{"id":36429,"date":"2025-06-12T15:30:15","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T19:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=36429"},"modified":"2025-06-12T15:30:18","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T19:30:18","slug":"aurora-town-square-is-the-place-to-be-on-friday-the-13th-to-watch-nembhards-pacers-take-on-okc-in-nba-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/aurora-town-square-is-the-place-to-be-on-friday-the-13th-to-watch-nembhards-pacers-take-on-okc-in-nba-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora Town Square is the place to be on Friday the 13th to watch Nembhard\u2019s Pacers take on OKC in NBA Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Auroran Andrew Nembhard\u2019s quest for the Larry O\u2019Brien Championship trophy has begun in earnest and local residents have been gifted with an opportunity to support the NBA star.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Town of Aurora has invited residents to the Town Square to watch the NBA Finals featuring a collection of young Canadian stars gracing the rosters of both the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OKC superstar point guard and Team Canada leader Shea Gilgeous Alexander is Toronto-born and was voted the league\u2019s MVP in late-May. Fellow Thunder and Team Canada starter Lu Dort\u2014the rugged defensive stalwart who hails from Montreal \u2013 has been playing with his \u201cElbows Up\u201d far before this popular phrase was coined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunday\u2019s night\u2019s gathering at the Mirkopoulos Plateia in the Del Manor Amphitheatre was affected by drizzly conditions, but over fifty folks braved the elements to watch Nembhard\u2019s upstart Pacers take on the OKC Thunder in Game 2 of the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rob and Anna Gaby\u2014ardent Raptors fans and Aurora residents for over thirty years\u2014have hitched their wagon to the Indy Pacers to support a hometown hero like Nembhard and his Montreal-born teammate Ben Mathurin.  Rob Gaby said he was pleased with the setting and the experience at Town Square.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe best part of the event was the people of Aurora supporting Andrew Nembhard and all the Canadians on the Indy Pacers. It was also great that during the game, the NBA broadcast crew took notice that 30 per cent of the starters were Canadian: Nembhard from the Pacers and Gilgeous-Alexander and Dort of the Thunder.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaby also noted the quality of the presentation on Sunday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe set-up, screen, and sound were all great. The screen was over 15-feet wide and the caf\u00e9 was open, too. It was supported by a multicultural audience and it was great to see the Mayor there, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Tom Mrakas\u2014who has attended both of the watch parties and is looking forward to this week\u2019s gatherings and giveaways on Wednesday and Friday\u2014was pleased with the Town Square set-up and happy to support one of Aurora\u2019s favorite sons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOverall, the presentation of the game is incredible. The equipment is great. It\u2019s the first time that we\u2019re doing a watch party for a sporting event of this magnitude. I was really pleased to see the numbers increasing with each event and with the giveaways and rising interest in the Finals, I\u2019m looking forward to even more support from the community for Andrew. Cheering for one of our own\u2014for someone who was born and raised in Aurora and whose family still makes it their home\u2014it\u2019s important to return the favour to Andrew.  He\u2019s been such a great ambassador for the Town and he\u2019s mentioned Aurora in many national broadcasts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Mrakas also flashed forward to future watch parties that could be hosted at the Aurora Town Square: \u201cIt\u2019s a great venue for a sporting final and we envision it being used for Olympic viewing events, hopefully another Blue Jays World Series, and maybe a Leafs\u2019 Stanley Cup appearance. It\u2019s just great to bring the community together and celebrate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though there wasn\u2019t as much to celebrate on Sunday night when the Pacers dropped Game 2 to the #1-seeded Thunder 123-107, Aurorans savored another strong performance by Nembhard who scored 11 points, pulled down 4 rebounds, dished out 4 assists, and made 3 steals in 32 minutes as Indy\u2019s starting shooting guard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last Thursday, Nembhard\u2019s gutsy Indiana squad edged OKC 111-110 in Game 1 as Pacers\u2019 point guard Tyrese Haliburton hit a 21-foot jumper with 0.3 seconds remaining to steal a coveted victory on the road. Nembhard contributed 14 points, 6 assists, and 4 rebounds to Indy\u2019s attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Raptor and fan favorite Pascal Siakim, who led the Pacers with 19 points, provides another compelling reason to back Indy at Town Square.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to their loss on Sunday, the Pacers had set an NBA playoff record by winning the first two games of their first three series and were seeking a fourth straight 2-0 series lead before the Thunder responded to their shocking loss on Thursday night with a full effort in Game 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OKC\u2019s Canadian contingent fared well in the second game of the series:  Western Conference Finals MVP Gilgeous-Alexander poured in 34 points and Dort put forth a stellar defensive performance by restricting Haliburton and Siakim\u2019s point totals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Game 4 of the NBA Final Series will be presented at Aurora Town Square on Friday, June 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tip off will be 8:30 p.m. Doors will open at 8 p.m. and attendees are encouraged to bring their own chairs, pack a blanket, and dress for the weather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attendees are also encouraged to wear gold to support Andrew Nembhard\u2019s Pacers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunday\u2019s watch party is free and proudly presented by the Town of Aurora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Auroran Andrew Nembhard\u2019s quest for the Larry O\u2019Brien Championship trophy has begun in earnest and local residents have been gifted with an opportunity to support the NBA star. The Town of Aurora has invited residents to the Town Square to watch the NBA Finals featuring a collection of young Canadian stars gracing the rosters of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":36430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5,24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/2025-06-12-05.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9tz","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 03:36:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36429"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36431,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36429\/revisions\/36431"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}