Basketball, She Wrote

Pacers strike back in electric Game 3 win, storm to 2-1 lead over Thunder

Added 2025-06-12 17:46:14 +0000 UTC

Talking about the sights and scenes from Game 3

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

In what was a 116-107 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Pacers stood their ground, providing reason for the fans in attendance at Gainbridge Fieldhouse to stand for a large portion of the fourth quarter. Like trade winds that abruptly change in strength and direction, Indiana found stability, striking back in Game 3, by overwhelming that which they were overwhelmed by in Game 2.

Suddenly, Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam were both more "aggressive," as they were brought to and delivered the ball via different play-types and areas of the floor. In that way, just as Haliburton got rolling via hand-offs, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was repeatedly denied the same action while also being met by more and different defenders. All the while, the Pacers didn't just survive the non-Haliburton minutes, they thrived, finishing plus-12 with Bennedict Mathurin attacking here and crashing there as T.J. McConnell leveraged and projected the excesses of TJ-ball, both with his play as well as a his play-acting.

Joining me to discuss the sights and scenes from an electric evening at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, with the defense at times rising to the level of being nearly as smothering as the heat in Indianapolis, is once again Samson Folk.

Here are the relevant timestamps:

0:00 - Introductions

0:37 - Recording from Indy!!

5:22 - Outstanding fourth-quarter defense possessions from Turner & Siakam + taking away the SGA-Hartenstein hand-off actions as the epitome of Indiana's defensive tweaks/improvements

14:08 - Jump passes are good now (and so are hand-offs and pitches!)

18:30 - T.J. McConnell's improved game-management

23:43 - "Nailing" the details with Siakam by entering the ball to him at the nail, playing flash game, running split action, problem-solving with Tyrese, etc.

30:27 - Mathurin had a Mathurin game in the Finals!!

35:54 - Caitlin & Samson go to Nicey Treat (kinda)

39:36 - Samson's favorite thing about Indy

44:05 - Thank you & Goodbye