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Par Guillaume Kagni | Journaliste sportif
By pulling off a Game 7 on Thursday in front of their fans, the Pacers have given themselves the right to dream. Their season, which had got off to a bad start, will now come down to a single game. Clearly, the trip to Paris in January did them a world of good.
The Pacers are just one game away from becoming NBA champions, and it’s a position nobody would have bet on back on January 1. At that point in the season, when their record was 16 wins to 18 losses, everyone thought the franchise was struggling to digest its epic run to the conference finals, that it was a feat conditioned by the injuries of their opponents.
Then, all of a sudden, Tyrese Haliburton, Pascal Siakam and their team-mates were back where they were in the spring of 2024. They slowly but surely climbed back up the standings, gained confidence, and made their way to this title series thanks to an exemplary mentality. In Indiana, you never give up, even when the situation seems hopeless.
How Paris changed the Pacers’ season
With hindsight, perhaps the trip to Paris enabled the group to bond, to say things to each other and to realize that they needed to change if they were to return to the heights of the Eastern Conference. In any case, that’s what our L’Equipe colleagues had to say to the Pacers. The Spurs would be indirectly responsible for a coronation.
Rick Carlisle: We started to recover in January, and the trip to Paris certainly played a part. From a sporting point of view, we were playing Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs, with all the Parisian fans in the room. There was a lot of adversity, it was a bit like us against the rest of the world. I had long conversations with my players after the defeat. That moment was decisive in our season because we were able to react afterwards, in a hostile climate.
Humiliated by Victor Wembanyama in the first of two Paris games, the Pacers had to come to terms with the hostile climate and change their mentality. They were able to get past the noise of the crowd and the lack of support, to snatch a large victory which in the end meant a lot more than you might have thought. They’ve come a long way.
The Pacers just made the NBA Finals.
— WembyMuse (@Wemby_Muse) June 1, 2025
Yet for these two minutes in Paris, Wemby made them look like a JV high school team.pic.twitter.com/fj896qDNSg
