Obi Toppin leads Pacers with 20 points in crucial Game 6 victory

The Indiana Pacers won the decisive seventh game of the NBA playoffs final with a convincing 108-91 home win against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the sixth game, leveling the score at 3-3.

Again, the great width of the Pacers' lineup and the excellent contribution of players from the bench came to the fore. Thus, the best scorer of the winning team was Obi Toppin with 20 points, TJ McConnell was versatile with 12 hits, 9 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 steals, while the most efficient members of the first five were Andrew Nembhard with 17 interceptions and Pascal Siakam with 16 points and 13 rebounds. In the ranks of the Thunder, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was again the most effective, but he stopped at 21 points, while the hero of the fifth game, Jalen Williams, added 16.

Slow start

After a slow start to the game and missed the first eight shots, which caused them to fall behind 2-10 in the first four minutes, the Pacers made a 24-7 run with a cannonball of threes and great defense in the next five minutes, reaching a 26-17 lead that they did not relinquish. The visitors got closer to 34-33 at the beginning of the second half, but then the home team went on a 17-2 run to pull ahead 51-35 three minutes before the break.

The Pacers ended the first half with six consecutive points to escape to 64-42, and opened the second in the same way to go to 70-42, and the game was decided. Both teams entered the second half with a combined 14 turnovers, but the Pacers were the first to recover, while the Thunder needed exactly five minutes to get their first interception in the second half.

The home team reached the biggest 31-point margin (93-62) early in the final quarter, only for the visitors to soften the defeat by the end of the match.

The decisive seventh game will be played on Sunday night in Oklahoma City, and the winner will become the NBA champion. Whichever team it is, it will be the first title in the club's history.

This will be the 20th time in NBA history that a seventh match will be played in the finals, but the first in nine years.

There is no doubt that a real spectacle awaits us.