NBA Finals: Tyrese Haliburton shows way as Indiana Pacers lead Oklahoma City Thunder 2-1
Star point guard comes close to scoring a triple-double, while his bench outscore their counterparts in a tight back-and-forth battle
The Indiana Pacers, fuelled by a near triple-double from Tyrese Haliburton, outduelled the Oklahoma City Thunder 116-107 on Wednesday to take a 2-1 lead in the NBA Finals.
Haliburton scored 22 points with nine rebounds and 11 assists to spearhead a tremendous collective effort that included a career-playoff-high 27 points from reserve Bennedict Mathurin.
The Pacers bench outscored Oklahoma City’s reserves 49-18 and Indiana wore down NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, whose 24 points included just three in the fourth quarter.
“So many different guys chipped in,” Haliburton told broadcaster ABC. “Ben Mathurin was amazing off the bench tonight. He just stuck with it. We just had guys make plays after plays.”
Pascal Siakam scored 21 points for Indiana and TJ McConnell added 10 points and five steals off the bench to help the Pacers improve to 10-0 since March 11 in games immediately after a defeat.
They will try to stretch their lead in the best-of-seven championship series when they host game four on Friday before the series heads back to Oklahoma City for game five on Monday.