Indianapolis – With a huge boost from their bench and a better game from their stars, the Indiana Pacers recovered the head of the NBA final on Wednesday evening with a 116-107 victory against the Oklahoma City Thunder in match 3.
Bennedict Mathurin scored a 27-point summit on the bench, the most points for a reserve in a NBA final match from Jason Terry in 2011, and TJ McConnell had five interceptions, which opened the way while the Pacers bench outlined the 49-18 of the Thunder.
Tyrese Haliburton added 22 points, 11 assists and 9 rebounds while Pascal Siakam scored 21 points while the Pacers took an advantage of 2-1 on strongly favored thunder.
“This is the kind of team we are,” said Pacers coach Rick Carlisle. “We need everyone to be ready. It will not always be exactly the same guys who settle with a score and things like that, but that’s how we were able to do it.”
The Pacers are now found in the control of the series. Teams won match 3 of an NBA 1-1 final won 80.5% of the time, and Indiana remains undefeated after a defeat in 2025 in playoffs, going to 5-0. The Pacers have not abandoned consecutive matches since March 8 and 10.
Match 4 is in Indianapolis on Friday evening.
Mathurin was the catalyst on Wednesday. He became the sixth player since the NBA / Aba merger in 1976-1977 to score 25 or over in the final at 22 years old, joining Kawhi Leonard, LeBron James, Tony Parker, Kobe Bryant and Magic Johnson.
“He did an excellent job to get out of transfers, read the pocket, get up from the mid -range,” said Haliburton. “It is a defense that will renounce this.”
And the Pacers obtained a huge spark of McConnell, which scored 10 points with five assists to accompany the five interceptions, the numbers that no player has never set up in a NBA final match.
“It’s the great thing about the finals, a great thing about basketball,” said Haliburton. “When you have a team with as much depth, it can be anyone’s night.”
Mathurin had not played a huge role in the first two games of the series – playing 16 minutes in games 1 and 22 in match 2 with a passage in the garbage time – he therefore put an additional work this weekend to help prepare for this match.
“Stay just ready,” said Mathurin on Wednesday evening. “Whenever my number is called, go to the game and do the right things and try to help my team win. It’s all the mind.”
This is a state of mind that the Pacers have seen from Mathurin since it was the n ° 6 choice of the 2022 draft, but especially since Mathurin was sidelined in March 2024 with a torn labrum in his right shoulder.
The injury prevented him from playing during the Pacers race at the Eastern Conference final last year, and Haliburton said they had spoken all the season how crucial it would be to have Mathurin in the rotation this time.
“As much as I was released last year, not being able to play, I learned a lot,” said Mathurin. “I’m just on the bench and next to the coaches who were able to make me pass for the game and things like that. It was an unhappy situation, but I was lucky to learn a lot and be ready for this year.”
After the injury, Carlisle said that Mathurin had placed a calendar in the team’s training room with a countdown when he was finally allowed to play.
“Each day, he came to withdraw one, withdraw one,” said Carlisle. “He had the days to be cleared in August. Then, be able to start the training camp, start 5 against 5 with our guys in September, then be in the training camp, really, eyes firmly put on an opportunity in the playoffs.
“He puts a lot of work to be ready for these moments, and tonight, he was an absolute major factor.”
