The story of Indiana basketball has long been steeped in heart, hustle, and homegrown grit.
With the series tied and pressure mounting, Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle didn’t lean on a single superstar and instead banked into the spirit of his roster — and was rewarded with a performance that felt less like a game plan and more like a belief system unfolding on the floor.
Tyrese Haliburton turned in his best game of the NBA Finals yet — a near triple-double outing of 22 points, 11 assists, and nine rebounds.
HALIBURTON DOES IT ALL FOR INDY!
— NBA (@NBA) June 12, 2025
🏎? 22 PTS
🏎? 11 AST
🏎? 9 REB
🏎? 2 STL
🏎? 4 3PM
Guides the @Pacers to a 2-1 series lead in the #NBAFinals presented by @YouTubeTV.
But his supporting cast was every bit as brilliant, with Bennedict Mathurin’s blistering 27-point outburst, T.J. McConnell’s disruptive brilliance, and Myles Turner’s rim protection powering the Pacers to a 116-107 Game 3 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder and a 2-1 series lead.
[ALSO READ: Tyrese Haliburton, Pacers' bench shine in Game 3 vs Thunder for 2-1 NBA Finals lead]
“Those guys were tremendous. T.J. just brought a will, competitive will to the game. Mathurin jumped in there and immediately was aggressive and got the ball in the basket,” Carlisle told reporters in the post-game press conference.
He added: “This is the kind of team that we are. We need everybody to be ready. It's not always going to be exactly the same guys that are stepping up with scoring and stuff like that. But this is how we got to do it, and we got to do it as a team.”
Haliburton couldn’t agree more with his coach.
“We just had guys make plays after plays. Our bench was amazing,” the 25-year-old star added.
Turner tallied five blocks alone, one more than the whole OKC had in a dominant defensive outing.
MYLES TURNER SHUTS DOWN CHET IN THE CLUTCH 🚫
— NBA TV (@NBATV) June 12, 2025
Mathurin now scored the most points ever in an NBA Finals by a player who played 22 minutes or lower.
Together with McConnell — the first player to post 10 points, five steals and five assists in a an NBA Finals game — they outscored the entire Thunder bench (18 points).
“He (McConnell) did a great job of consistently getting there and making hustle play after hustle play,” Haliburton said. “We just fed off of what he was doing.”
Tyrese Haliburton discusses the impact of T.J. McConnell and the importance of winning on the margins 👏
— NBA (@NBA) June 12, 2025
Pacers take a 2-1 series lead! https://t.co/jiWCqm9bm2
Feeding off Haliburton, too, has become a habit in Indiana.
After slow starts in Games 1 and 2, the All-Star point guard opened with purpose and already had 12 points and seven assists by halftime.
By night’s end, he was one rebound shy of a triple-double and served as the steady hand guiding a team playing in its first Finals home game in 25 years.
“I’m just trying to play the right way,” Haliburton said. “This means the world to me and I’m excited to be here. But I do think it’s important that you don’t overreact at any point.”
Historically, the Game 3 winner of a tied NBA Finals series usually goes on to win it all — 33 out of 41 times, to be exact, an 80.5% success rate.
Right now, the odds are in Indiana’s favor but that doesn’t guarantee anything.
And yet for a franchise still seeking its first title, and a state that lives and breathes basketball, this felt like something more.
“These guys see where important things are important, and hard things are hard,” Carlisle noted.
Game 4 is on Saturday, June 14 (PH time), 8:30 a.m. LIVE on One Sports, NBA TV Philippines, and the Pilipinas Live app.
