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ESPN Cut to Commercial While Stephen A. Smith Was Talking During Game 7 Halftime
The Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers played an extremely tight and eventful first half of basketball during Game 7 of the NBA Finals. Tyrese Haliburton hit three three-pointers before suffering an achilles injury while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was compassionate, but effective as he scored 16 points to lead the Thunder.
At halftime the Pacers led 48–47 and there was a lot for the NBA on ESPN crew working the game on ABC to talk about. So much so that Stephen A. Smith just kept talking as they went to commercial.
ESPN went to commercial while SAS was still talking pic.twitter.com/VS95p1CVZT
— Oh No He Didn't (@ohnohedidnt24) June 23, 2025
We may never know who from the Thunder needs to step up.
ESPN had previously added a Finals logo to the floor and started showing the starting lineups being announced during this series because fans complained. Perhaps this is also something viewers had been asking for.
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Stephen Douglas is a senior writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has worked in media since 2008 and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Douglas spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and previously wrote for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.