Pat McAfee left red-faced after Indiana Pacers jinx and Stephen A. Smith dig
Pat McAfee hyped up the crowd during Game 4 of the NBA Finals, hitting back at Indiana Pacers doubters – only to see Indy collapse soon after, allowing the Oklahoma City Thunder to even the series
INDIANAPOLIS - Pat McAfee delivered another spectacular speech hyping up the Indiana Pacers in Game 4 of the NBA Finals – but it backfired spectacularly.
The Pacers entered Friday's clash – which saw some controversial calls early on – with the Oklahoma City Thunder up 2-1 after recording their first Finals win at home in 25 years. And even though some questionable calls went against them, it looked like Indiana was about to come within just one dub of their first-ever NBA championship before a crushing collapse in the fourth quarter.
The Pacers had an 89-82 lead early in the final period. But then, their offense came to a screeching halt as they failed to score for the next 3:06 of the game. During the drought, McAfee – who poked fun at the fabled Celebrity Row at Madison Square Garden during the Eastern Conference Finals against the New York Knicks – appeared on the jumbotron during head coach Rick Carlisle's timeout, calling out those who didn't believe in Indy's chances to win the title.
"Even though we're up 2-1 in the series with home court advantage, coming into tonight's game, the Oklahoma City Thunder were favored to win the NBA title," he said. "Coming into tonight's game, Oklahoma City was favored by six and a half points.
"That makes us the biggest underdogs in the history of the NBA Finals. That tells me that the sports books don't know, Stephen A. Smith doesn't know."
McAfee also confidently proclaimed that, "When you come to this state, not only are you playing the best team in the damn league, you're also taking on the greatest fan base in the history of the NBA."
But the Thunder quickly tied the game – and then, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander took over, scoring 15 of his 35 points in the final five, the most in a non-overtime NBA Finals game since 1971. Indiana managed to reclaim the lead briefly, going up 103-102 with 2:58 on the clock.
However, sloppy play, fouls, and missed free throws – Bennedict Mathurin made just one of his four freebies in the last minute of the clash – ended the Pacers' hopes of snatching a win that would put them within reach of the chip. With OKC eventually claiming a 111-104 win, McAfee shared a telling reaction on social media, posting, "Welp."
Smith didn't have the best night, either. The ESPN star was caught playing solitaire during the game by a Pacers fan who took a photo of the sportscaster in the act and then shared it on X, causing furious suggestions from NBA fans that he didn't pay attention to the game he's blessed to cover.
Smith later admitted that he did play solitaire at that moment. However, he rejected the notion that he ignored the happenings on the court.
"Yep! That’s me. Who would’ve thought…. I can multi-task. Especially during TIMEOUTS!" he wrote on X.
"Hope y’all are enjoying the NBA Finals. This is going 7 games now, peeps!" Smith's solitaire incident came just a few days after Tyrese Haliburton clapped back at the "talking heads on the major platforms" for the criticism he's faced after low-scoring nights.
Stephen A. then blasted Haliburton for his comments, likely leading to the namecheck from McAfee during his ill-fated Game 4 address to the Pacers faithful. "Win the damn chip, bro," Smith said.
"In the first two games of this NBA final series, you had your moment with 0.3 seconds left. Other than that, you didn't play well."