On Wednesday night, the Indiana Pacers took a major step towards their push for the 2025 NBA championship. After suffering a difficult 123-107 defeat in Game 2, the Pacers bounced back in a huge way, running away from the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 3 thanks to an 18-9 run in the final few minutes of the ballgame en route to a 116-107 victory. This has been quite the underdog story already for the Pacers, but they’re not quite done writing the ending just yet.
The Pacers have stayed true to their identity all year long, forcing other teams to adapt to them instead of the other way around. And suffice to say, they are even posing problems for the Thunder, a team that’s perceived to have no weaknesses following their offseason acquisitions of Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein. And Magic Johnson posted a brief summary of what worked for the Pacers in Game 3, celebrating how they managed to outplay OKC.
“The Indiana Pacers defense was amazing tonight forcing 17 turnovers which got them into their transition game. The Pacers were faster, quicker and more aggressive overall,” Johnson wrote.
Johnson also gave a huge shoutout to both Bennedict Mathurin, TJ McConnell, and Obi Toppin, three guys who came off the Pacers bench to give them a major lift when they were struggling to get much going in the first quarter.
“They also had major contributions from their unsung heroes off the bench – Bennedict Mathurin scored 27 points, TJ McConnell had 10 points and Obi Toppin finished with 8 points. The Pacers’ reserves outscored OKC’s reserves 45 to 18!” Johnson pointed out.
But the Pacers can only go as far as their two best players can take them, and both Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam showed up to power Indiana to victory lane.
“Haliburton had his best Finals performance tonight ending with 22 points and 10 assists. Pascal [Siakam] chipped in 21 points for the Pacers 116-107 win and they now lead the Series 2-1!” Johnson narrated.
Pacers look to make history
It’s not too often that a fourth-seeded team makes it deep into the playoffs like the 2025 Pacers have. Only five other teams have done so in the history of the NBA, and of those five, only two finished the job. The Pacers will look to make it three out of six, especially when they’re sitting in an advantageous position heading into Game 4 and having homecourt advantage after stealing Game 1.
The Pacers never get ahead of themselves, and they are a team that sticks together and sticks to the task. Thus, the result of Game 4 will be crucial and they know that they are going to have to bring their A-game, especially when the Thunder won’t want to go back to Paycom Center down 3-1 in the NBA Finals.
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