Siakam posts double-double as Pacers pound Thunder to force decisive Game 7 in NBA Finals
CBC
Season on the line, the Indiana Pacers did what they've done time and time again. They bucked the odds.
And the NBA Finals are going to an ultimate game.
Obi Toppin scored 20 points, Andrew Nembhard of Aurora, Ont., added 17 and the Pacers forced a winner-take-all Game 7 by rolling past the Oklahoma City Thunder 108-91 on Thursday night.
The first Game 7 in the NBA Finals since 2016 is Sunday night in Oklahoma City.
"The ultimate game," Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said.
Game 6 was a microcosm of Indiana's season in a way. The Pacers started the regular season with 15 losses in 25 games, have had five comebacks from 15 or more down to win games in these playoffs, and they're one win from a title.
"We just wanted to protect home court," Haliburton said. "We didn't want to see these guys celebrate a championship on our home floor. Backs against the wall and we just responded. ... Total team effort."
TJ McConnell, the spark off the bench again, finished with 12 points, nine rebounds and six assists for Indiana.
Hamilton, Ont.'s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 21 points for the Thunder, who pulled their starters after getting down by 30 going into the fourth. Jalen Williams added 16.
"Credit Indiana," Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. "They earned the win. They outplayed us for most of the 48 minutes. They went out there and attacked the game."
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Good news for the Thunder: home teams are 15-4 in finals Game 7s. Bad news for the Thunder: Cleveland won at Golden State in the most recent of those and one of the three other home-team losses was in 1978 — by Seattle, the franchise that would move to Oklahoma City three decades later.
Indiana missed its first eight shots and got down 10-2. The arena, roaring just a few minutes before at the start, quieted quickly. Hall of Famer Reggie Miller, sitting courtside in a Jalen Rose Pacers jersey, was pacing, kneeling, generally acting more nervous than he ever seemed as a player.
No need.
The draw for the 2026 World Cup takes place Friday at 12 p.m. ET at the Kennedy Center in Washington, for the purpose of dividing the 48-team field into 12 groups of four. Once the tournament starts, 32 teams will advance from those preliminary groups to the single-elimination knockout rounds.
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By the time the management group for the Canadian men’s national hockey team emerges from marathon meetings on Tuesday, as much as 80 per cent of the roster going to Italy next February should be written in pen.
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Goalie Carter Hart, one of five 2018 Canada world junior hockey players acquitted of sexual assault in July, will make his first NHL appearance in nearly two years when he starts in goal Tuesday night for the Vegas Golden Knights, who host Chicago.
The Canadian women’s hockey team will bring back plenty of familiar faces for its final pre-Olympic games in Edmonton next week.
Ottawa Charge head coach Carla MacLeod has been diagnosed with breast cancer, the team announced Sunday.