I don’t think it did, to be honest. Maybe if OKC had been up 3-0 in the series and lost Game 4 in Indiana. At this point, though, you don’t want to lollygag and set up a winner-take-all Game 7 where anything can happen. What if Shai rolls an ankle badly in the first quarter on Sunday? Or, even worse, blows out his ACL like Tatum did earlier in the playoffs?
Having said that, I am sure OKC were playing hard, but Indiana was simply not going to allow the championship to be won on their home floor.
I don’t think for one moment the Thunder intentionally mailed it in before Game 6 even started, thinking, “We’ll just lollygag and laze about, then wrap it up in Game 7.”
But what probably did happen was this: The Thunder started Game 6 with their best effort as usual, but once it became clear that they were in too deep a hole to climb out of (by halftime or so,) they then decided to conserve their energy as much as possible for Game 7, given that Game 7 now looked inevitable. There was no point in mustering full energy for a futile comeback attempt and have nothing in the tank for Game 7.
Every case is different of course, but Kevin Durant ruptured his Achilles in the finals against the Raptors in June 2019, and his first regular-season game back was in December 2020.
Yeah he tore his Achilles, with it happening in literally the last possible game this season it is very unlikely he can play next season at all. Same as Tatum and Lillard.
While I didn’t care who won, I was slightly going for the Pacers as the underdog. They did well until four minutes left in the third quarter, then went ten minutes with little. Too bad. But the Thunder played better and Shai particularly well with assists all over the place. Some great games!