Canada's Mathurin scores 27 off the bench as Pacers rally past Thunder in Game 3 of NBA Finals
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Bennedict Mathurin of Montreal scored 27 points off the bench, Tyrese Haliburton added 22 and the Indiana Pacers reclaimed the lead in the NBA Finals by beating the Oklahoma City Thunder 116-107 in Game 3 on Wednesday night.
Haliburton also had 11 assists and nine rebounds for the Pacers, who got 21 points from Pascal Siakam and enjoyed a whopping 49-18 edge in bench points. The Pacers, who lost Game 2 in Oklahoma City, improved to 10-0 since mid-March in the game immediately following a loss.
Jalen Williams scored 26 points, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander added 24 and Chet Holmgren had 20 for the Thunder, who led by five going into the fourth.
Game 4 is back in Indiana on Friday night.
WATCH | 4 Canadians to watch in the NBA Finals:
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History says the Pacers are in control of the series now; in the 41 previous NBA Finals that were tied at a game apiece, the Game 3 winner went on to hoist the trophy 33 times — an 80.5 per cent clip.
Advantage, Pacers.
TJ McConnell finished with 10 points, five assists and five steals for Indiana; since all those stats started being charted, nobody had ever come off the bench and done all that in an NBA Finals game.
The Pacers' Aaron Nesmith fouled Alex Caruso — a hard foul, for certain — with 2:35 left, and officials took a long look to determine if it met the criteria for a flagrant foul. A common foul was the final call and instead of two free throws plus the ball, it was just two free throws for Caruso. He made both, cutting the lead to 110-104.
But the Pacers — at home in an NBA Finals game for the first time in 25 years — kept control the rest of the way.
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4 hours ago
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4 hours ago
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J.J. Spaun leads U.S. Open at Oakmont on a wild day of great shots and shockers
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He had to hack out three times on the fourth hole to get it back to the fairway, and then he holed a 30-foot putt for a most unlikely bogey. He shot 74. 'Even for a guy like me, I can't get out of it some of the times, depending on the lie,' Bryson DeChambeau said after a 73. 'It was tough. It was a brutal test of golf.' The start of the round included Maxwell Moldovan holing out for eagle on the 484-yard opening hole. Toward the end, Tony Finau hit an approach just over the green, off a sprinkler head and into the grandstand, his Titleist marked by green paint of the sprinkler. He saved par. As the first round was headed for a conclusion — more than 13 hours of golf — only 10 players managed to break par. That's one fewer than the opening round in 2016. Scheffler, the heavy favorite as the No. 1 player in the world who had won three of his last four tournaments by a combined 17 shots, made a 6-foot birdie putt on his second hole. 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And perhaps Brooks Koepka can count as a surprise because the five-time major champion has not contended in a major since winning the PGA Championship in 2023, and he missed the cut in the Masters and PGA Championship this year. He looked like the Koepka of old, muscling way around Oakmont, limiting mistakes and closing with two birdies for a 68 that left him in a group with the South Korea duo of Si Woo Kim and Sungjae Im. 'It's nice to put a good round together. It's been a while,' Koepka said. 'It's been so far off ... but now it's starting to click. Unfortunately, we're about halfway through the season, so that's not ideal, but we're learning.' Another shot back at 69 was a group that included two-time major champion Jon Rahm, who went 11 holes before making a birdie, and followed that with an eagle. 'I played some incredible golf to shoot 1 under, which we don't usually say, right?' Rahm said. The course allowed plenty of birdies, plenty of excitement, and doled out plenty of punishment. McIlroy also was bogey-free, at least on his opening nine. Then he three-putted for bogey on No. 1 and wound up with a 41 on the front nine for a 74. Sam Burns was one shot out of the lead until playing the last four holes in 5 over for a 72 that felt a lot worse. Spaun was not immune from this. He just made everything, particularly five par putts from 7 feet or longer. 'I think today was one of my best maybe putting days I've had maybe all year,' Spaun said. 'Converting those putts ... that's huge for momentum and keeping a round going, and that's kind of what happens here at U.S. Opens.' Spaun wouldn't know that from experience. This is only his second U.S. Open, and his ninth major since his first one in 2018. He didn't have to qualify, moving to No. 25 in the world on the strength of his playoff loss to McIlroy at The Players Championship. 'I haven't played in too many,' Spaun said 'I knew it was going to be tough. I did my best just to grind through it all.' It was every bit of a grind, from the rough and on the fast greens. Three more days. Doug Ferguson, The Associated Press
