INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Pacers aren’t celebrating. The Oklahoma City Thunder aren’t panicking.
The NBA Finals scoreboard is what it is — Pacers 2, Thunder 1 — going into Game 4 of the best-of-seven title series Friday night in Indianapolis. Everybody can count to four, and everybody can see that Indiana is in a better position right now than Oklahoma City, the favorite going into the championship showdown.
The Pacers also know if they were to partake in such thinking, that would be dangerous.
“There’s nothing to get excited about right now,” Indiana guard Tyrese Haliburton said. “We’re still a long way away.”
A level-headed approach for sure, and the Thunder are going about their business the same way.
“I just think we stay pretty emotionally even in all of the different experiences,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “You really see that when we win. I think if you’re going to get high on the wins, then the natural opposite of that is to get low on the losses. This team doesn’t really swing violently between those two things. Never has.”
The Pacers grabbed control of the series Wednesday night in a 116-107 win on their home court, a game in which Indiana’s bench — led by Bennedict Mathurin’s 27 points in 22 minutes and T.J. McConnell’s 10 points, five assists and five steals in 15 minutes — outscored Oklahoma City’s reserves 49-18.
The starters for the Thunder were more than fine in Game 3. Oklahoma City opened the game with a 15-6 run, then started the third quarter — with the starters all on the floor — with an 8-0 burst. Add up those seven minutes of play, and it was Thunder 23, Pacers 6. Add up the other 41 minutes of the game, and it was Pacers 110, Thunder 84.
“It’s got to be a killer edge to beat these guys,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said of Oklahoma City, which went 68-14 during the regular season for the league’s best record in 2024-25 while winning 18 more games than Indiana. “We’re going to be an underdog in every game in this series. … It’s a daunting challenge. Anything less than a total grit mindset, we just don’t have a chance.”
In this current 16-team playoff format that dates to 1984, Indiana is the sixth team to have a 2-1 lead in all four of its postseason series. The others were the Los Angeles Lakers in 2009 and 2020, the Boston Celtics in 2008, the Detroit Pistons in 2004 and the San Antonio Spurs in 2003. All five of those teams went on to win the NBA title.
“We’ve got great leaders on this team, the coaches and players who keep us on track with everything,” Pacers forward Obi Toppin said. “We’re comfortable in close games. At the end of games as well. We just trust our work, trust we’ve got to get the ball into our guards’ hands and they’re going to make good plays.”
If Oklahoma City finds a way Friday, it goes home with a 2-2 series tie and two of the final three games to be played in its building if all seven are necessary. A loss, and it’s 3-1, which a hole few teams in NBA history have escaped.
“I think just the competitive greatness for this team has to be at an all-time high,” Thunder guard Alex Caruso said. “To be able to go on the road and win a game is a difficult thing in the playoffs, but especially staring 3-1 down in the face. You’ve got to really get your mind right and get ready for the preparation that it’s going to take to go out there and compete for 48 minutes and get the win.”
Indiana hasn’t lost back-to-back games in three months, while Oklahoma City hasn’t done so in two months.
The Thunder are 6-0 after losses since early April, 5-0 after losses in these playoffs.
“There’s a maximum four games left in the season,” said Oklahoma City point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the league MVP and scoring champion who was a prep standout at Chattanooga’s Hamilton Heights Christian Academy. “It’s what you worked the whole season for. It’s what you worked all summer for. To me, the way I see it, you’ve got to suck it up, get it done and try to get a win.”
Myles Turner, who had five blocks for Indiana in Game 3 — including two against Oklahoma City’s Chet Holmgren with some two minutes left (first on a 3-pointer and then against a six-footer on the same possession) — is dealing with an illness.
Turner was with the Pacers for video review Thursday before being sent home, but the team seemed to expect he would be available for Game 4.