MR. SILVER GOT HIS SEVEN: GAUCHOS 84, LIGHTNING 71

The joke stopped being a joke Wednesday night.

Mr. Silver got his seven.

The Bronx Gauchos beat the Lakewood Lightning 84-71 in Game 6, erasing Lakewood's 3-2 series advantage and sending the final remaining BDA quarterfinal to the only ending that now feels appropriate: one game, winner take all.

And once again, home court held.

Six games. Six home-team victories.

Lakewood had a chance to end the series in the Bronx after taking control of Game 5 with defensive pressure. Instead, the Gauchos flipped the matchup back to the version they have preferred all series. They got into the paint, finished possessions cleanly, spread production across the roster and made Lakewood spend most of the night searching for an offensive rhythm that never arrived.

Bronx shot 56 percent from the field, scored 60 points in the paint and received 54 points from its bench. The Gauchos also finished with 26 fast-break points and seven blocks.

Those numbers tell the story better than any one scoring line.

There was no Kevin Durant explosion like the 28-point effort from Game 2. There did not need to be.

Durant scored 12 points and did not miss a shot from the field. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had nine points, six assists and three steals. Donovan Mitchell added nine. Jaren Jackson Jr. finished 3-for-3 from the floor with three steals and a block. Chet Holmgren contributed five rebounds and two more blocks.

And then there was Kel'el Ware.

Again.

Ware's final line was not enormous: eight points, seven rebounds and three blocks.

His impact was.

He finished plus-18, the best mark on the Gauchos, and earned the Commissioner's Game Ball as Bronx once again controlled the interior whenever the game began to settle.

Ware has become one of the defining players of this series without ever needing the offense built around him. The free-agent pickup who gave Bronx 13 points and 15 rebounds in Game 3 has continued to supply exactly what this matchup demands: size, activity, rebounding and another body waiting at the rim.

Game 6 was another reminder that Bronx's frontcourt does not need one dominant shot blocker. It has layers.

Ware contests one attempt. Holmgren is behind him. Jackson is somewhere else in the possession. Even when Lakewood reached the paint, it rarely felt like an uncomplicated trip.

The Lightning still scored 46 inside, but that came through volume rather than control.

Giannis Antetokounmpo did his part. He led Lakewood with 19 points and five rebounds, getting to the line seven times and making all seven.

The problem was everything around him.

Aaron Gordon was excellent with 11 points, six rebounds and three assists, but Jayson Tatum finished with eight points on 3-for-10 shooting. James Harden scored seven on 3-for-10 and made only one of seven attempts from three. Jimmy Butler went scoreless.

Lakewood shot 42 percent overall and 29 percent from three.

That was not enough against a Bronx team that seemed to find a clean shot every time Lakewood threatened to make the game uncomfortable.

The Lightning actually led 21-17 after the first quarter.

Then the rhythm disappeared.

Bronx won the second quarter 20-13, the third 24-18 and the fourth 23-19. What began as another close Lakewood-Bronx fight gradually became a game the Gauchos controlled.

That distinction matters because Game 5 had suggested Lakewood might finally have discovered something capable of breaking the series' home-court pattern.

The Lightning forced 23 turnovers that night. They collected 19 steals. The Thompson Twins terrorized passing lanes and Lakewood scored 27 points off turnovers.

Bronx answered in Game 6 by making its offense far more functional.

Lakewood still created 13 steals, but the avalanche never came. The Gauchos committed 15 team turnovers rather than 23, shot efficiently enough to survive mistakes and consistently punished Lakewood once the ball reached the interior.

The Thompson Twins, so destructive in Game 5, finished with only four points and committed five turnovers themselves.

That has become the fascinating part of this series.

Every time one side appears to have found the answer, the location changes and so does the basketball.

Lakewood won Game 1 and Game 2 by turning defense into pressure and Giannis into the central force.

Bronx answered in Game 3 and Game 4 with Ware, Holmgren and Jackson turning the paint into hostile territory.

Lakewood changed the equation in Game 5 by attacking the Gauchos before that defense could get organized.

Bronx responded in Game 6 by simply executing better, shooting 56 percent and putting production around its stars.

After six games, nobody has won on the road.

Nobody has held control of the series for very long.

And nobody gets another adjustment after the next one.

The regular season said Lakewood was the better team.

The first two playoff games appeared to confirm it.

The next four have established something else entirely.

Bronx is still here.

Lakewood still owns home court for Game 7.

And now none of that matters very much.

Game 7.

One game to decide the final semifinalist.

One game to finally determine whether home court was the real star of this series.

And one last rock fight before somebody goes home.