointers way less frequently when Haliburton's not at the controls. They don't get out in transition as often, and they don't score as efficiently when they do — particularly off of defensive rebounds, where Haliburton's penchant for throwing hit-ahead passes helps send Indiana flying into early offense against scrambled defenses. Advertisement That's why things seemed so dire for the Pacers when Haliburton went down early in Game 5, hobbled through the rest of it and was diagnosed with a right calf strain afterward. Against Oklahoma City in the Finals, the Pacers have scored just 96.2 points-per-100 with Haliburton on the bench — nearly 10 points-per-100 below Washington's league-worst regular-season offensive rating. Without him, how could they score enough? As luck would have it, they didn't have to find out. Haliburton didn't just play in Game 6; 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. Even with something less than his customary burst off the bounce, Haliburton's presence makes an impact: as a willing and accurate 3-point shooter, off the dribble or off the catch; as a geometry-warping playmaker capable of (and eager to) throw the kind of passes that can distort Oklahoma City's base defense; as a more-helpful-than-you'd-think defensive playmaker who has tallied 8 steals, 4 blocks, 16 deflections and 7 loose balls recovered in these Finals; and, crucially, as the steadiest pair of hands in Rick Carlisle's rotation — the player best equipped to take care of the basketball and prevent the Thunder from creating the kind of live-ball turnovers that gift them runout opportunities and rhythm-creating fast-break baskets. Advertisement Which brings us to our seventh* fun stat of this series: +2 That's Oklahoma City's lead in perhaps the most critical category in these NBA Finals: live-ball turnovers. The Pacers have committed 61 live-ball turnovers through six games, according to PBP Stats, compared to 59 for the Thunder. That brand of miscue is particularly damaging for a defense, because it allows the turnover-creator to either get uncontested runout layups and dunks, or to attack against a scrambling, backpedaling opponent, rather than against a set, locked-in defense. The difference tends to be massive. For the series, the Thunder have a 96.6 offensive rating in the half court, compared to a 110.8 offensive rating in transition. That gap of 14.2 points-per-100 is a yawning chasm — the difference between one of the NBA's best offenses and one of its very worst. And for Indiana, it's been even bigger: 92.6 points-per-100 in the half court, and 121.1 points-per-100 in transition. Advertisement Both teams desperately want to keep the other out of transition, and from piling up points on those plays. For the series, Oklahoma City is +16 in points scored off turnovers … which, in a series that, again, has been separated by just seven points across six games, is an awfully big deal. And it could very well wind up being the determining factor in Game 7: As Phillips noted at The F5, 'Outside of Game 1, the team that has won the liveball turnover battle has won each game of the Finals.' If you want to get a sense of who's going to wind up hoisting the Larry O'B late on Sunday, keep an eye out for live-ball turnovers: who's forcing them, who's coughing them up, and who's doing the better job of cashing in on them. Chances are, that'll tell you who's going to end this remarkable, thrilling series on top — and who's going to wind up coming up crushingly, tantalizingly short.
