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With the Indiana Pacers preparing for Game 7 of the NBA Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the team looks to win the first championship in franchise history. While the Pacers will need their X-factors the most on Sunday night in the biggest game of the season, a win for the team would check the boxes of near-insurmountable feats.
As Oklahoma City was the first seed in the Western Conference, winning 68 games this season, Indiana was fourth in the East with a 50-win total. According to ESPN, not only has a team with their seeding rarely won the championship, but the difference in win totals between the two teams would make the Pacers the “largest upset” in NBA Finals history, among other staggering statistics.
“Since seeding began in 1984, only one team seeded fourth or lower won the NBA title. It was the 1995 Houston Rockets, who were a 6-seed,” ESPN wrote. “The Pacers won 18 fewer games than the Thunder in the regular season. That would be the largest upset in terms of regular-season wins in an NBA Finals in league history.”
“The Pacers had a PPG differential 10.6 points lower than the Thunder,” ESPN continued. “That would be the largest upset in terms of PPG differential in an NBA Finals in league history. The Pacers have 10 wins as an underdog this postseason, tied for the most by any team in a single postseason in the past 35 seasons.”
Pacers' Tyrese Haliburton warns about Game 7 “poison”
As Tyrese Haliburton will lead the Pacers into Game 7, the focus has to be on nothing else besides the game itself, as getting lost in the narratives could dampen the intensity. The same sentiments were echoed by Haliburton himself, even saying that the talking points around the game are “almost poison” according to ESPN.
“The narratives are going to be almost poison,” Haliburton said. “To talk about what this would mean to our city and our organization and legacy talk, and we played so well and now the pressure is on [the Thunder] … there's going to be narratives that we can't really pay attention to.
“We've got to control what we can. So much of these games has come down to who is going to start the fight from a physicality standpoint, take care of the ball better, and rebound the ball better. Those are the important things that we need to focus on. I don't even want to say, celebrate this one tonight, and move on. It's done with. We did our job to take care of home court, and we have to be ready to compete in Game 7.”
At any rate, Indiana will look to do the unthinkable as beating the Thunder in Game 7 in enemy territory could lead to the biggest upset in NBA Finals history. It all goes down Sunday night.
