The Oklahoma City Thunder’s Carson Wallace warned the Indiana Pacers the team will not be as easy to beat as they were in Game 6 ahead of the final match-up of the NBA Finals, as he also praises Russell Westbrook too.
The Pacers forced a winner-takes-all clash on Sunday, June 22 after delivering a commanding 108-91 rout at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse, with a mammoth 31-18 effort in the fourth-quarter.
It saw Oklahoma blow the first chance to claim the NBA championship for the 2024/25 season and lets Indiana back in the hunt for the do-or-die contest. However, Wallace sent them a warning telling them the Thunder won’t be so disjointed again.
“They’re the team that I expected,” Wallace said to MARCA’s Nacho Garcia of the Pacers’ mentality. “They don’t get down. They fight back, they throw punches, they take punches so they’re exactly what I thought they’d be.”
Wallace sends out a warning
Wallace continued: “We’re ready to go and compete. We’re ready to go and do what we’ve bene doing all year and just execute, just go play together and have fun. We’ve got to play together.
“I feel like we got away from passing the ball to each other. We all had the right intention, we were trying to make a play, but we had the wrong intention about how to go about it. So just making sure that we play together.”
“Knowing who I’m guarding,” Wallace said, of how he improves for Game 7. “Knowing my assignment, knowing what they like to do, their go-to moves and how they moves.
“I watch a few clips of who I’m guarding a few minutes before the game and make sure that it’s fresh on my mind before I go into the game.”
Wallace added, of who stands out: “You know, they’ve all been making tough shots on everybody but obviously McConnell has been doing the most damage to us all.”
The Thunder unraveled in Game 6 due to self-inflicted mistakes and lackluster defense as their first chance to get their hands on the Larry O’Brien Trophy slipped devastatingly away.
Turnovers plagued them, with 21 giveaways compared to Indiana’s 10, leading to a significant possession deficit and easy counter-punch points for the Pacers.
OKC’s typically reliable defense faltered, failing to generate pressure or stops, while offensively, the Thunder struggled from three-point range, hitting just 3-of-20 through three quarters.
A scoreless start to the second half erased any momentum from their brief defensive surge – something they will be eager to cut out ahead of Sunday’s deciding game at the Paycom Center.
Wallace sends praise to Westbrook amid future uncertainty
With Russell Westbrook’s future uncertain following his departure from the Denver Nuggets, the veteran guard did find support from one of the league’s rising defenders in Wallace.
The 36-year-old officially entered free agency after a season marked by both on-court production and off-court turmoil, despite averaging 13.3 points over 75 games in the 2024-25 campaign.
According to The Athletic, Westbrook “might have been the biggest lightning rod” behind the breakdown between head coach Michael Malone and the front office, with concerns arising over his influence and playing time relative to younger talent like Jalen Pickett.
Despite the controversy, Westbrook still commands respect from younger players such as the talented Oklahoma City Thunder’s guard, who described playing against him with a lot of respect.
“I like guarding Westbrook. I grew up watching him,” Wallace said to MARCA. “He was somebody that I watched a lot growing up.
“And being able to play against him and compete at a high level against him was great. Just the way he approached the game, he’s going to come with it every time.
“He’s a high energy player and if you’re sleeping, he’s going to take advantage of that so I enjoyed that match-up.”
Read the full article here
