Indiana Pacers vs Oklahoma City Thunder Game 3 score, box score, Tyrese Haliburton, T.J. McConnell, Bennedict Mathurin, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

The weight of an entire city was on his shoulders and in Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Thursday, Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton delivered — with some help from his friends.

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Haliburton was heavily criticised for a passive showing in Game 2 but rebounded in emphatic fashion as the series headed to Indiana, scoring 22 points in a 116-107 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder.

With the win, the Pacers took a 2-1 lead in the series while improving to 33-4 overall this season when Haliburton scores more than 20 points.

While Haliburton was the headline act, he wasn’t alone as Indiana’s bench produced in a big way, led by Bennedict Mathurin (25 points) and T.J. McConnell (10 points, five steals, five assists).

According to AP’s Tim Reynolds, McConnell was the first player to put up that stat line in an NBA Finals game off the bench.

As for the Thunder, their big three all scored 20 points and combined for 70 in total while Gilgeous-Alexander specifically passed Kevin Durant for the most points in a single OKC playoff run.

But Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams committed 10 turnovers all up and Oklahoma City as a team turned the ball over 19 times, with Indiana scoring 21 points off those turnovers in a brutal lesson for the Western Conference No.1 seed.

Early on it was all Chet Holmgren, with the Thunder big man putting up 13 points in the first quarter alone — the most he had scored in an opening quarter all year.

Holmgren had just six points in the series opener but rebounded with a strong start to Game 2 and carried that on the road to Indiana, making five field goals and getting to the line three times.

He was finding multiple ways to score – whether it was the hook shot early, a midrange floater or aggressively driving to the rim to draw a foul.

Meanwhile, the Pacers made a concerted effort early to get Pascal Siakam matched up on Oklahoma City’s smaller players, switching him onto Gilgeous-Alexander and Cason Wallace with success.

They followed a similar approach in Game 1 and as was the case then, it resulted in early points for Siakam, who made three field goals in the first four minutes on Thursday.

And if you wanted an idea of why Indiana was hunting those mismatches, you just had to see the way Holmgren used his length to disrupt what would have otherwise been an easy transition dunk for Siakam against most other defenders.

Siakam’s early success did come at the expense of Haliburton getting involved and showing the kind of aggression that his critics were calling for after an underwhelming second game of the series, with the Pacers guard taking six minutes to record his first field goal attempt.

A switched-on Holmgren helped Oklahoma City to a 15-6 lead before Indiana called its first timeout of the game.

Holmgren picked up where he left off when play resumed by earning another pair of free throws before making a dunk off an Alex Caruso dunk to put the Thunder further ahead 19-10.

But then Haliburton started to come to life, getting a floater to fall before pouncing on a poor Williams pass and finding Obi Toppin in transition to force the Thunder into calling their first timeout.

Haliburton later pulled up for a 3-pointer with no hesitation as Indiana closed the gap to 22-20, but Oklahoma City took a 32-24 buffer into the second with Lu Dort on fire from deep (3-for-3).

Of course, the early exchanges of the second quarter were going to be crucial for both teams with Gilgeous-Alexander and Haliburton sitting, although it was particularly important for the Pacers given they were plus-7 with him on the floor in the series and minus-22 in 23 minutes without him on the floor.

So, when the Pacers needed him most, McConnell produced to lead an Indiana second unit which pressured Oklahoma City into turnovers and capitalised on the other end.

First, McConnell dished it out to Aaron Nesmith for the reverse layup and then stole the inbounds pass and smartly threw the ball into Williams to earn possession for Indiana.

That extra effort didn’t produce points, with Wallace scoring later on the other end, but McConnell was heavily involved again as he found Mathurin for a 3-pointer that cut OKC’s lead to 36-35.

McConnell had four assists and two steals in just four minutes at that point and continued to provide the energy for the Pacers out of the timeout as he drew a foul and made both free throws to give Indiana its first lead of the night (37-36).

Mathurin, meanwhile, had nine quick points while the Pacers’ bench was outscoring Oklahoma City’s second unit 19-0 at that point as the Thunder were forced to quickly adjust and inject Gilgeous-Alexander back into the game.

It was a luxury for Pacers coach Rick Carlisle, meanwhile, that he got to wait another 90 seconds before bringing Haliburton back into the game and Indiana’s superstar guard was really starting to put it all together by the end of the quarter.

At one point Haliburton assisted a Siakam layup, made a floater and then drained a 3-pointer in the space of a minute, entering halftime with 12 points, seven assists and three rebounds.

Meanwhile, it was only fitting that a McConnell jump shot capped off the half as the Pacers outscored the Thunder 40-28 in the second quarter on their way to a 64-60 lead.

The Pacers had all the momentum entering the third quarter, but Oklahoma City quickly answered back with a 6-0 run to take a 66-64 lead and force Carlisle into an early timeout.

In what was quickly becoming a game of runs, Indiana responded with another one of its own highlighted by an aggressive Haliburton getting a steal that led to a transition dunk, making a tough layup at the rim and eventually splashing a 3-pointer to give the Pacers a 79-76 lead.

But again, the Thunder put the pressure back on the Pacers with another late flurry as Jalen Williams capped off the third quarter with a massive triple to put OKC ahead 89-84.

Once again, as was the case in the second quarter, the Pacers and Thunder opened the early minutes with Haliburton and Gilgeous-Alexander on the bench, so it was on the role players and emerging stars like Williams to stand up.

As he did earlier in the game, Mathurin had an immediate impact as he finished through contact for an and-1 before Wallace made a tough shot in response.

But the Mathurin magic continued as the NBA Academy graduated got another shot to fall, while McConnell produced another crucial hustle play as he stole a Caruso inbounds pass and laid it in.

Mathurin was the story in the fourth quarter though, later making a 3-pointer off a McConnell assist to put the Pacers ahead 98-96 with seven minutes left.

Meanwhile, it seemed like when they needed him Haliburton was also stepping up to make the big shots, as was the case when he hit a 3-pointer to force an Oklahoma City timeout.

Indiana led 101-98 and the game was far closer than it felt. At that stage it just seemed like this moment was made for Haliburton and that, in front of a heaving Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the Pacers would not be stopped.

When Dort missed his first 3-pointer of the night it really seemed like this just wasn’t Oklahoma City’s night, with Toppin flying for the putback dunk on a Haliburton miss to put the Pacers ahead 107-100 and they didn’t look back from there.

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