Pacers ride bench to Game 3 win over Thunder

INDIANAPOLIS -- Bennedict Mathurin scored 27 points disconnected the bench, Tyrese Haliburton added 22 and the Indiana Pacers reclaimed the pb successful the NBA Finals by beating the Oklahoma City Thunder 116-107 successful Game 3 connected Wednesday night.

Haliburton besides had 11 assists and 9 rebounds for the Pacers, who got 21 points from Pascal Siakam and enjoyed a whopping 49-18 borderline successful seat points. The Pacers, who mislaid Game 2 successful Oklahoma City, improved to 10-0 since mid-March successful the crippled instantly pursuing a loss.

"We conscionable had guys marque plays aft plays," Haliburton told ESPN. "Our seat was amazing. ... It's a large triumph for us."

Jalen Williams scored 26 points, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander added 24 and Chet Holmgren had 20 for the Thunder, who led by 5 going into the fourth.

Game 4 is backmost successful Indiana connected Friday night.

History says the Pacers are successful power of the bid now; successful the 41 erstwhile NBA Finals that were tied astatine a crippled apiece, the Game 3 victor went connected to hoist the trophy 33 times -- an 80.5% clip.

It was back-and-forth overmuch of the way, astatine times looking similar an implicit classic. There were 15 ties; to enactment that successful perspective, determination were 13 ties successful the five-game entirety of past year's finals betwixt Boston and Dallas.

TJ McConnell finished with 10 points, 5 assists and 5 steals for Indiana; since each those stats started being charted, cipher had ever travel disconnected the seat and done each that successful an NBA Finals game.

The Pacers' Aaron Nesmith fouled Alex Caruso -- a hard foul, for definite -- with 2:35 left, and officials took a agelong look to find if it met the criteria for a flagrant foul. A communal foul was the last telephone and alternatively of 2 escaped throws positive the ball, it was conscionable 2 escaped throws for Caruso. He made both, cutting the pb to 110-104.

But the Pacers -- astatine location successful an NBA Finals crippled for the archetypal clip successful 25 years -- kept power the remainder of the way.

"Amazing. Amazing. We emotion playing successful beforehand of our fans. We emotion being here," Haliburton told ESPN. "They merit precocious stakes, high-level basketball, and we're giving them that close now."

Information from The Associated Press was utilized successful this report.