Indiana Pacers 108, Oklahoma City Thunder 91
Q. The turnovers tonight, uncharacteristic for you guys to lose that turnover battle. What sort of contributed to that? Shai had a bunch, you had more than normal.
JALEN WILLIAMS: It just got sticky, I feel like. Our defense wasn't very good. When you're constantly taking the ball out and you're playing against a set defense over and over again, that's part of it.
Other part, we didn't do a good job trusting each other to make the next play like we did Game 5. We'll look at some things. Obviously they made a couple adjustments. We'll look at that, too.
A lot of it was, yeah, just not trusting each other to make the plays. That starts with me being better, figuring out different ways to get my teammates involved, stuff like that. Good news is we have another game to figure it out.
Q. You talked a lot about the human element of these games. At any point did the human element of knowing you had a Game 7 creep in? What did you learn today about how different it might feel to close a Finals than any other series?
JALEN WILLIAMS: No, the human element -- I can't speak for my whole team. The human element didn't creep in for me until we got blown out. I didn't start thinking about Game 7 until we walked off the floor. Really like when the game was really out of reach.
I think we had the right mindset coming into it. I think there was different things we didn't do in the game well that hurt us. Closing out in the Finals is different than a playoff game because it's the end of the season. You know what I mean? You play for so long that it just has more weight to it. Obviously you want to win a championship. You don't want to feel like it was all for nothing. That's been the biggest difference between closing out now as opposed to, like, a Denver series or Minnesota.
I feel like they probably felt that way, too. For them being down 3-2, knowing your season is on the line, you're in the Finals, just has more weight to it.
Q. Regarding the feeling of having expectations, then not meeting them. It's now coming down to one game. Does that thought of not having that same feeling again now start to creep in knowing it's 0-0?
JALEN WILLIAMS: Yeah, that feeling has never really left for me. Again, I don't want to speak for the whole team. That's the human part of playing a sport. Everybody's going to feel some type of way.
I've definitely had that feeling the whole year. I've had that feeling in December. You work really hard in the summer to get better at things. When they don't come to light the way you want to, it's kind of easy to get off track and feel sorry for yourself.
At the same time I try to be where my feet are. I'm in the NBA Finals at 24 years old in year three. So I always try and keep that in perspective. I'm just going to go into this next game and try to play hard and play better than what I did tonight. Wherever the chips fall, they fall. I'm not going to go after this game and think I didn't play hard or whatever the case may be. Just relishing the opportunity.
Q. It's no crime to lose a Game 6 on the road, but to lose like this, is there a concern that you emboldened the Pacers, gave them more confidence?
JALEN WILLIAMS: That probably has something to do with it a little bit. If they had won by one, they would have probably walked out of this game with confidence. You know what I mean? That's what makes them a good team. That's what makes us a good team. We both played our identity, regardless of what's going on.
They're going to go into Game 7 confident, and so are we.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports