The Indiana Pacers have the aura of a team of destiny. Not many expected them to go this deep in the 2025 NBA Playoffs as a No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference, but they are now just a couple of victories away in the Oklahoma City Thunder series from bagging the franchise’s first-ever championship in the league.
The Thunder entered the 2025 NBA Finals as the favored team to win the title, but through three games, it’s Indiana, which is leading the race to the top, having won two games already. The Pacers stunned Oklahoma City in Game 1, with Tyrese Haliburton knocking down a game-winning jumper to give Indiana a 111-110 victory. The Thunder punched back in Game 2 with a masterful 123-107 win to level the series at 1-1 before hitting the road for Game 3 and Game 4 in Indiana.
In Game 3, the Pacers banked on a big fourth quarter to break away from Oklahoma City. Indiana never held a lead bigger than nine points in the contest, but surely did more than enough to upset Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and company. In fact, through three games, the Pacers have never taken a lead by more than nine points at any point, which earned Indiana a place in NBA Finals lore, per Josh Dubow of the Associated Press.
Via Dubow in a post on X (formerly Twitter): “Thanks to some great research from @sportradar, the Pacers are the first team to lead an NBA Finals after 3 games despite not ever holding a double-digit lead since the 1978 Sonics. Bullets came back to win that series in 7 games.”
Haliburton had another big showing for Indiana in Game 3, as the former Iowa State Cyclones star guard churned out a near-triple-double production of 22 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds while making nine of his 17 takes from the floor. Pascal Siakam, meanwhile, had 21 points.
But not to be overlooked were the performances by the pair of Bennedict Mathurin and T.J. McConnell off the bench. Mathurin got Indiana a major spark by erupting for 27 points off the bench while McConnell, another former Arizona Wildcats star, injected more energy into Indiana by firing 10 points, dishing out five assists and recording five steals.
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