Latest from NBC News
NBC News
23 minutes ago
- Sport
- NBC News
Pacers rout Thunder, force first NBA Finals Game 7 since 2016
Perhaps it was only appropriate that an NBA postseason no one would have predicted could not end without yet another plot twist. Despite star point guard Tyrese Haliburton playing with a calf injury, the Indiana Pacers staved off elimination Thursday to win Game 6 of the NBA Finals, 108-91, and push the best-of-seven series against Oklahoma City to its limit. For the first time since 2016, the Finals are going to a seventh and final game. Game 7 is Sunday, in Oklahoma City. It became necessary after Indiana's 3-point shooting quickly dug Indiana out of an early 10-2 hole in the first quarter, then its signature uptempo pace, pressuring defense and tireless reserves blew open the game and turned this series back into a coin flip. Andrew Nembhard, best known for his defense all series on Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, came alive offensively to score 17 points, and Pascal Siakam and Obi Toppin each scored 16 to lead the Pacers. Gilgeous-Alexander scored a team-high 21 points, while Jalen Williams was held to 16 one game after scoring a playoff career-high 40. Leading by just one point early in the second quarter, the Pacers outscored Oklahoma City by 21 points over the half's final eight minutes to lead, 64-42, in yet another example of Indiana refusing to fold under difficult circumstances — just as it had to win improbable games against Milwaukee, Cleveland and New York earlier in the postseason. That dramatic, second-quarter turn was sparked by Pacers reserve Aaron Nesmith, then given an exclamation point by Siakam, who dunked over Thunder star Williams 40 seconds before halftime and then, following a scoreless Oklahoma City possession, sank a turnaround jump shot as time expired in the quarter. Though Haliburton underwent a pregame strength test under the watch of Indiana's medical staff and was deemed ready to play, he suited up with a compression sleeve covering his lower right leg, his effectiveness was questionable after he was seen hobbling after interviews in the days after Game 5, when he had failed to make a single field goal. Pacers coach Rick Carlisle, already known as one of the NBA's most inventive coaches, said before tipoff that facing elimination he would not hold back on any possible adjustment that might extend his team's season. 'We're down to a two-game season,' Carlisle said. 'With two days in between (Game 6 and Game 7), tonight, everything is out there.' Yet Haliburton, who had been Indiana's engine all postseason during its odds-defying run to the team's first Finals since 2000, was no decoy. After failing to make a single field goal in Game 5, he scored 12 points in the first half and finished with 14. The best news for Indiana was that he only needed to play 23 minutes. Despite the injury, he showed a burst when he jumped in the air from the top of the 3-point arc and passed to the corner, then sprinted into the paint before receiving a pass back and softly banking a shot into the rim for a 24-point lead with 20 minutes remaining in the game. Oklahoma City quickly called a timeout, but the pause did not stop the onslaught, with its deficit quickly ballooning to 28 within minutes. Over the previous week, the Thunder had wriggled out of difficult positions before, and wrestled control of the series by limiting its own mistakes. For the second-youngest roster ever to play in the Finals, it was a sign of maturation. Yet all of that cool efficiency melted away in Game 6. They committed 12 turnovers before halftime and made only one of their first 16 3-point attempts. The gulf between the teams on this night was so wide that Gilgeous-Alexander, the NBA's newly crowned MVP, had tied his career-high for turnovers, with eight, with 12 minutes still to play in the game. Oklahoma City finished with 10 more turnovers than Indiana, and 21 fewer points on three-pointers, two Decked in yellow T-shirts, Indiana's home crowd rarely went from triumphant to tense watching Oklahoma City reduce its deficit to 18 with 4 minutes to play in the third quarter. Yet Indiana did not wobble, answering that attempted rally with a devastating close to the third quarter capped by a 27-foot heave by reserve Ben Sheppard that pushed Indiana's lead to its largest of the night, at 90-60, entering the fourth quarter, and Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault pulled his starters. Only Oklahoma City has Game 7 experience during these playoffs, having advanced out of the second round by winning at home over Denver. In Finals history, road teams are 4-15 in Game 7. The most recent Game 7 was in 2016 when the Cavaliers defeated the Warriors on the road. The Pacers' title hopes now hinge on doing something that has happened only two times before this season — forcing Oklahoma City into consecutive losses.
NBC News
23 minutes ago
- Politics
- NBC News
Appeals court says Trump can keep control of California National Guard troops
President Donald Trump is within his rights to deploy the California National Guard amid protests against federal law enforcement over immigration raids, an appeals court ruled Thursday night. A three-judge panel of the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the federal government made a required "strong showing" in arguing it would prevail against the state of California's challenge to the legality of the deployment of troops usually under the governor's control. "Under longstanding precedent ... our review of that decision must be highly deferential" to the president, the panel wrote in its ruling. "Affording the President that deference, we conclude that it is likely that the President lawfully exercised his statutory authority." The recent activation of the National Guard troops to Los Angeles was the first by a president without the governor's permission since 1965. Trump and members of his administration argued that protesters angry over immigration raids in Los Angeles, many of whom gathered outside federal buildings in the region, were not under the control of local police. Additionally, the panel said, even if the governor didn't agree with the deployment earlier this month, using the secretary of defense to order the troops into action was a legal avenue that "likely satisfied the statute's procedural requirement that federalization orders be issued 'through' the Governor," it said. Thursday night's ruling overturned a temporary restraining order that had been paused during appeals. The panel said, "Our conclusion that it is likely that the President's order federalizing members of the California National Guard was authorized." It also aruges that the temporary restraining order could have done harm to "the public interest" at a time of mass protest.
NBC News
an hour ago
- Politics
- NBC News
Judge blocks Trump plan to tie states' transportation funds to immigration enforcement
A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump's administration from forcing 20 Democratic-led states to cooperate with immigration enforcement in order to receive billions of dollars in transportation grant funding. Chief U.S. District Judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island ruled that the U.S. Department of Transportation lacked authority to require the states to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to obtain transportation funding and that the condition violated the U.S. Constitution. McConnell said the administration provided no plausible connection between cooperating with immigration enforcement and the purposes Congress intended for the funding, which is to support highways, bridges and other transportation projects. 'Congress did not authorize or grant authority to the Secretary of Transportation to impose immigration enforcement conditions on federal dollars specifically appropriated for transportation purposes,' McConnell wrote. The judge, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, issued a preliminary injunction preventing such a condition from being enforced against the 20 states that sued along with their government subdivisions, like cities. The Trump administration did not respond to a request for comment. It has argued the policy was within the department's discretion. The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by a group of Democratic state attorneys general who argued the administration was seeking to unlawfully hold federal funds hostage to coerce them into adhering to the Republican president's hardline immigration agenda. They sued after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on April 24 notified states they could lose transportation funding if they do not cooperate with the enforcement of federal law, including with ICE in its efforts to enforce immigration law. Since returning to office on January 20, Trump has signed several executive orders that have called for cutting off federal funding to so-called sanctuary jurisdictions that do not cooperate with ICE, as his administration has moved to conduct mass deportations. Sanctuary jurisdictions generally have laws and policies that limit or prevent local law enforcement from assisting federal officers with civil immigration arrests. California Attorney General Rob Bonta, in a statement, hailed McConnell's ruling, saying Trump had been 'treating these funds — funds that go toward improving our roads and keeping our planes in the air — as a bargaining chip.' The 20 states are separately pursuing a similar case also in Rhode Island, challenging new immigration enforcement conditions the Homeland Security Department imposed on grant programs.
NBC News
an hour ago
- Politics
- NBC News
Trump says U.S. has 'too many non-working holidays' on Juneteenth
President Donald Trump did not formally mark Juneteenth on Thursday, complaining instead that there are "too many non-working holidays," while his predecessor, Joe Biden, celebrated the occasion at a Black church in Texas. The split-screen moment showed starkly different approaches to the 160th anniversary of the moment in Texas when Union troops arrived to enforce the end of slavery there. "Too many non-working holidays in America. It is costing our Country $BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to keep all of these businesses closed," Trump said in a Truth Social post on Thursday without explicitly mentioning Juneteenth. Earlier in the day, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump had no plans to sign a Juneteenth proclamation and indicated it was a normal working day. Trump had issued statements commemorating Juneteenth, before it was a federal holiday, during his first term. 'We're working 24/7 right now,' she said. A few hours later, Biden received a warm welcome at the Reedy Chapel AME Church in Galveston, Texas, where he criticized those who seek to "erase our history." In 2021, Biden signed legislation that established Juneteenth as a federal holiday in the aftermath of the racial justice protests sparked by the death of George Floyd. "Some say ... it doesn't deserve to be a federal holiday," Biden said. "They don't want to remember." He also criticized the Trump administration's move to rename military bases that were changed under Biden to remove references to Confederates. Trump has said he wants to restore the original names.
NBC News
4 hours ago
- Automotive
- NBC News
Brad Pitt's new ‘F1' movie puts audiences in the driver's seat at Formula 1 races
NBC News' Savannah Sellers sits down with the cast of 'F1: The Movie' to talk about the new immersive film bringing Formula 1 thrills to the big screen later this month. Director Joseph Kosinski had the idea of putting real actors in real race cars and embedding them into the Formula 1 season. Stars Brad Pitt and Damson Idris talk about learning how to drive at speeds up to 180 miles per 19, 2025
