Pascal Siakam making doubters who wouldn't trade for him look silly in NBA Finals
Hands up if you expected this NBA Finals to go seven games.
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If you did, you're in select company because most thought the Oklahoma City Thunder would prevail in five games.
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Sure, there were some Thunder-in-six picks too (and even a sweep for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's squad was a popular play in Vegas), but seven games, nah, wasn't going to happen.
Well, the Indiana Pacers had something to say about that and it's winner-take-all on Sunday.
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In a Willis Reed-like performance, Pacers all-star Tyrese Haliburton, rumoured to have an injury that would have kept him out of a couple of weeks of regular-season action, not only played in Thursday's shocking blowout win, but performed well and inspired his teammates in the process, much like Reed did back in the day for the New York Knicks.
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The Pacers fed off a raucous crowd that hasn't seen a team reach these heights since the ABA years, when Indiana was the class of the now-defunct league, winning three championships and repeatedly reaching the final.
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The team has gone 8-3 at home, but that massive advantage is now gone and they'll have to win in Oklahoma City, where the Thunder has gone 10-2 in the playoffs.
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An impossible task? No, but it's hard to imagine all of the Thunder's best players stinking the way they did in Game 6. Then again, who would have thought this would go seven games!?
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Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams (coming off a ridiculously impressive 40-point performance), Chet Holmgren (who also starred in Game 5) and Lu Dort (excellent pretty much all series) did not look like themselves. They played like they hadn't been in a game as big as this before (as if big tests by Denver in Round 2 or the big comeback against Indiana earlier never happened).
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Gilgeous-Alexander tied his career regular-season-high with eight turnovers, Holmgren couldn't hit anything while Williams and Dort also went cold.
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They didn't move the ball, unlike the Pacers, who didn't even shoot all that well, but were zinging the ball around the court with aplomb and generated 12 more three-point attempts than the visitors. It was a 'your turn, my turn,' sort of performance and that wasn't going to work.
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The Thunder must get back to sharing and not forcing, and that should lead to better offensive work. (The starters went just 1-for-13 from three so it can't get any worse) and fewer turnovers would help, too.
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None of the mistakes or results from Game 6 will matter if the Thunder closes its season with a win Sunday.
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'It's one game for everything you've dreamed of. You win it you get everything,' Gilgeous-Alexander said late Thursday.
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