好的，这是我提取并翻译后的结果：
The Indiana Pacers are one win away from their first NBA title. This would not only be of historical proportions but would also overshadow one of the ugliest chapters in team history.
Why should the Indiana Pacers become the new NBA champion? The team that has never won the basketball championship in North America. The team that lost 15 times in the first 25 games of the current season. The team that finished only fourth in the weaker East.
Even now, after playing their way into the NBA Finals against the best team in the West with some spectacular performances, the team from Indianapolis is not expected to make the big leap.
Do the Pacers secure the NBA Championship after the title in the West?
Best proof of this: At the bookmakers in the USA, they were not even declared favorites against the Oklahoma City Thunder after taking a 1-0 and 2-1 lead in the Finals.
Expert: Indiana one of the biggest underdogs in history
And now that the series is tied 3-3 and the tension before the decisive Game 7 on Monday night couldn’t be greater? The Pacers are still only underdogs. And not only that. “They are one of the biggest underdogs in the history of the NBA Finals,” emphasized ESPN expert Jay Williams.
But perhaps it is precisely these prerequisites that pave the way for the Pacers’ historic triumph.
Because not only in the Finals have they proven that they can beat any opponent at any time, in any place. Why? “Because they are not a LeBron James team,” as former Pacer Metta Sandiford-Artest put it.
When he was still called Ron Artest, he was significantly involved in one of the ugliest chapters in Pacers history. In November 2004, he and other Pacers players engaged in a mass brawl with fans and players of the Detroit Pistons, which earned him a record suspension of 73 games.
Stephen Jackson, who was also involved in the infamous “Malice at the Palace” at the time, linked it to today’s team. “The championship meant everything to the guys who played back then. Just like for the guys who are playing now,” he said: “We should have won a championship, but it didn’t work out. So it’s good to see that the young guys now have this opportunity.”
Ron Artest caused perhaps the biggest scandal in NBA history at “Malice in the Palace”
The fact that this opportunity is as great as never before in the 58-year history of the franchise has a lot to do with the fact that the current team is not a one-man show like many teams in which LeBron James has drawn all the attention.
Pacers role players become main characters
Numerous players stood out in the playoffs who were at best role players in the regular season. Guard TJ McConnell, for example, is the first bench player to reach at least 60 points, 25 assists, and 15 rebounds in the Finals.
Speaking of three-pointers: Andrew Nembhard increased his three-point percentage in the postseason by an incredible 16.7 percent compared to the regular season and now makes more than 45 percent of his three-point attempts.
One could add one or the other statistic to the list – and still not have arrived at the actual guarantors of success: Tyrese Haliburton, who has led his team to important victories more than once during the playoffs with his strong nerves in the last seconds. Pascal Siakam, who, as champion with the Toronto Raptors in 2019, transmits the special winner gene to his teammates.
And last but not least, Rick Carlisle, who as head coach led the Dallas Mavericks around Germany’s folk hero Dirk Nowitzki to the NBA title 14 years ago.
Then as now, his team had started the playoffs as a blatant underdog. In 2011, his Mavs beat all the favorites and crowned themselves with a 4-2 victory over the Miami Heat in the Finals.
By the way, opponents on the way there in the Finals of the Western Conference were the Oklahoma City Thunder …
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