THIS WAS BIGGER THAN “FRIDAY THE 13TH” — SGA ROSE ABOVE THE FRAY ONCE AGAIN
Viewers wondered why a freaky red background appeared on TV screens, but in the end, Gilgeous-Alexander scored 15 points in the final 4:38 while Mathurin missed free throws and Haliburton was quiet
It was Friday the 13th of June. The Indiana Pacers were about to take a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals for Gene Hackman, for Slick Leonard, for Bob Knight, for Larry Bird, for John Wooden, for Oscar Robertson, for Caitlin Clark, for decades of players who wore gold and played for colleges and high schools. But then the TV screen crashed.
Why was it black for at least five seconds? And why did the ABC/ESPN broadcast suddenly show a red background that said — and I quote — “FRIDAY THE 13TH.” The game continued from the first quarter into the fourth, but rather than complete the mission and perhaps carry on to the franchise’s first title, the Pacers were haunted in a 111-104 loss.
In the final 23.1 seconds, Bennedict Mathurin missed three of four free throws. They forgot how to make three-pointers. They looked worn down by Oklahoma City’s defense, the same schemes they crushed in two victories. And then they allowed Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to demonstrate again why he’s the league’s MVP. He scored 15 of his 35 points in the final 4:38, while Tyrese Haliburton stopped waving to his father under the basket. The Thunder won in Indianapolis, meaning they are 22-12 this season when they trail by double digits. And guess what happened to the last five teams to trail 1-2 in the Finals and win Game 4.
They won championships.
“We knew it when we woke up this morning: 3-1 is a lot different than 2-2 going back home,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We played with desperation at the end of the game, and that’s why we won. We’ve got to maintain the same desperation. Whoever imposes their will the best will come out on top. That’s our goal.”
“He definitely showed who he is tonight,” said Thunder coach Mark Daigneault, knowing he has averaged 33.8 points in games after six postseason losses.
The only constant in a wavering series is SGA. Nothing else is relevant, including Mathurin, who scored 27 points to clinch Game 3 but blanked out at the line. Imagine if the Thunder converted more than three of 17 three-point shots. They would have won in a blur, knowing the Pacers went 0 of 8 on threes in the fourth quarter. This was a night for SGA, Jalen Williams and Alex Caruso, who had five steals and a block and knocked heads with Pascal Siakam and Obi Toppin. Fact is, the Thunder were taken to seven games by the Denver Nuggets. They escaped. "I relish those big moments ... when I was a kid shooting on my driveway, I'd count down the clock for those moments,” SGA said.
Haliburton, as is his way, did not respond with a powerful game. After Game 3, his mouth should not have turned into a jagged edge. Why take on critics when the Pacers owned a 2-1 lead and Rick Carlisle was being hailed as the greatest coach in the sport? “The commentary is always going to be what it is," Haliburton said. "Most of the time, the talking heads on the major platforms, I couldn't care less, honestly. What do they really know about basketball?... At a time like, this I'm not really on social media as much. I try to stay off it as much as I can. But you see it. ESPN might be on in my house, and there it is. It is what it is. The commentary is what it is at this point. It doesn't matter. We're in the NBA Finals, two wins away from an NBA championship.”
Now he’s two losses from finishing second. Stephen A. Smith’s shouts entered his brainstream for two days. “Win the damn chip, bro. In the first two games of this NBA final series, you had your moment with 0.3 seconds left. Other than that, you didn't play well," Smith said. “That ain't on me. That's on you, you know. And, oh, by the way, just in case he was talking about me, my brother, I'm not going away. I'm gonna be here for a while. So next year, and the year after that. I’m going to be here, and players far more accomplished and far more superior have made their efforts trying to call me out. How has that worked out?”
Except for Haliburton’s clincher with 0.3 seconds remaining in Game 1, the Pacers were blown out in Oklahoma. No one should be shocked if the Thunder win Game 5, lose Game 6 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse and win Game 7. An average of 8.95 million viewers watched the first three games, the worst since 1988 except for two COVID seasons. NBA commissioner Adam Silver was forced to speak out.
“It's an interesting time in society. We have two markets that are completely captured by the Finals,” he said. “Every store you go to, there's signage. Everybody on the street is wearing team colors. I've been doing this for a long time; I don't remember it being two markets that feel so dominant to have these games. As a media matter, people compare us to 20 years ago, but Games 1 and 2, so far, are the highest-rated programs in May and June so far on television.
“If something beats us, it'll be another sports program. Twenty years ago, we often didn't win the night when the Finals were on, but the absolute rating is lower now.”
The games are good. People are not into OKC and Indiana. If you are a basketball fan, you will watch Monday night. “This kind of a challenge is going to have extreme highs and extreme lows,” Carlisle said. "This is a low right now, and we're going to have to bounce back from it.”
“Friday the 13th” was creepy, whatever it was. But in Christianity, we link it with the Last Supper.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.