The Indiana Pacers pushed the top-seeded Boston Celtics to a winner-take-all Game 7 on Thursday night with a 109-101 win at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, while in Minneapolis the Oklahoma City Thunder forced the same scenario on the other side of the bracket, leaving both Eastern and Western Conference second-round series tied 3-3 with less than a week before the NBA’s conference finals are scheduled to open.

Tyrese Haliburton scored 34 points and added 12 assists for the Pacers, his third 30-and-10 performance of the series, and Pascal Siakam finished with 27 points and seven rebounds. Indiana led by as many as 18 in the third quarter before a 14-2 Boston run early in the fourth pulled the Celtics within three. Reserve guard T.J. McConnell, scoreless through three quarters, hit a pair of corner threes in a 90-second stretch with the lead under five, and the Pacers closed on a 12-4 burst to send the series back to TD Garden for a Saturday-night decider.

“We did not flinch when they made their run, and that is the difference between this version of our team and the one that lost Game 1 of round two,” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said in the postgame availability. “T.J. has been the soul of this group all year. He gives you exactly what the moment requires.”

Jayson Tatum scored 28 points for Boston on 9-of-22 shooting and added nine rebounds and seven assists, but the Celtics shot 31 percent from three-point range, their fifth game under 35 percent in the seven contests of the series. Jaylen Brown, who had carried Boston through Games 5 and 6 with a combined 71 points, was held to 14 on 5-of-17 shooting, and committed five turnovers. Head coach Joe Mazzulla, asked whether the rotations would change for Saturday, told reporters only that “everything is on the table when it is Game 7” and that he expected center Kristaps Porzingis, limited to 21 minutes Thursday because of a left calf cramp, to be available without restriction.

In the West, the Thunder leaned on a 41-point night from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 118-112 at Target Center, sending that series back to Oklahoma City for a Game 7 on Saturday afternoon. Gilgeous-Alexander, who had played through a left hip contusion through the middle of the series, made 14 of 24 shots and added eight assists, and forward Jalen Williams contributed 22 points and seven rebounds. Anthony Edwards led Minnesota with 33 points but shot 11 of 28, and Rudy Gobert, who had averaged 15 rebounds through the first six games, was limited to seven boards in 27 minutes after picking up his fourth foul early in the third quarter.

“We are not done writing this series, and we are not done with our season,” Gilgeous-Alexander told reporters in the visitors’ tunnel. “Both teams have left it on the floor. We just want one more chance at home.”

Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault, asked whether the team would adjust its starting lineup to give Gilgeous-Alexander more rest before tipoff at Paycom Center, said no roster changes were planned. Wolves head coach Chris Finch, in a brief postgame availability, said the team would “be ready for the only game that matters” and declined to elaborate on the Gobert foul trouble.

The Denver Nuggets, who completed a sweep of the Los Angeles Clippers last Saturday, have been idle for six days and are scheduled to open the Western Conference Finals on Saturday, May 16, at Ball Arena against the winner of Thunder-Wolves. The Cleveland Cavaliers, who closed out the Milwaukee Bucks in five games last weekend behind another 35-point performance from Donovan Mitchell, will host the Pacers-Celtics survivor at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Thursday, May 14. League officials confirmed Thursday night that Game 1 broadcast windows would be announced within 24 hours of Saturday’s Game 7s.

“Two Game 7s on the same Saturday is the kind of inventory the league has not had in a decade,” said Karen Maldonado, a sports-media analyst at MoffettNathanson. “ABC and TNT will end up sharing one of the largest combined NBA audiences of the regular postseason. The bracket has rewarded networks that bet on length.”

Television viewership for the second round has continued to outpace last year. ESPN, TNT and ABC executives, on their weekly carrier call Thursday afternoon, said combined audiences through Wednesday were running roughly 19 percent ahead of the comparable 2025 window, with Tuesday’s Pacers-Celtics Game 5 in Boston drawing an average of 8.4 million viewers, the round’s largest audience to date.

Baseball’s first full week of May has settled into a pattern that has now persisted for six straight weeks. The Detroit Tigers, who entered Friday at 23-12 and a six-game lead in the American League Central, beat the Houston Astros 5-2 at Comerica Park on Thursday night behind another quality start from right-hander Tarik Skubal, who improved to 7-1 with a 1.66 earned-run average. The Cincinnati Reds, 22-13 and four-and-a-half games up in the National League Central, completed a three-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field, with shortstop Elly De La Cruz extending his hitting streak to 16 games.

The New York Yankees, at 12-23 after Thursday’s loss in St. Petersburg dropped them to last place in the American League East, recalled left-hander Nestor Cortes from Triple-A Scranton-Wilkes-Barre to start Friday night against the Texas Rangers, and placed reliever Clay Holmes on the 15-day injured list with a right shoulder strain. General manager Brian Cashman, speaking on the YES Network’s pregame show Thursday, said the front office was “in regular contact” with several clubs about midseason trade scenarios but that the Yankees were “not going to act ahead of the calendar.”

“The April surprises have lasted long enough that they aren’t surprises anymore,” said Marcus Reilly, a baseball analyst at Caesars Sportsbook. “Detroit, Cincinnati and Baltimore are not just leading their divisions. They are pulling away. The recreational books are pricing these clubs into August now, and we adjust the futures every Monday.”

The National Hockey League’s conference semifinals continued through the week, with the Florida Panthers eliminating the Toronto Maple Leafs in six games Wednesday night and the Edmonton Oilers taking a 3-2 series lead over the Vegas Golden Knights with a road win Thursday. The Preakness Stakes, scheduled for next Saturday at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, will feature Kentucky Derby winner Saratoga Heat, the long shot who paid 21-1 last weekend in Louisville.

League officials said Saturday’s Game 7 broadcast windows would be finalized Friday morning, with Pacers-Celtics scheduled for an evening tipoff at TD Garden and Thunder-Timberwolves expected to begin in the late afternoon at Paycom Center. Conference finals scheduling, including potential weekend day games, would be confirmed by the close of the second round.