Pacers silence Thunder to take 2-1 NBA Finals lead
Resilient Mathurin stars in Pacers' victory
LOS ANGELES: The Indiana Pacers, fueled by a near triple-double from Tyrese Haliburton, out-dueled the Oklahoma City Thunder 116-107 on Wednesday to take a 2-1 lead in the NBA Finals. Haliburton scored 22 points with nine rebounds and 11 assists to spearhead a tremendous collective effort that included a career playoff high 27 points from reserve Bennedict Mathurin. The Pacers bench out-scored Oklahoma City's reserves 49-18 and Indiana wore down NBA Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, whose 24 points included just three in the fourth quarter.
'So many different guys chipped in,' Haliburton told broadcaster ABC. 'Ben Mathurin was amazing off the bench tonight. He just stuck with it. We just had guys make plays after plays.' Pascal Siakam scored 21 points for Indiana and TJ McConnell added 10 points and five steals off the bench to help the Pacers improve to 10-0 since March 11 in games immediately after a defeat. They'll try to stretch their lead in the best-of-seven championship series when they host game four on Friday before the series heads back to Oklahoma City for game five on Monday.
Pacers coach Rick Carlisle lauded the contributions of Mathurin and McConnell. 'Those guys were tremendous,' Carlisle said. 'TJ just brought a will, competitive will, to the game. Mathurin jumped in there and immediately was aggressive and got the ball in the basket. 'This is the kind of team that we are,' Carlisle added. 'It's not always going to be exactly the same guys that are stepping up with scoring and stuff like that. But this is how we've got to do it, and we got to do it as a team.' Added Mathurin: 'The main thing is you have to be resilient. You have to be the aggressor in order to win games.'
The Pacers, down by five going into the fourth quarter, took the lead for good on a three-pointer by Haliburton with 6:42 remaining. Obi Toppin threw down a dunk that made it 107-100 then blocked a Jalen Williams layup as the Pacers gained control in a game that was close throughout. The Thunder struck early to quiet the enthusiastic crowd at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, seizing a 15-6 lead in less than five minutes. The Pacers closed within two points on a three-pointer from Haliburton but the Thunder responded and led by eight at the end of the first quarter.
Quality possessions
Indiana fans, who haven't seen their team in the Finals since the Pacers fell to the Lakers in the 2000 title series, weren't disappointed for long as a second-half surge fueled by Indiana's reserves saw the Pacers seize the lead. McConnell made a pair of free-throws to put the Pacers up 37-36 and when Mathurin made a running layup to make it 46-42 Indiana had their biggest lead of the series.
They stretched the lead to seven points only for Oklahoma City to tie it up at 51-51. It was knotted at 55-55 when Haliburton drilled a three-pointer and McConnell's fadeaway jump shot sent Indiana into halftime with a 64-60 lead. The back-and-forth battle continued in the third, Oklahoma City opening the second half on an 8-0 run, only for the Pacers to charge back. After five more lead changes the Thunder took an 89-84 lead into the final period, but they couldn't bring it home.
Williams finished with 26 points and Chet Holmgren added 20 points and 10 rebounds for Oklahoma City, but the Thunder coughed up 19 turnovers leading to 21 Pacers points. 'In the fourth quarter, I just thought they really outplayed us on both ends,' Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said afterwards. 'I thought they were in character in terms of their physicality, their pressure on defense. Then they were in character in terms of their pace on offense. They just stacked way more quality possessions in the fourth quarter than we did.'- AFP
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