You never really know how a team’s going to respond with its season on the line — not until the ball goes up. For the Pacers, the start of Game 6 didn’t inspire much confidence. They missed their first eight shots and looked shaky out of the gate. But that early hole turned out to be more of a wake-up call than a warning sign.

Their 108-91 win did more than just keep the season alive — it flipped the vibe of the entire series. The Thunder, who looked untouchable just one game earlier, suddenly looked rattled. The Pacers looked like the team with nothing to lose and everything clicking at the right time. And now, for the first time in nine years, we get the best two words in basketball: Game Seven.

How Indiana Turned Panic into a Party

Carlisle’s Early Timeout — and the 19‑3 Gut‑Punch

The first few minutes of Game 6 looked like the beginning of the end for Indiana. They missed their first eight shots and found themselves in an early 10-2 hole. But Rick Carlisle wasn’t having it. He called timeout, scrapped the double-big look, and slid Siakam to the four. More importantly, he told his team to stop thinking and be the aggressors.

And they did.

Coming out of that break, the Pacers hit six of their next seven shots that started a tone-setting 19-3 run that completely flipped the game. Andrew Nembhard hit some shots. Obi Toppin gave them a jolt off the bench. The ball started moving, the pace picked up, and all of a sudden OKC — who looked so composed in Game 5 — was the team on its heels. Defensively, Indiana forced four early turnovers during that stretch and didn’t let the Thunder settle into anything. The 10-2 deficit turned into a 26-17 lead, and Gainbridge Fieldhouse was rocking.

This was the loudest I've ever heard Gainbridge.
—Rick Carlisle on the environment in Game 6.

The Second‑Quarter Avalanche

The Pacers smelled blood and kept pushing. Indiana forced nine turnovers in just eight minutes. OKC couldn’t get into their sets, couldn’t get clean looks, and looked completely uncharacteristic. The Pacers turned those turnovers into quick buckets, and the transition game opened up. Toppin was flying around. Haliburton hit a deep three. McConnell was everywhere.

One play that summed it up: Haliburton sticks his hand in the passing lane, then tossing a no-look laser to Siakam for a monster dunk that lit up the building.

You could feel the belief growing with each possession. By the time Aaron Nesmith buried a corner three and Siakam drilled a buzzer-beater just before halftime, the Pacers had outscored the Thunder 36-17 in the quarter. They led 64-42 and had OKC completely stunned.

Third‑Quarter Suffocation

If there was ever a moment for the Thunder to regroup, this was it. But they came out of the half flat again — maybe even worse. OKC missed its first seven shots after the break, and the Pacers forced three more turnovers.

Indiana closed the quarter on a 15-3 run, with the capper being another buzzer-beating three from Ben Sheppard that pushed the lead to a jaw-dropping 30 points. At that point, it was less about winning the game and more about making a statement.

Haliburton’s Gutsy Return Changes Everything

After a brutal Game 5 showing—0-for-6 from the field, just four points, and visible discomfort all night — it wasn’t even clear if Tyrese Haliburton would suit up for Game 6. Carlisle said it was going to be a game-time decision, and you could tell from shootaround that Haliburton was still testing things out. He had that sleeve on his leg, moving gingerly, and didn’t look like himself.

Behind the scenes, the training staff basically built him a recovery lab. He was doing hyperbaric chamber sessions, acupuncture, massages, stim, anything to get that leg back in playable shape. He even said afterward that he was “getting treatment around the clock.” And it’s not like anyone was pushing him — it was all self-driven. "I would’ve beaten myself up if I didn’t give it a go,” he said. “It’s the Finals. You walk, you play."

When the game started, you could see him testing it. He missed his first four shots and wasn’t exploding off that right leg. But then, late in the first quarter, he pulled up from deep and nailed it. That one shot seemed to loosen something. From that point on, his movement was smoother. His passes were sharper.

He ended the night with 14 points, 5 assists, 2 steals in just 23 minutes, and posted a game-high plus-25. It wasn’t a monster stat line, but it didn’t need to be. He played with control, poise, and energy. Carlisle didn’t need him for big minutes thanks to the blowout, but when he was on the floor, the offense ran better and the crowd fed off him.

Defense, Turnovers, and the Thunder Meltdown

Oklahoma City came into Game 6 averaging just 12.6 turnovers per game in the playoffs, but against Indiana’s relentless energy, that composure completely vanished. They turned it over 21 times, and the Pacers pounced on nearly all of them.

The biggest surprise was Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the MVP and usually one of the steadiest players in the league, was the biggest culprit. He had eight turnovers by himself — most of them unforced or out of rhythm, a clear sign of how much Indiana’s traps and help defense got in his head.

Indiana had been picking Shai up full court all series, but in Game 6, they made a key adjustment — they started picking him up at halfcourt instead. That subtle switch changed everything. It gave Aaron Nesmith and Andrew Nembhard more space to operate on offense, and both had their best offensive games of the series. At the same time, it still managed to bother Shai.

But it wasn’t just the turnovers. OKC’s offense as a whole looked like a team out of ideas. They shot just 8-for-30 from three, and even that number is a little generous considering they started 1-for-13. Their starters combined to go 1-for-13 from deep before the fourth quarter even started. Poor three-point shooting has consistently been an issue for them in these Finals.

Jalen Williams, who looked unstoppable in Game 5, had one of the worst +/- games in Finals history. Chet Holmgren was mostly invisible. Caruso went scoreless. Everything that had made the Thunder look like the most complete team in the league just fell apart.

After the game, SGA didn’t mince words:

We sucked tonight. Got exactly what we deserved.

For All The Marbles

NBA Finals Game 7s don’t happen often. This year marks just the ninth time we’ve had one since the NBA-ABA merger in 1976. And it's only the fifth time in the 21st century. The last time we got one was 2016 — LeBron’s Cavs vs. the 73-win Warriors. That’s why the fact that we’re even getting one this year is a bit of a shocker.

Let’s be honest — this series wasn’t supposed to go this far. The Thunder were overwhelming favorites heading in. They had home court, a better record, the league MVP, and the kind of depth that had analysts lining up to say it was their time. A lot of people had this thing pegged as a short series; five, maybe six games max.

And for a while, it looked like they were right. Indiana had taken a surprising 2–1 lead in the series, but the Thunder bounced back in a big way. They won a gritty Game 4 on the road, then blew the doors off in Game 5 behind Jalen Williams’ 40-point outburst. Haliburton looked like a shell of himself, and the Pacers seemed like they had finally hit a wall.

Instead, the Pacers responded with their best performance of the postseason. They steamrolled OKC to force a Game 7. And now, against all odds, we’re heading back to Oklahoma City with everything on the line.

All stats courtesy of NBA.com.