– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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INDIANAPOLIS — The 25-year wait the basketball fans in Indianapolis endured before witnessing the NBA Finals played in their city once again was more than enough time elapsed for everyone in the basketball-mad metropolis to not take for granted how close the Pacers are to making NBA history. It took one year of sitting on the sidelines while his team was making a deep playoff run for Bennedict Mathurin to chomp at the bit when he finally got the opportunity to help the Pacers on the biggest of NBA stages.
With the Pacers up against the ropes after 12 minutes on Wednesday night, Mathurin seized control of the game, allowing the rest of the team to follow his lead to seize control of the NBA Finals at the moment.
Mathurin came off the bench and led all scorers with 27 points, including 14 in the second quarter, as the Pacers came back from a nine-point first-half deficit to defeat the Oklahoma City Thunder 116-107 in Game 3 of the NBA Finals inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse to take a 2-1 series lead. Tyrese Haliburton rebounded from a couple of subpar games to start the series — game-winning shot in Game 1 not withstanding — and went for 22 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds.
In their first NBA Finals game in downtown Indianapolis since the first year of their current home, called Conseco Fieldhouse during the 2000 NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers, the Pacers fell down by as much as nine points, saw the turnover bug bite them again as they committed six giveaways and ended the quarter down by eight, 32-24, ushering in a relative quiet inside what was a raucous arena at tip-off.
Mathurin had yet to see action in the game until he came in to start the second quarter, and he quickly proceeded to become a one-man army, starting with his cutting layup 34 seconds into the frame. He scored 14 of the Pacers’ first 23 points in the quarter, and by the time his spree ended when he completed an and-1 with 5:47 remaining, Indiana had taken a 47-42 lead.
All told, the Pacers’ bench scored 22 of the team’s 40 second-quarter points, turning that eight-point deficit in the first into a 64-60 lead at halftime. One game after the Thunder bench combined for 48 points, the Pacers’ reserves scored 49 tonight.
While the Pacers’ bench mob, including Obi Toppin, T.J. McConnell and Ben Sheppard, have been instrumental in making deep runs in the playoffs the last two seasons, Mathurin missed out on all the fun in 2024 after he suffered a torn labrum in early March of last year and missed the rest of the season. Now over a year since that misfortune, Mathurin is now is the NBA Finals history books: At age 22, Mathurin is the youngest player to score at least 25 points in an NBA Finals game since 22-year-old Kawhi Leonard had 29 points for the San Antonio Spurs against the Miami Heat in Game 3 of the 2014 Finals; Mathurin also is now the youngest player to score at least 25 points off the bench in an NBA Finals game since starters and bench players were first tracked in the 1970-71 season, and he scored the most points by a player in an NBA Finals game with fewer than 23 minutes played in the shot clock era (since the 1954-55 season).
“It was crazy. It was crazy.” Mathurin said when talking about the days leading up to his return to action from his injury. “A lot of people enjoy playing basketball but I really love playing basketball. I think it’s family and basketball for me. Like I said, me not being able to play, I wish I could do anything to be on the court but I couldn’t. Like I said, trying to put myself in positions where I could learn about the game and just improve as much as I can.”
Oklahoma City took control once more to end the third, with Jalen Williams nailing a three-pointer right before the third-quarter buzzer to give Oklahoma City an 89-84 advantage. Williams and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander each scored nine points in the quarter while the Thunder defense held Indiana to 7-for-21 shooting from the field.
But then Mathurin turned into the closer, scoring 10 fourth-quarter points in just 5:55 played in the frame, making three of his four shots from the field (including his only three attempt) and making all three of his free throws. Half of Indiana’s 32 points in the fourth, where it outscored the Thunder by 14, came from the bench. McConnell ended the game with 10 points, five assists and five steals, and became the first reserve since steals were tracked to have five assists and five steals in an NBA Finals game.
“[McConnell] does a great job of giving us energy plays consistently and getting downhill and operating. I mean, nobody operates on the baseline like that guy,” Haliburton said. “I thought did he a great job of consistently getting there and making hustle play after hustle play, and sticking with it, and I thought we did a great job of just feeding off of what he was doing.”
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Wednesday’s Game 3 of the NBA Finals, with photos taken by ALOST photo editor Erica Denhoff. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page, Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 55 pictures in total.
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