INDIANAPOLIS — From the streets of Montreal to the NBA Academy in Mexico to the star of one of the best finals games in the last decade. That’s the road Indiana Pacers reserve guard Bennedict Mathurin is on right now.
Mathurin scored 27 massive points off the Pacers’ highly potent bench, Tyrese Haliburton had his best game of the series so far, and Indiana took Game 3 of the NBA Finals from the favored Oklahoma City Thunder, 116-107.
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Game 4 is at 8:30 p.m. Friday in Indianapolis. This is the only point in the series with just one day between games.
“The state of Indiana is about basketball, and this was the first time I really felt it,” Mathurin said. “As much as this is a dream right now, I am trying not to live in my dream. I am trying to live in the present and make sure this dream ends well.”
Mathurin, 22, in his third pro season, was drafted out of the University of Arizona after two years at the NBA Academy Latin America in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. Last season, he missed the Pacers’ entire run to the Eastern Conference finals with a torn labrum in his right shoulder. On Wednesday, he set a personal playoff career high in scoring, added four rebounds and a block and was the first 20-point scorer for Indiana in the finals. He scored 10 in the fourth quarter alone and outscored the entire Thunder bench by nine.
“He’s putting (in) a lot of work to be ready for these moments, and tonight, he was an absolute major factor,” said Indiana coach Rick Carlisle, who told a story of Mathurin peeling days off a calendar in the team training room while he was rehabbing from shoulder surgery.
Haliburton, dealing with lower leg “discomfort,” eventually joined Mathurin by reaching 22 points to go with 11 assists and nine rebounds. Pascal Siakam added 21 points, including the game’s final basket with 7.7 seconds left, and T.J. McConnell, Mathurin’s fellow Indiana reserve, posted the first 10-point, five-assist, five-steal game off the bench in NBA Finals history. He stole three inbounds passes after Indiana baskets.
Carlisle said center Myles Turner was ill and played through it. He shot just 3 of 11 but blocked five shots, with two huge blocks in the fourth quarter.
“T.J. just brought a competitive will to the game,” Carlisle said. “This is the kind of team that we are. We need everybody to be ready. It’s not always going to be exactly the same guys that are stepping up with scoring, but this is how we gotta do it. We gotta do it as a team, and we have to make it as tough as possible on him.”
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Jalen Williams led the Thunder with 26 points. League MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander failed to reach 30 points for the first time in this series, finishing with 24 points on 9-of-20 shooting. Chet Holmgren added 20 points and 10 boards in the loss.
The Pacers had lost Game 3 in each of their first three playoff series. After snapping that streak in one of the best finals games of the past decade, they now stand just two wins from their first NBA championship. They remained undefeated in the postseason when scoring at least 110 points, and, you guessed it, Game 3 was the first time in this series they hit their magic number.
After two mostly frustrating games on offense (even when the Pacers won Game 1, they still committed 25 turnovers and came from 15 down in the fourth quarter), Indiana’s defense turned up the pressure on the Thunder, like the Pacers had done in each of the three previous series, and the effects showed. Oklahoma City coughed it up 19 times and seemed to wear down in the final quarter. Gilgeous-Alexander, one of the NBA’s best closers and the league’s top scorer, managed just three shot attempts in the fourth quarter, and the team missed all four of its 3s in the final frame.
“I mean, the turnovers were uncharacteristic,” Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault said. “Obviously we’re usually pretty clean there. I give them credit. I thought they played really well. They played with great energy. They were physical. They pressured. They sustained it for much of the 48. … They really outplayed us in the fourth.”
This was the first finals game in Indianapolis in 25 years, and the roar of the Hoosier faithful throughout the night was something to behold. Reggie Miller, the Pacers’ star the last time they were in the finals, sat courtside in a Mark Jackson jersey. He was seated next to NBA royalty Oscar Robertson, who went to high school about a mile and a half from Gainbridge Fieldhouse. The queen of Indiana basketball, WNBA megastar Caitlin Clark, was seated courtside too. ESPN personality and former Colts punter Pat McAfee again addressed the crowd in the fourth quarter, ratcheting up the fans’ fervor to a decibel level normally reserved for the Indianapolis 500.
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For the first time in this series, the Pacers carried a lead (64-60) into halftime. A frenetic, back-and-forth first two quarters saw the Thunder open up an eight-point advantage (behind 13 points from Holmgren) after one period, only to see the Pacers storm back behind a sustained effort by their bench. Mathurin scored all of his 14 first-half points in the second quarter, and with 5:12 remaining before halftime, Haliburton connected on a 16-footer for a 49-42 advantage — by far Indiana’s largest lead this series. The Pacers’ reserves (McConnell had something to do with this, with hustle plays and four assists) outscored Oklahoma City’s backups in the first half, 30-11.
The Thunder scored the first eight points of the third quarter and led by the end of it, 89-84. McConnell, who is nearly a foot shorter than Holmgren, fouled the Thunder center but couldn’t stop him from dunking it with 34.7 seconds left. Holmgren made the free throw, and then Williams drilled a 3 at the top of the key just before the buzzer for the five-point lead.
The Pacers basically took control for good (“basically” because it remained a two- or three-possession game, and they simply didn’t flinch) with 4:24 left when Obi Toppin smashed a putback dunk for a 107-100 lead. Aaron Nesmith’s 3-pointer while falling out of bounds with 3:04 left put the Pacers ahead by eight, and Turner blocked Holmgren on a 3 and then a layup attempt on the same possession with about two minutes remaining and Indiana ahead by six.
The Thunder haven’t lost consecutive playoff games this season – then again, neither have the Pacers. But it was Oklahoma City, and not Indiana, that steamrolled through the regular season with 68 wins and the largest point differential in league history.
When the finals began, the Thunder were one of the biggest betting favorites to win the finals, ever. Now, they must get a road win for a chance to reach the finish line.
“Starts with me,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We got to apply that pressure back, especially if you want to beat a team like that on the road. You got to be the more forceful team.” — Joe Vardon
Haliburton transforms from hunted to hunter
Haliburton came off a screen in the fourth quarter with Isaiah Hartenstein lurking in his vicinity. The Pacers star, known for being a past-first player, quickly surveyed the floor. Hartenstein was on his heels as Haliburton crossed over to create space, but instead of attacking Hartenstein downhill and perhaps drawing another defender so that he could dish the ball to a cutting teammate, Haliburton stepped back for 3.
Count it.
Tyrese Haliburton and the Pacers are just two wins away from a title. (Trevor Ruszkowski / Imagn Images)
Haliburton’s deep shot gave Indiana a 101-98 lead with 6:40 left in Game 3. The Thunder called a timeout to regroup, but they never recovered. Haliburton’s big-time bucket gave Indiana a slight edge it wouldn’t relinquish in the back-and-forth contest, and it also served as a microcosm of his first complete game performance of these finals. After being hunted the first two games by the Thunder’s swarming defense, Haliburton was finally the hunter Wednesday night.
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With franchise legend Miller sitting courtside, Haliburton steered Indiana to a home finals victory over the Thunder exactly 25 years after Miller did the same against the Los Angeles Lakers. Haliburton finished with 22 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds, falling just short of his third career playoff triple-double. His stellar bounce-back performance pushed Indiana to 33-4 this season (including the playoffs) when he scores at least 20 points this season, but more importantly, it pushed Indiana to within two wins of its first NBA title. — James Boyd
Careless Thunder lose turnover battle
Three minutes into the fourth quarter, the Thunder led 95-91 when Williams threw an errant pass intercepted by the Pacers. After Indiana cashed in with a basket on the other side of the court, McConnell stole the inbounds pass and tied the score.
It was just one of the all-too-careless sequences by Oklahoma City in Game 3. The Thunder typically win the turnover battle. They often win it like a varsity team might in a matchup against the JV. But in the first road finals game for most players on their roster, they committed four turnovers over the first six minutes of the fourth quarter and 19 overall. Their previous playoff high was 16 turnovers.
The Thunder were McConnell’d several times (not to be confused with getting Jose Alvarado’d). Gilgeous-Alexander, normally so sure-handed, committed six turnovers for his new high this postseason. And at the other end of the court, Oklahoma City’s impossibly disruptive defense only forced a relatively normal 14 turnovers.
Give the Pacers credit. They applied pressure across all 94 feet of the court. Their help defenders pursued the Oklahoma City ballhandlers from all directions. Haliburton, quiet earlier in the series, found more creases in the Thunder’s remarkable defense.
But Game 3 could have gone differently if Oklahoma City took care of the turnover battle the way it normally does. In this series, that is as important as ever. Every live-ball turnover gives Indiana a chance to fly in transition. Every fast-break basket feeds into the Pacers’ rhythm. And they are a rhythm team.
The Thunder need to break that rhythm moving forward. It all starts with taking care of the ball. — Jay King
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Pacers make Thunder look ordinary in second quarter
However this series plays out, the Pacers will be remembered as kings of the comeback, refusing to get down when things go against them. That has been true in some huge moments. It is true from the micro perspective, too.
About midway through the second quarter on Wednesday, Thunder guard Cason Wallace absorbed contact and finished a tough layup in the paint. Difficult shot — credit to Wallace. The Pacers, and more specifically McConnell, didn’t sulk. He got the ball off the inbound pass and sprinted down the floor, infusing pace into the game whether their opponents made or missed on the other end. Instead of having to face a set Oklahoma City defense, McConnell found Mathurin for an open 3.
McConnell keyed a remarkable 40-point, one-turnover second quarter, making the Thunder defense look more ordinary than it has all playoffs. The Pacers’ bench has been huge all season long, and McConnell was one of Game 3’s stars. Despite his modest statline of 10 points and five assists, he imbued the Pacers with spirit, as his five steals, many in the backcourt, were massive.
Mathurin was even bigger. When the Pacers have to play in the half court, Mathurin is one of the few Pacers with the force and aggression to do some real damage. He mostly stayed in control, finishing with a team-high 27 points. And after a mostly quiet night, Obi Toppin had a putback dunk and block down the stretch, allowing Siakam to rest for an extra minute or two.
If you’re waiting for the Pacers to conform to the traditional nature of the playoffs, well, keep waiting. The Pacers have the numbers to keep coming in waves. — Eric Koreen
(Photo of Bennedict Mathurin: Dylan Buell / Getty Images)
