
Pacers sink the Knicks to reach NBA Finals
Pascal Siakam has scored 31 points, Tyrese Haliburton had 21 points and 13 assists, and Indiana pulled away for a 125-108 victory over New York in the Eastern Conference Finals' Game 6 to reach the NBA Finals for the second time in franchise history.
Obi Toppin added 18 points and six rebounds against his former team as the gold-clad crowd gave the starters a roaring ovation when they departed with 47.2 seconds left.
The Pacers will visit Oklahoma City for Game 1 on Thursday night.
OG Anunoby led the Knicks on Saturday night with 24 points. Karl-Anthony Towns had 22 points and 14 rebounds, while Jalen Brunson added 19 points as Indiana's relentless ball pressure forced New York into 17 turnovers.
The Knicks still have not reached the Finals since 1999, and they couldn't extend the series in a game that was tough and physical right from the start.
Whether it was Towns limping after drawing a foul or Haliburton holding his jaw when he took a shot that knocked him to the ground, the tone was set early — and never really changed with so much at stake.
Indiana finally broke open a close game by starting the second half on a 9-0 run to take a 78-63 lead courtesy of three straight three-pointers — two from Thomas Bryant and one from Andrew Nembhard. The run ignited the crowd, which included everyone from Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson to WNBA star Caitlin Clark to Timothee Chalamet to Kylie Jenner.
But when the Knicks answered with eight straight to cut the deficit to 78-71, the Pacers responded with another 9-0 run to take their biggest lead of the game and New York were forced to play catch-up the rest of the night.
The Knicks, who haven't won a title since 1973, were trying to become the 14th team in league history to rally from a 3-1 deficit to win a series.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

News.com.au
18 hours ago
- News.com.au
2025 Super Netball Reserves live stream: Watch every game of finals and play-in tournament
Netball fans right across Australia will get a unique glimpse at the future of the sport when the Super Netball Reserves finals light up screens around the country. KommunityTV and Code Sports are joining forces with Netball Australia to broadcast every match from the Super Netball Reserves finals series from June 20-22, as well as the lead up play-in tournament. The play-in tournament will feature the Tasmania Wild, Capital Darters and Territory Storm, and will be played across three days in the week leading into the finals series. The results of the play in tournament matches will have a bearing on the finals match-ups. The Super Netball Reserves competition, which is into its second year, has expanded in 2025 with more than 40 games played across the season. The tournament features reserves sides affiliated with each Suncorp Super Netball franchise, and was developed as part of the development pathway for emerging elite netball talent. The Super Netball Reserves features athletes who are in or on the verge of Super Netball, including training partners and state league players. West Coast Fever have already booked their spot in Sunday's grand final showdown as they climbed to a unassailable lead atop the Super Netball Reserves rankings. The Fever managed to knock off rivals Swifts Academy in a one-point thriller over the weekend, securing their grand final spot. While the Fever's finals dream might be set in stone, the race to fill the spot opposite them is wide open heading into the final round of the competition this weekend. All eight Super Netball Reserves sides and the three state sides will feature in the finals series across three days of action. As part of the Code Sports/Kommunity TV partnership, the finals series and play-in matches will be live streamed for all Code Sports subscribers and for News Corp Australia digital metro subscribers.

News.com.au
2 days ago
- News.com.au
SGA welcomes Aussie rookie to the Finals
NBA: Aussie Johnny Furphy was welcomed to the NBA FInals by Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander within seconds of checking in

ABC News
2 days ago
- ABC News
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander creates NBA history as Oklahoma City Thunder defeats Indiana Pacers in Game 2 of the NBA finals
This has been Oklahoma City's formula all season: Lose one game, respond in the next. That's exactly what the Thunder did in Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Monday morning (AEST). Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 34 points, Alex Caruso added 20 off the bench and the Thunder beat the Indiana Pacers 123-107 to tie these finals at one game apiece. Jalen Williams scored 19, Aaron Wiggins had 18 and Chet Holmgren finished with 15 for the Thunder. It was the franchise's first finals game win since the opener of the 2012 series against Miami. "We did some things good tonight. We did some things bad," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "We've got to be able to get better and be ready for Game 3." Tyrese Haliburton scored 17 for Indiana, which erased a 15-point, fourth-quarter deficit in Game 1 but never made a push in this game. Myles Turner scored 16 and Pascal Siakam added 15 for the Pacers, the first team since Miami in 2013 to not have a 20-point scorer in the first two games of the finals. Game 3 is Thursday morning at 10:30am at Indianapolis, in what will be the first finals game in the city in 25 years. "A bad first half, obviously, was a big problem," Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. "And we just played poorly. A little better in the second half. But you can't be a team that's reactive and expect to be successful or have consistency." Gilgeous-Alexander's first basket of the night was a history-maker: It gave him 3,000 points on the season, including the regular season and playoffs. And later, he passed New York's Jalen Brunson (514) as the leading overall scorer in these playoffs. But the real milestone for the MVP came a couple hours later, when he and most everybody else on the Thunder got a finals win for the first time. A 19-2 run in the second quarter turned what was a six-point game into a 23-point Thunder lead. It might have seemed wobbly a couple of times — an immediate 10-0 rebuttal by the Pacers made it 52-39, and Indiana was within 13 again after Andrew Nembhard's lay-up with 7:09 left in the third — but the Thunder lead was never in serious doubt. "They did a good job being disruptive," Siakam said. "They got out in transition. … They were super aggressive, which is what they do." With the noise level in the building often topping 100 decibels — a chainsaw is 110 dB, for comparison purposes — the Thunder did what they've done pretty much all season. They came off a loss, this time a 111-110 defeat in Game 1, and blew somebody out as their response. Including the NBA Cup title game, which doesn't count in any standings, the Thunder are now 18-2 this season when coming off a loss. Of those 18 wins, 12 have been by double digits. "That's a long 48 hours when you lose Game 1 like that, coming into Game 2," Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. "The guys did a great job of just focusing on what we needed to do to stack to a win tonight. That's how we got it." AP