Indiana

Reserve guards bag 49 points at home as the Pacers top the Oklahoma City Thunder 116-107 in Game 3.

Bennedict Mathurin has put on a game-changing performance in game three of the NBA Finals to help the Indiana Pacers out-duel the Oklahoma City Thunder 116-107 and take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven NBA Finals.

Fuelled by a near triple-double from Tyrese Haliburton, who scored 22 points with nine rebounds and 11 assists, and a career playoff-high 27 points from reserve Mathurin, the Pacers showed a tremendous collective effort in Wednesday’s Game 3.

The Pacers bench outscored 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.

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.”

In 22:24 minutes on court through the second and fourth quarters, Mathurin was brutally efficient, making two of his three three-point attempts and seven of eight free – throws, adding in four rebounds an assist and a blocked shot for good measure.

“Just staying ready,” Mathurin said after the game. “Whenever my number is called, go into the game and do the right things and try to help my team win — that’s the whole mindset.”

Mathurin is playing in the playoffs for the first time, after watching the Pacers’ run to the Eastern Conference finals from the bench in the wake of season-ending surgery in March of 2024.

Carlisle said , the 22-year-old Canadian was looking ahead.

“He was with the team. He just wasn’t playing,” Carlisle recalled. “He took a lot of notes, a lot of mental notes, and he may have written some things down.

“He’s putting a lot of work to be ready for these moments, and tonight he was an absolute major factor.”

Mathurin said he was “fortunate to learn a lot” in what was an unfortunate situation last year but he admitted that it wasn’t easy.

Playing in the finals, in front of the intense fans in Indianapolis, “is a dream” but one he doesn’t want to get caught up in.

“I’m not trying to live in my dream,” he said. “I’m trying to live in the present and make sure the dream ends well, which means winning the next game and winning a championship.”

The Pacers will 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.

🏆 GAME 3 FINAL SCORE 🏆

Tyrese Haliburton leads a late @Pacers charge at home to take a 2-1 series lead!

Mathurin: 27 PTS (playoff career high), 9-12 FGM
Siakam: 21 PTS, 6 REB, 4 AST
McConnell: 10 PTS, 5 AST, 5 STL
SGA: 24 PTS, 8 REB, 3 BLK

Game 4: Fri., 8:30pm/et, ABC pic.twitter.com/dABbdKOkRR

— NBA (@NBA) June 12, 2025

OKLAHOMA CITY — Tyrese Haliburton and the never-say-die Indiana Pacers pulled off yet another last-second comeback, this time on the NBA’s biggest stage.

Haliburton’s 21-foot jumper with 0.3 seconds left gave Indiana its first and only lead of the game, and the Pacers stunned the Oklahoma City Thunder 111-110 on Thursday night in Game 1 of the NBA Finals after a comeback for the ages.

“Man, basketball’s fun,” Haliburton said. “Winning is fun.”

Especially like this.

The Pacers turned the ball over 25 times, trailed by 15 points in the fourth quarter against a team with the best home record in the NBA and had no answers for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — the NBA MVP who led all scorers with 38 points.

But they had the league’s new Mr. Big Shot, who has now had one of these moments in every series the Pacers have played in these playoffs.

— April 29, Indiana trailed Milwaukee 118-111 with 34.6 seconds left in overtime. Haliburton scored with 1.4 seconds remaining and the Pacers won 119-118.

— May 6, Indiana trailed Cleveland 119-112 with 48 seconds left and won 120-119. Haliburton got the winner with 1.1 seconds to play.

— May 21, Indiana trailed New York 121-112 with 51.1 seconds left in regulation. Haliburton sent it to overtime on a jumper with no time on the clock; Indiana won 138-135.

Now, this.

“We’ve had lots of experience in these kinds of games,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said.

The Pacers were down by 15 with 9:42 left, their rally the biggest in the fourth quarter of a finals game since Dallas also came from 15 down to beat Miami on June 2, 2011.

Carlisle coached those Mavericks. And, well, here he is again.

“That’s a really good team,” Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault said. “Credit them for not only tonight but their run. They’ve had so many games like that that have seemed improbable. And they just play with a great spirit and they keep coming. They keep playing.”

Pascal Siakam led the Pacers with 19 points. Obi Toppin scored 17, Myles Turner had 15, and Haliburton and Andrew Nembhard each had 14.

Jalen Williams had 17 and Lu Dort scored 15 for Oklahoma City, which was 36-1 at home with 15-point leads this season.

Game 2 is at Oklahoma City on Sunday night.

Oklahoma City led by 15 early in the fourth when Carlisle called time and subbed out all five players, seeking a spark. It worked. The Pacers outscored the Thunder 15-4 over the next 3:26 — getting within 98-94 on a three by Turner with 6:16 left.

They weren’t done. And in the final second, they found a way. Again.

“We had control of the game for the most part,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Now, it’s a 48-minute game. And they teach you that lesson more than anyone else in the league — the hard way.”

Pascal Siakam scores playoff career-high 39 points as the Indiana Pacers beat the New York Knicks for a 2-0 lead in the NBA Eastern Conference finals.

The Indiana Pacers are halfway to a chance to play for an elusive NBA title as they head home in their Eastern Conference finals, but they might prefer to stay right where they are.

Pascal Siakam scored a playoff career-high 39 points on Friday night, as the Pacers beat the New York Knicks 114-109.

The result means the Pacers lead 2-0 in the playoffs after the first two games of the series at the Knicks’ Madison Square Garden home arena.

Game 3 is on Sunday night in Indiana, which will be rocking all day long with the Indianapolis 500 being run that afternoon. The Pacers can only hope to be as good there as they have been on the road, where they have won six straight games since falling at Milwaukee in Game 3 of the first round.

“We have a long way to go, and it’s only going to get tougher for us,” Siakam said.

Myles Turner added 16 points and Tyrese Haliburton had 14 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds for the Pacers, who lost to the Lakers in 2000 in their only NBA Finals appearance.

Siakam finished 15 for 23 from the field on a night nobody else on the high-scoring Pacers had more than five baskets.

“Special game,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “In the first half, he was the guy that got us going and got us through some difficult stretches.”

Jalen Brunson had 36 points and 11 assists for the Knicks, who need a quick turnaround or their first appearance in the conference finals in 25 years will be a brief one. They defended much better after their crushing collapse in a 138-135 overtime loss in Game 1, but could not find enough scoring to come back after a bad start to the fourth quarter.

Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns each had 20 points and seven rebounds for the Knicks, but Towns played just 28 minutes as coach Tom Thibodeau went longer with backup Mitchell Robinson, a much better defender who grabbed nine rebounds.

No team has lost the first two games at home and come back to win a series in the conference finals.

“Going into the fourth quarter, it’s a tie ballgame. We’ve just got to make better plays, more winning plays,” Thibodeau said.

It was tied at 81 after three, before the Pacers opened the fourth with a 13-4 run to move ahead 94-85 on Siakam’s 3-pointer with 9:17 remaining. They would quickly push the margin back to around there every time the Knicks got any momentum, and it was 110-100 after another basket by Siakam with 2:45 to play.

The Knicks scored nine straight to make it 110-109 on Josh Hart’s basket with 14 seconds to go. Aaron Nesmith made two free throws for the Pacers, Brunson was well off on a 3-point attempt, and Turner finished it out with two free throws.

The 50th playoff meeting between the rivals — the Pacers lead 28-22, all since 1993 — more closely resembled their defensive battles of the 1990s than the shootout of two nights earlier.

Indiana raced to a 19-9 lead, but the Knicks quickly caught them when Robinson and Deuce McBride entered, and the game remained within a single-digit margin for nearly the entire rest of the night.