{"id":493426,"date":"2025-06-20T02:53:45","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T06:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/?post_type=news&#038;p=493426"},"modified":"2025-06-20T02:53:45","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T06:53:45","slug":"pacers-force-game-seven-after-dominant-win-over-thunder-in-indianapolis","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/news\/pacers-force-game-seven-after-dominant-win-over-thunder-in-indianapolis\/","title":{"rendered":"Pacers force Game Seven after dominant win over Thunder in Indianapolis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For the first time in nine years, the NBA Finals are heading to a deciding Game 7, after the Indiana Pacers defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder 108-91 in Game 6 to level the series at 3-3.<\/p>\n<p>The Pacers produced a well-rounded offensive display in front of their home crowd in Indianapolis, highlighted by 20 points from Obi Toppin off the bench. Star guard Tyrese Haliburton, who missed Game 5 due to a calf injury, passed a late fitness test and made a strong impact in limited minutes, finishing with 14 points, five assists, and two steals in just 22 minutes.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">one more to decide a champion. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/bEbkV7UZif\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/bEbkV7UZif<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Pacers\/status\/1935900270807912789?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">June 20, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We just wanted to protect our court,&#8221; Haliburton said postgame. &#8220;We didn&#8217;t want to see those guys celebrate a championship on our home floor. Backs against the wall, we just responded. So many different guys chipped in. It was a whole team effort. I&#8217;m really proud of this group.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Thunder, seeking their first NBA title since 1979, struggled out of the gate, missing their first eight shots and falling into an early hole. MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led his team with 21 points, but it wasn\u2019t enough to close out the series.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Credit Indiana,&#8221; said Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault. &#8220;They earned the win. They outplayed us for most of the 48 minutes. They went out there and attacked the game.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udea8 WE&#8217;RE GOING TO GAME 7 \ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udea8<\/p>\n<p>The Pacers and Thunder will battle for the NBA CHAMPIONSHIP in a WINNER-TAKE-ALL GAME 7 on Sunday, June 22 at 8pm\/et on ABC! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NBAFinals?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#NBAFinals<\/a> presented by <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/YouTubeTV?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@YouTubeTV<\/a> \ud83c\udfc6 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/LvbNt97Yuk\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/LvbNt97Yuk<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NBA (@NBA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBA\/status\/1935898466028601691?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">June 20, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>This will be the 20th Game 7 in NBA Finals history, with the home team winning 15 times. Game 7 is set for Sunday in Oklahoma City, where the Thunder will look to regroup and prevent the Pacers from claiming their first-ever NBA Championship.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/n1e18JbhUXs?si=-bC2tlYpxF1WS7-M\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the first time in nine years, the NBA Finals are heading to a deciding Game 7, after the Indiana Pacers defeated the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":493427,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"tags":[16971,17837,16786],"news_category":[16706,16715,14084],"gn_keywords":[18386,17840,1067],"acf":{"news_source":"","link_picture":"","announce":"This will be the first championship since 2016 that will be decided in seventh game","video":["video"]},"rank_math_focus_keyword":"","rank_math_description":"","rank_math_title":"","rank_math_robots":"","rank_math_canonical_url":"","rank_math_facebook_title":"","rank_math_facebook_description":"","rank_math_facebook_image":"","rank_math_twitter_title":"","rank_math_twitter_description":"","rank_math_twitter_image":"","rank_math_snippet_shortcode":"","rank_math_primary_category":"","rankmath_seo":{"focus_keyword":"","description":"","title":"","canonical_url":"","robots":"","facebook":{"title":"","description":"","image":""},"twitter":{"title":"","description":"","image":""}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/493426"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493426"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/493426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":493429,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/493426\/revisions\/493429"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493426"},{"taxonomy":"news_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_category?post=493426"},{"taxonomy":"gn_keywords","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gn_keywords?post=493426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}