Story & Photos
By Michael Kinney
INDIANAPOLIS— Oklahoma City’s first shot at winning the 2025 NBA championship comes tonight. For the Thunder fan base, coaches, and players, they hope they won’t need a second shot.
When Oklahoma City and Indiana face off in Game 6 tonight in Indianapolis, the Thunder have no opportunity to put the Pacers away and fly home as the best team in the league. However, if the Pacers can once again pull off a victory, a Game 7 will be needed Sunday to settle it all back in Oklahoma City.
But as has been the Thunder way, thinking too far ahead is not their style. Their focus is only on winning the game that is in front of them.
“If you sit and talk about doing something for a long time, and you don’t actually do everything every single day that it takes to work towards that, you’re never going to get there,” said Chet Holmgren. “There really is no focusing on the end goal while you’re in it. You know what the end goal is, but at the end of the day, you got to focus on what you have to do every single day to get better every day, to put yourself in a position to try and reach that.”
The Pacers enter Game 6 facing a possible injury issue. Tyrese Haliburton reportedly has a strained calf and could be a game-time decision. But the dynamic guard isn’t giving away too much insight into what he is dealing with.
“Nothing more than you’ve already seen,” Haliburton said. “I practiced (Wednesday), did what I could. I know Coach told you guys what the process will be tomorrow for me to play. Yeah, we’re just taking it from there.”
As the saying goes, there is nothing more dangerous than an injured animal. Oklahoma City says it will treat Haliburton like it normally does and continue to pressure him with a suffocating defense.
“I expect him to play,” said Alex Caruso.
Regardless, at the end of the day, when the Thunder play at their best, they are the ones who decide the outcome. They want to save their best for the final game of the season.
Which they hope is tonight.
“I think just us focusing on trying to be the best version of ourselves for Game 6. Having that at the top of my mind is all that really matters,” said Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. “For sure, those type of games, do or die games, you only get one chance — a lot of the times, we start a certain way. In the France game, just from recent memory, they started a certain way. Although we tried to climb back in it, they had control of the whole game because of that. Those experiences definitely helped me in my experiences going forward.”
Game 6 Tip-off is set for 8:30 p.m. (Est.) at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
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