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Indianapolis Star
12 hours ago
- Sport
- Indianapolis Star
Doyel: Underdogs in every NBA Finals game, Pacers force a Game 7. Is this really happening? You bet
INDIANAPOLIS – And now, anything can happen. Wait, hang on. Anything has happened. The Indiana Pacers, given no chance against the mighty Oklahoma City Thunder when the 2025 NBA Finals began, have forced a Game 7 with a 108-91 blowout — it wasn't that close — Thursday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Game 6. Game 7 will be Sunday night at the Paycom Center in downtown OKC. 'One game,' Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said afterward. 'This is what it's all about. This is what you dream about growing up.' Can this impossible dream come true? Think about it: The 2025 Indiana Pacers, two years removed from being a lottery team, are 48 minutes from winning the first NBA title in franchise history. This wasn't on anyone's radar in the preseason, and things only got worse when the regular season began. The Pacers lost four of their first six games, though NBA insiders have a saying: You need 25 games to know what kind of team you have. After 25 games, this team was 10-15. Two of the Pacers' top three centers were lost for the season after suffering torn Achilles' tendons a few days apart. All-Star and U.S. Olympian point guard Tyrese Haliburton wasn't playing like himself. The Pacers, surprise Eastern Conference finalists in 2024, were leaking like an Indiana basement. Water was finding its level. The Pacers, those plucky Pacers, were heading… … to Oklahoma City for Game 7? Is this really happening? Pictures:See the best shots by IndyStar photographers at Game 6 of the NBA Finals Tyrese Haliburton isn't moving like someone with a strained calf. He's dancing with OKC defender deluxe Alex Caruso, in and out, left and right, before darting behind the arc for a 3-pointer and a 56-39 lead. Now he's leaping for a pass by Thunder wing Jalen Williams, batting it out of the air, saving it from going out of bounds and then heading up the court. Pascal Siakam is filling the lane, and Haliburton isn't looking but finds him anyway for a dunk. The Pacers lead 62-42. Would Haliburton play in Game 6? Would he not? That was the question entering Thursday — 'a game-time decision,' Carlisle had called it Wednesday morning — though Carlisle was saying after the game 'the drama was created in the press.' Whoever created it, however it started, this was some serious drama. No Haliburton? No chance for the Pacers. That was the consensus as Haliburton was receiving one MRI and visiting with two specialists after returning from OKC on Tuesday. He got up some shots on Wednesday, then warmed up 3½ hours before tipoff Thursday, wearing a gray sleeve on his calf, when the decision was made: Haliburton could play. This was the culmination of nearly 72 hours of treatment, including three trips to a hyperbaric chamber, members of the Pacers training staff coming daily to Haliburton's home to treat his calf with an electronic stimulation machine that looks like a video game joystick — 'H-wave,' Haliburton called the device — and even members of his own family pushing him to do what he could to get ready for Game 6. 'Are you doing treatment right now?' they'd ask him. 'Put something on your leg,' they'd tell him. Haliburton didn't have a typical Haliburton game — 14 points, five assists — and normally that's a death knell for the Pacers, who are unbeatable when he posts a 20-and-10 double-double but vulnerable when his points and assists slip below those thresholds. But have you not been paying attention to a word I've written? Normal is not happening anymore for the Pacers, who turned rising young Thunder star Jalen Williams — Mr. 40-Point Man from Game 5 — into Mr. Minus-40 for Game 6. Seriously. One game after scoring 40 points, Jalen Williams' plus-minus score was minus-40. Give a lot of that credit to Pacers wing Aaron Nesmith, who was hounding Williams (16 points, 0-for-4 on 3s, one assist, three turnovers) all over the court. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Mr. MVP himself, wasn't a lot better, and might have been worse: 21 points, two assists, eight turnovers. Give a lot of that credit to Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard, who did what he's done all series: Defending SGA for the better part of 90 feet, leaving the game only when SGA left, returning to the court when SGA returned. Put it like this: SGA played 30 minutes, 56 seconds. Nembhard played 31 minutes, 6 seconds. And Nembhard almost outscored the MVP, totaling 17 points on just seven shots from the floor — 5-for-7 overall, and 3-for-5 on 3s — and adding four assists and one turnover. Does it look like the Pacers' seventh-leading scorer (Nembhard: 10 ppg) outplayed the NBA's scoring leader (SGA': 32.7 ppg)? Looks are not deceiving. Nembhard would've been the Pacers' scoring leader in Game 6, but the Pacers had to put five players on the floor in the fourth quarter — OKC coach Mark Daigneault pulled his starters after three quarters — and Obi Toppin was one of those players for seven minutes in the period, and he was having himself a game. Late in the third quarter, when Toppin had made three of his four 3-pointers, the crowd was serenading him at the foul line: Obi Toppin! Obi Toppin! And in the fourth quarter, playing one of the games of his life, Toppin kept drilling difficult jumpers to finish the night with 20 points. 'We're just a hungry team,' Toppin was saying afterward. Starving, seems like. And not satiated yet. The play of the game could've been Haliburton's steal, save and side-eye pass to Siakam for the dunk — 'If we're fortunate enough to go on and win this thing,' Haliburton said, 'I think that play will be remembered for a long time' — unless it was the play that ended the third quarter: Toppin finally missing a 3-pointer and Siakam batting the long offensive rebound to Nembhard, who leapt for the ball, caught it and whipped a pass to Ben Sheppard in one motion. Sheppard then beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer for a 90-60 lead entering the fourth quarter. Or maybe it was another steal by Haliburton, who saved it to Toppin, who passed to Siakam, who passed to Nesmith, who buried a corner 3 for a 48-35 lead. That had Daigneault calling timeout and the Gainbridge Fieldhouse camera putting Colts coach Shane Steichen on the scoreboard, where he popped the front of his gold-out T-shirt — Yes 'Cers, it said — before the camera found John Haliburton at his seat, waving that towel with his son's face on it. Unless it was that play by T.J. McConnell. Which play? You decide. McConnell had himself another of those games, like in Game 5, when the oldest, shortest player on the court picked on all those younger, bigger, longer, All-NBA defenders for OKC for 18 points in 22 minutes. More of the same in Game 6 for McConnell, who had 12 points, nine rebounds, six assists and four steals in 24 minutes. McConnell had three more rebounds than anyone for the Thunder. He had two more assists than anyone for OKC. He had three more steals. 'It's no surprise what T.J. does out there,' Toppin said, clearly speaking only for himself. Because, seriously. T.J. McConnell outrebounded OKC 7-footer Chet Holmgren (nine to six), out-assisted OKC point guard SGA (six to two) and out-stole OKC All-NBA defenders Lu Dort and Jalen Williams — combined — by a four-to-zero tally? It's a big surprise what T.J. does out there. It's a big surprise to outsiders what the fourth-seeded Pacers are doing out there, too, though we're getting used to it, aren't we? They dismantled the Bucks, then did the same to two of the three teams seeded ahead of them in the Eastern Conference — No. 1 Cleveland and No. 3 New York — and now have pushed the Thunder, which led the NBA with 68 wins and won the Western Conference by 16 games, to Game 7. And in doing so, the Pacers destroyed them in Game 6. The Thunder missed 15 of their first 16 3-pointers, were outrebounded 46-41 and had seven more turnovers (21) than assists (14). The Pacers ripped out the Thunder's heart in the second quarter, then spent the third quarter eating it with a nice chianti. That's a little Hannibal Lecter reference for you — Hello, Tyrese — after the Pacers devoured Oklahoma City in the middle two quarters. They scored more points in the second quarter (36) than OKC had in the second and third quarters combined (35) … and the Pacers added 26 more in the third. The Pacers so thoroughly decimated the Thunder, Holmgren couldn't convert an open dunk on an alley oop, landing before the ball — which clanged off the rim — and then holding his head in both hands in disbelief. Lu Dort, who entered the game on a 14-for-24 heater in the NBA Finals from 3-point range, was a frigid 1-for-5 in Game 6, including an air ball. The Thunder's 60 points entering the fourth quarter were a season-low. The numbers just go on and on. 'Obviously it was a very poor performance by us,' Daigneault said. 'It was disappointing.' Disappointing to the Thunder, but thrilling to an Indiana fan base that filled the arena, spent 48 minutes soaking it in, then spilled into the warm night to celebrate. More than 90 minutes after the game ended the party was still raging on Georgia Street, where the smell of skunk — maybe it was something else — filled the air. You could get high on life at a time like this, with the Pacers reaching the 2025 NBA Finals and pushing the mighty Thunder to the limit, and perhaps returning home to Indianapolis in a few days with the Larry O'Brien Trophy. Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel onThreads, or onBlueSky and Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar, or at Subscribe to the free weekly Doyel on Demand newsletter.
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Yahoo
How Jose Valenzuela's near-death experience set off a quest to repay his parents for decades of sacrifice
NEW YORK — The long scar down the left side of Jose Valenzuela's face is abnormal, even for a boxer. That permanent mark, carefully covered by a thin beard, is detectable only if you look closely. Or you could talk to the polite pugilist long enough, but only if the WBA super lightweight champion chooses to discuss the harrowing afternoon 22 years ago when he almost lost his life. Valenzuela was just three at the time, a typical soccer-loving child playing with his older sister near the street in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, an impoverished city near the Arizona border. His mother, Vianey, was briefly distracted by a timer that went off inside the laundromat where she washed the family's clothes. She turned her head just long enough for Jose to try to retrieve his ball, stuck beneath a nearby car. That's when, according to the story Vianey relayed to Jose over the course of the past two decades, their lives changed forever. And for the better, though they couldn't have known it then. A drug-addicted man, on the run from who knows what, jumped into the aforementioned car and sped off. Tiny Jose Valenzuela, trapped in its undercarriage, was dragged down the street. Neighbors heard the screams of a terrified child in jeopardy of losing much more than his soccer ball. The confused driver stopped. Passersby sprung into action and collectively lifted the car off of Jose. Vianey came running from the laundromat. 'I'm bleeding from head to toe,' Jose Valenzuela told Uncrowned, relaying his mother's memory of that devastating day. 'I had to learn how to walk again. My teeth, my face, everything was broken. I've still got surgery scars. My mom comes out and she just sees her freaking baby basically torn to pieces. She says I was starting to get really swollen and, like, purple.' The nearest hospital wasn't equipped to treat such severe injuries. Jose was helicoptered to one where emergency surgery could be performed, and without the benefit of anesthesia that doctors feared could kill him during a delicate procedure. The surgeon informed Vianey and her husband, Jose Sr., that the ensuing 72 hours would determine whether the youngest of their three children would live or die. They heard their son's screams from the hospital hallway, where they waited for what seemed like an eternity. Vianey and Jose Sr. will sit side by side Saturday night, again fearful for their son's safety. These days, though, the screams come from them and from the boxing fans who watch the ever-resilient southpaw ply his trade against dangerous opponents – in this case, Gary Antuanne Russell. Russell (17-1, 17 KOs), a 2016 U.S. Olympian from Capitol Heights, Maryland, comes from quite a fighting family himself. His older brother and trainer, semi-retired Gary Russell Jr., was a long-reigning WBC featherweight champion once considered one of the most talented technicians of his era. Their 12-round, 140-pound championship clash for the WBA belt that Valenzuela (14-2, 9 KOs) won in his last bout is a potential show-stealer scheduled to take place immediately before one of the most electrifying fighters in boxing, Gervonta 'Tank' Davis, takes center stage. Baltimore's Davis (30-0, 28 KOs) is set to defend his WBA lightweight title against amateur rival Lamont Roach (25-1-1, 10 KOs), of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, in the 12-round main event of a four-fight Premier Boxing Champions pay-per-view show at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; $79.99). The possibility of facing Davis was discussed with Valenzuela, a lightweight contender before he moved up five pounds prior to his last bout for the opportunity to challenge another Mexican, Isaac 'Pitbull' Cruz. With the newly acquired leverage his WBA belt affords him, Valenzuela opted to remain in the 140-pound division, despite the fact that moving back down to the 135-pound limit to face Davis definitely would've earned him more money than he will make for fighting Russell. Valenzuela out-boxed the rugged Cruz (27-3-1, 18 KOs) and won a split decision six months ago on the Terence Crawford-Israil Madrimov undercard at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles. More important to Valenzuela, he rewarded his parents for the countless sacrifices they made when they decided after that life-changing incident to move the family – Jose and his older sisters Griselda and America – to Phoenix, and later Bellingham, Washington. Jose Jr. was getting into fights at school when Jose Sr. decided to take him to a boxing gym to make more constructive use of his son's aggression. Problem was, Bellingham, a city of about 95,000 approximately 20 miles south of the Canadian border, wasn't exactly a hotbed for the sport that Jose Sr. had loved while growing up in a country proud of such legends as Julio Cesar Chavez, Marco Antonio Barrera, Juan Manuel Marquez, and, most recently, Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez. Without a legitimate boxing club nearby, Jose Sr. picked up his son from school most days and they drove. And drove. And drove. And drove some more. It took them two hours to drive from Bellingham to Renton, just southeast of Seattle, four hours roundtrip, just to get the training and sparring that was unavailable to them anywhere else. 'He was making $10 an hour and he had a little Honda,' Jose said of his father. 'I would get out of school, we would get in the car, he would take me two hours to train and two hours back. Then I would train and we would drive two hours back. We did that for like six years.' Jose Sr. barely had money for gas, let alone costly travel expenses for the amateur tournaments that make boxers' reputations regionally and nationally. Undeterred, Jose Sr. decided that his precocious son needed to become a puncher. The more knockouts, the better. Otherwise, talent scouts and promoters would never notice a kid who didn't have his first fight until he turned 12. 'When I was probably like 16, 17,' Jose Jr. recalled, 'when my career was [at the point] when I wanted to go pro already, we moved now to that [Renton] area, like South Seattle. It just made my commute easier and kept me fully focused on boxing.' Nicknamed 'Rayo,' Spanish for lightning, Valenzuela made his pro debut in September 2018. He was just 19 at that time, but he quickly ascended to become one of boxing's more promising prospects. Showcased during FOX telecasts that drew significant audiences amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Valenzuela was fast-tracked toward stardom by boxing powerbroker Al Haymon, whose PBC developed Davis into one of the sport's greatest gate and TV attractions. A knockdown, drag-out brawl with Dominican southpaw Edwin De Los Santos saddled Valenzuela with his first defeat – a third-round knockout on the Andy Ruiz-Luis Ortiz undercard in September 2022 at Staples Center in Los Angeles. Valenzuela learned valuable lessons from that unforgettable battle, in which he dropped De Los Santos (16-2, 14 KOs) in the second round. The skillful left-handed boxer-puncher should've approached De Los Santos strategically, but his heart and recklessness led to De Los Santos sending him to the canvas once in the first and again in the third round, before Valenzuela's former trainer, Jose Benavidez Sr., threw in the towel so that his overpowered prospect might fight another day. That defeat and his subsequent setback against Chris Colbert – a debatable, unanimous-decision defeat in March 2023 – made Valenzuela realize he needed to change his approach. Valenzuela has looked impressive while winning both bouts since then. He took the rematch with Colbert (17-3, 6 KOs) by scintillating sixth-round knockout in December 2023, then beat Cruz in more measured fashion to re-establish himself as a threat to Davis, as well as fellow 140-pound champions Teofimo Lopez (WBO), Alberto Puello (WBC) and Richardson Hitchins (IBF). The Dominican Republic's Puello (23-0, 10 KOs) will defend his title against Spanish southpaw Sandor Martin (42-3, 15 KOs) in another 12-round bout before Valenzuela opposes Russell, which is essentially a 50-50 fight according to BetMGM. Beyond adding titles to his collection, reparation is Valenzuela's motivation. 'First and foremost, even just winning the world title, it was a big, big debt [paid off], because they did everything for me,' Valenzuela said in reference to his parents. 'You know, our whole lives revolved around me, around making me a great fighter. My dad, he just had me like a little soldier. … He dedicated everything to me, like his last dollar. Like he wouldn't pay the rent, he wouldn't pay the light bill, just to put gas in his car to bring me to the gym. 'We would come home sometimes, and the lights would be off. My mom would be at food banks, stuff like that. I saw all that as a kid. Coming from Mexico, all the sacrifices, I lived it with them. So, I can never take my foot off the gas. You know, they've been my motivation. It's what I do it for.' They're together in Brooklyn, readying for what figures to be a dogfight versus Russell on another huge stage. They're focused on their 'blessings' and how all the hard work is paying off. That fateful afternoon in Nogales is embedded in their minds, a reminder of how close they came to losing much more than two professional fights. 'My mom said that she could hear me screaming through the whole hospital,' Jose Valenzuela said. 'I was getting surgery and she was just waiting outside, praying to God. Praying and praying and praying. She could hear me screaming, so she was like, 'If you're gonna take him, just don't let him suffer.' She said I just stopped crying and that was it. And the doctor comes out and he's like, 'He made it.' She definitely thought I might have some issues later on in life. But, you know, I'm still here and I'm a fighter.' A fantastic fighter at that, with a world title to defend Saturday night. And – win, lose or draw – an inspiring story to tell.
