Indiana Pacers superstar Tyrese Haliburton made a steal from Jalen Williams and provided a no-look dime to Pascal Siakam, who scored a dunk in the first half of the Game 6 NBA Finals against Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday.
That dunk gave a 20 points lead to the Pacers and from there on, they never looked back. The Pacers registered a comprehensive 109-91 win to force a winner-take-all Game 7.
“That’s a special moment,” Haliburton said. “Especially because we are always getting on Pascal for not dunking anymore.”
“Honestly, me and Pascal have not spoken about this play yet,” Haliburton said. “I don’t know if we will until this is over. … If we are fortunate enough to go on and win this thing, I think that play will be remembered for a long time.”
Haliburton said the team was in no mood to celebrate as the most important match of the season will be the seventh game of the series.
“We’ve got one game,” Haliburton said. “One game. Nothing that’s happened before matters. And nothing that’s going to happen after matters.”
Meanwhile, Obi Toppin came off the bench to be the team’s leading scorer with 20 points. Andrew Nembhard added 17, and Siakam added 16 points and 13 rebounds.
“We are just super resilient and we’re hungry,” Toppin said. “We all work extremely hard every single day to allow the success that we had, and we’re not done.”
Haliburton said there was little doubt in his mind that he would play Thursday after suffering a strained right calf.
“I just look at it as I want to be out there to compete with my brothers,” said Haliburton, who finished with 14 points and five assists in only 23 minutes. “These are guys that I’m willing to go to war with. We’ve had such a special year. We have a special bond as a group. I’d beat myself up if I didn’t give it a chance.”
The final game of the NBA finals will be played on Sunday.
