ESPN News Services
Jun 11, 2025, 11:28 PM ET
INDIANAPOLIS -- Bennedict Mathurin scored 27 points off the bench, Tyrese Haliburton added 22 and the Indiana Pacers reclaimed the lead in the NBA Finals by beating the Oklahoma City Thunder 116-107 in Game 3 on Wednesday night.
Haliburton also had 11 assists and nine rebounds for the Pacers, who got 21 points from Pascal Siakam and enjoyed a whopping 49-18 edge in bench points. The Pacers, who lost Game 2 in Oklahoma City, improved to 10-0 since mid-March in the game immediately following a loss.
"We just had guys make plays after plays," Haliburton told ESPN after the game. "Our bench was amazing. ... It's a big win for us."
Mathurin became the sixth player since the NBA/ABA merger in 1976-77 with 25 or more points in the Finals at age 22 or younger, joining Kawhi Leonard, LeBron James, Tony Parker, Kobe Bryant and Magic Johnson. He's the fourth player to be the points leader off the bench in a Finals game since starters were first tracked in 1971, joining Jason Terry (2011), Manu Ginobili (2007) and Fred Brown (1978).
Jalen Williams scored 26 points, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander added 24 and Chet Holmgren had 20 for the Thunder, who led by five going into the fourth quarter.
Game 4 is back in Indiana on Friday night.
History says the Pacers are in control of the series now; in the 41 previous NBA Finals that were tied at a game apiece, the Game 3 winner went on to hoist the trophy 33 times -- an 80.5% clip.
It was back-and-forth much of the way, at times looking like an absolute classic. There were 15 ties; to put that in perspective, there were 13 ties in the five-game entirety of last year's Finals between Boston and Dallas.
T.J. McConnell finished with 10 points, 5 assists and 5 steals for Indiana; since all those stats started being charted, nobody had ever come off the bench and put up those numbers in a Finals game.
The Pacers' Aaron Nesmith fouled Alex Caruso with 2:35 left, and officials took a long look to determine if it met the criteria for a flagrant. A common foul was the final call, and instead of two free throws plus the ball, it was just two free throws for Caruso. He made both, cutting Indiana's lead to 110-104.
But the Pacers -- at home in an NBA Finals game for the first time in 25 years -- kept control the rest of the way.
"Amazing. Amazing. We love playing in front of our fans. We love being here," Haliburton told ESPN. "They deserve high-stakes, high-level basketball, and we're giving them that right now."
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
