OKC Collapses in 4th Quarter of NBA Finals, Indiana Pacers Lead 2-1

Oklahoma City fell behind 2-1 in the NBA Finals to the Indiana Pacers after a 116-107 loss Wednesday night.

Oklahoma City’s bench was outscored 49-18, managing just 18 points total while Bennedict Mathurin contributed 27 points off Indiana’s bench by himself. T.J. McConnell added 10 points and forced 5 steals. OKC committed 19 turnovers, a team playoff high this season, with the Pacers scoring 21 points off those turnovers. “Yeah, those plays hurt, especially because they’re very controllable,” said NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

“They sucked,” added forward Jalen Williams.

Through three quarters, the heavy favorites were in a good spot leading 89-84, with the game close throughout. The Western Conference’s top seed this season was 61-2 when leading heading into the fourth quarter.

Then it all fell apart.

Indiana’s ball pressure, like their home crowd, was intense all night, and it seemed to tire out their opponents as the game went on. OKC guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander managed just three shot attempts in the fourth quarter and finished with 24 points on an inefficient 9-of-20 shooting. Chet Holmgren did not make a three-pointer, shooting 0-6 from behind the arc and was just 6-15 shooting overall. The visitors shot 35.3% in the fourth quarter and went 0-for-4 from three-point range, getting outscored 32-18 in that quarter.

The Indiana Pacers have gone against the trends and have been defying long odds all postseason, but one trend they would likely prefer to hold, however: teams down 2-1 in the NBA Finals go on to lose the series 80% of the time.

This is a potentially alarming development for team that came into this postseason with a 68-18 regular season record and the largest point differential in league history. They were heavy favorites against Indiana as -600 favorites to win the series, the largest betting favorite since the 2018 NBA Finals when the Golden State Warriors were -1020 to defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers. (The Warriors swept Cleveland.)

OKC coach Mark Daigneault said afterward, “In the fourth quarter, I just thought they really outplayed us on both ends. They just stacked way more quality possessions in the fourth quarter than we did,” adding, “their overall tone was better than ours for the majority of the game.”

Game 4 is Friday night in Indianapolis.