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The Oklahoma City Thunder said all the right things heading into Game 6 of the NBA Finals. They knew they were one win away from an NBA title, but they couldn’t get ahead of themselves. They knew that Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton was questionable with a strained right calf, but they prepared as if he’d play and expected his team to put up a fight regardless.

“One thing we know is you don’t underestimate great players,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault told reporters Wednesday. “So in the case that he plays, we’re expecting his best punch. Indiana is a great team. We don’t underestimate great teams. In either case, whether he plays or not, we’re expecting Indiana’s best punch, especially at home.”

The Finals had followed the same pattern as OKC’s second-round series against the Denver Nuggets: a heartbreaking loss in the opener, then a bounce-back win, a loss on the road and two straight victories to go up 3-2. That series went seven games, but wing Jalen Williams said they’d learned a lesson from losing the sixth one.

“We didn’t come out ready to play, frankly,” Williams said Wednesday. “And sustaining our energy through that series, we’re going to try to do a little bit better with this one.”

So much for all that. With its season on the line on Thursday, Indiana ran the Thunder off the floor.

The Pacers led by as many as 31 points in their 108-91 win, setting up a winner-take-all situation on Sunday in dominant fashion. Indiana went on a 24-7 run in the first quarter, then went on a 36-9 run that spanned most of the second quarter and some of the third. At one point, the Pacers got 11 consecutive stops, which caused Daigneault to call two timeouts in less than a minute.

I don’t know if the Thunder subconsciously took their foot off the gas, but I know that Indiana stuck to its plan.

“I think we’ve got to stop turning the ball over as much, that’s the main thing,” guard Andrew Nembhard told reporters Wednesday. 

Coach Rick Carlisle echoed that sentiment, adding that Oklahoma City’s offensive rebounding had also been “really bothersome and challenging for us.” In the first three quarters on Thursday (i.e. the competitive portion of the game), the Pacers committed only two live-ball turnovers (to the Thunder’s 12) and surrendered only three offensive rebounds (while grabbing 10 themselves).

“It’s about the margins,” Haliburton said in his walk-off interview with ABC’s Lisa Salters. “It’s about taking care of the ball and rebounding. Those are the most important things.”

To earn a lopsided win like this, Indiana had to crush Oklahoma City in just about every way. Through three quarters, the Thunder shot 3 for 20 (15%) from 3-point range and the Pacers shot 14 for 35 (40%). Indiana had a 31-6 advantage in bench points and a 21-6 advantage in assists. Generally speaking, though, this series has been about the possession game and the ability to turn defense into offense. OKC is a historically great team by any statistical measure, but, if it is forced to play against a set defense over and over again — and its opponent is not — then it is vulnerable.

After the loss, the Thunder were left to lament their turnovers, just like Indiana had done three days earlier.

“I thought that’s what ignited them,” Daigneault said, calling it an “uncharacteristic” and “disappointing” showing.

Like they did all season, the Pacers ran off makes and misses. After they found some early points in transition, their energy picked up in the halfcourt. Oklahoma City’s Alex Caruso credited them for being active and aggressive, but said that the Thunder had “played into their hands” by trying to go one-on-one too often. The contrast between the two teams’ ball movement and shot profile has been stark for much of the series, but never more so than in Game 6.

With alumni like Reggie Miller, Rik Smits, Derrick McKey, Dale Davis, Mark Jackson, Lance Stephenson and Metta World Peace in the building, Indiana cleaned up its act and delivered the most Pacers performance possible. Despite his injury, Haliburton made deep 3s and every hit-ahead pass that he could. Pascal Siakam did a whole lot of everything. T.J. McConnell got in the paint at will and made a bunch of his patented midrange jumpers. Nembhard gave Shai Gilgeous-Alexander everything he could handle on one end, and, on the other, it seemed like neither Nembhard nor Obi Toppin could miss. Indiana didn’t even press Oklahoma City’s ballhandlers as much as it did earlier in the series, but it executed just about everything it wanted to with its particular brand of all-out intensity. 

“I think we played to exhaustion,” McConnell said. “But we have to do it again on Sunday.”