2026 NBA Season

[arwin100]

The game went exactly as I expected. I was expecting a narrow Pacers win and that's what happened. Pacers played very good defense. Mathurin and McConnell played exceptionally well. Haliburton led his team effectively with 22-9-11. Siakam did what he needed to do. Pacers used their home-court advantage very well.
Now the Pacers lead the series 2-1. Game 4 will be crucial. Thunder must win that game, otherwise they'll be on a path with no way back.

Somehow I didn't expect that outcome but Pacers really do a good job for establishing an explosive start at early quarters.

They also manage to establish good defensive plays that's why they manage to limit OKC to dominate in the floor.

What's really good is we see Haliburton and rest of his teams perform so well that's why they manage to take again the lead on game 3.

The narrative change now and favors goes to Pacers if OKC didn't manage to win on game 4 then provably that they will get a huge problem since its really hard to recover in that situation and maybe Pacers will became a new champion this season.

[LogitechMouse]

The game went exactly as I expected. I was expecting a narrow Pacers win and that's what happened. Pacers played very good defense. Mathurin and McConnell played exceptionally well. Haliburton led his team effectively with 22-9-11. Siakam did what he needed to do. Pacers used their home-court advantage very well.
Now the Pacers lead the series 2-1. Game 4 will be crucial. Thunder must win that game, otherwise they'll be on a path with no way back.

It was expected that the Pacers could perform better at home. But for me, Mathurin's performance was completely unexpected, as he scored 27 points off the bench in just 22 minutes. Imho, if this guy continues in the same way in the upcoming games, he could be the X factor for the Pacers and a contender for the Finals MVP award.

This is what makes the Pacers better compared to other teams. They don't have a single player or duo where they need to rely on either 1 or 2 of them in order to win. The Pacers are a perfect example of "teamwork" where anybody can step-up anytime needed. I already said that I overestimated the Thunder just like many others here, but the Pacers are just the better team in Game 3.

Aside from the bench points which led by Mathurin that has 27 points, the defense of the Pacers really stepped up in this game as well. They forced the Thunder to have 17 turnovers - the highest for them in this playoffs and not only that, but they defend SGA wherever he is. I mean they're defending him in full court. Both Nembhard and Sheppard are defending them alternately, and that affected SGA as shown in his performance where he only scored 20+ points.

Anyway, Game 4 is a must win for both teams. If the Pacers win, they are 1 win away from winning the title, and has a 95% of winning the series, and as for the Thunder, they need to win in order to regain the momentum because 2 of the next 3 games after Game 4 will be played on their home. Congratulations to the Pacers, and to those who put their bet on them as well.

[Fredomago]

Hope to see that adjustment this upcoming game 3, they need to see those lapses which they need to cover like what you said, Hali needs help in terms of defense his teammates needs to address the adjustment that they need to cover and to fill this as OKC will keep aiming for this mismatch and take that advantage.

They need to work on good rotations as they need to play good defense to avoid giving OKC easy conversion, and adding to that, Hali also needs to be aggressive attacking as he can attract defense and it will be a good option passing the ball to an open man for much easy basket.

Yeah, I hope so too.

The odds already came out, and despite being on homecourt advantage, the Indiana Pacers are still the underdogs on Game 3.
@2.70 money line for the Pacers and @1.45 for the OKC Thunder.

I also checked the injury reports, and only Jarace Walker was listed as ruled out to play. I think the Pacers are being underestimated again after that Game 2 in this series. But who can blame them? The OKC has lots of offensive power, and so does it on defense. Good luck to those who will risk their money on the Pacers bet.

You nailed it, Pacers managed to overrun the Thunders and managed to protect their homecourt advantage, Hali and the rest of the team really played hard in both defense and offense they bring everything inside the court making sure that they'll provide decent productions to win the game, more likely, those who bets for them for the ML surely enjoyed the profits... Congrats!

[Wapfika]

pacers are doing what nuggets did and it will end the same way

You can’t guarantee this. Pacers is different because their players are healthy compared to Nuggets that has 2 injured players playing core role.

Only Jokic is performing consistent on that series while Murray, Gordon and MPJ have on and off game.

Pacers has a very good chance to beat OKC since SGA foul draw doesn’t get any whistle anymore for unknown reason including some questionable call. I think referees shift their support to Pacers.

The game went exactly as I expected. I was expecting a narrow Pacers win and that's what happened. Pacers played very good defense. Mathurin and McConnell played exceptionally well. Haliburton led his team effectively with 22-9-11. Siakam did what he needed to do. Pacers used their home-court advantage very well.

Nesmith and Nembhard give way to other player since they both focus on defense and let other players like Mathurin attack. I like the adjustment of Pacers on their defense that makes them win today.

Now the Pacers lead the series 2-1. Game 4 will be crucial. Thunder must win that game, otherwise they'll be on a path with no way back.

I believe OKC will even this series. I’m sure this will be a game 7 series considering how good both team on adjustment after a loss in the game.

[MK-74]

The game went exactly as I expected. I was expecting a narrow Pacers win and that's what happened. Pacers played very good defense. Mathurin and McConnell played exceptionally well. Haliburton led his team effectively with 22-9-11. Siakam did what he needed to do. Pacers used their home-court advantage very well.
Now the Pacers lead the series 2-1. Game 4 will be crucial. Thunder must win that game, otherwise they'll be on a path with no way back.

Mathurin and McConnell really had an extraordinary performance.
McConnell played with 10 points, 5 assists and 5 steals in just 15 minutes.
Mahturin was the highest scorer of the game.
I think these two contributed the most to the victory.

[OgNasty]

The Indiana Pacers got it done. Now they’re one win away from basically putting OKC in a position of waiting to lose. Tomorrow could be it for the finals this year more or less… It happened fast.

I hope the NBA gets its broadcasting situation figured out next year. I feel like they’re in a major transition phase.

[mandown]

Oklahoma should definitely win Game 4, but for that Shai needs to score over 30 points again. He scored 24 points in this game. He had easily scored over 30 points in previous games.

Mathurin contributed very well to the score in Indiana and played a big role in the victory. I can say that this was the surprise of the game for me.

Haliburton was very good both defensively and offensively.
Indiana took another step towards the championship with this win and the next game will be very critical for Oklahoma.

[Fundamentals Of]

And just like that, Indiana is once again ahead in their championship series against the Thunders. The underdogs, underestimated, is always a step ahead against the top performing team in the season.

Mathurin was unbelievable. He was on fire. Played only 22 minutes but producing the highest score of the team with 27 points. He was definitely the star of the night.

I felt sorry I was not available to make bets while the game was played. I would have taken advantage of the nice Pacers odds during the first quarter.

[Harkorede]

Now the Pacers lead the series 2-1. Game 4 will be crucial. Thunder must win that game, otherwise they'll be on a path with no way back.

I believe OKC will even this series. I’m sure this will be a game 7 series considering how good both team on adjustment after a loss in the game.

AN interesting stats from ESPN states that teams that win Game 3 of a 1-1 NBA Finals have gone on to win the championship 80.5% of the time, I'm there is somewhat some deeper stats to that like how many percentage of those teams win game for as well to make up that 80.5%, because without checking I'm pretty sure that the vast majority of 19.95% that defy the odds would have even the series at 2-2 rather than down 3-1, so, if the series should somehow get even after game 4, it might be a different ball game because Game 5 is heading back to OKC.

[Volgastallion]

I said it in the past... Oklahoma City Thunder can be the favorite but my willings goes with Indiana Pacers, they have that i dont know, angel lets call, or luck of the champion, or faith of the champions, something like an inner fire in his players, for me they are the clear favorites.

Sorry for you Shai Gilgeous.

[tygeade]

This is what makes the Pacers better compared to other teams. They don't have a single player or duo where they need to rely on either 1 or 2 of them in order to win. The Pacers are a perfect example of "teamwork" where anybody can step-up anytime needed. I already said that I overestimated the Thunder just like many others here, but the Pacers are just the better team in Game 3.

Aside from the bench points which led by Mathurin that has 27 points, the defense of the Pacers really stepped up in this game as well. They forced the Thunder to have 17 turnovers - the highest for them in this playoffs and not only that, but they defend SGA wherever he is. I mean they're defending him in full court. Both Nembhard and Sheppard are defending them alternately, and that affected SGA as shown in his performance where he only scored 20+ points.

Anyway, Game 4 is a must win for both teams. If the Pacers win, they are 1 win away from winning the title, and has a 95% of winning the series, and as for the Thunder, they need to win in order to regain the momentum because 2 of the next 3 games after Game 4 will be played on their home. Congratulations to the Pacers, and to those who put their bet on them as well.

That is not always great, and while some teams succeeded that way, you do not get that in every single year. Sure, we can all think of 2004 Pistons, they didn't win with superstar power, they won with teamwork, just like how Pacers may win this year, that's true. But look at previous years, can you say the same?

Tatum won last year for Celtics, Denver won with Jokic, Warriors won with Curry, Bucks won with Giannis, hell lakers won with Lebron at 100 years old. So if you just go back more than that, Kawhi Leonard, Curry, Durant, plenty of great stars for teams that won. Sure, you can play teamwork, but you need stars to win titles. There are rare cases like this, that happens once every 20 years, but even in this case, Haliburton isn't some unknown guy, he is a great player.

[passwordnow]

I said it in the past... Oklahoma City Thunder can be the favorite but my willings goes with Indiana Pacers, they have that i dont know, angel lets call, or luck of the champion, or faith of the champions, something like an inner fire in his players, for me they are the clear favorites.

Sorry for you Shai Gilgeous.

That surreal feeling isn't it? I guess that all of us that think Pacers got this have the same thought in common for the Pacers. Congratulations to them for winning the game 3 and making this series in 3-1, maybe they're going to end this at 5 or 6. I understand you and if it's likely the time for Pacers to have their very first title that they will ever have in the NBA in its history of its participation. The Oklahoma City Thunder is a strong team but, let's not judge yet and let's wait for it. Maybe this is also for them and they will recover on game 4.

[Dave1]

Bennedict Mathurin became the 5th player to score 25+ points in an NBA Finals game before the age of 22.

Previously; these four stars achieved this statistic.

Kawhi Leonard
LeBron James
Tony Parker and
Kobe Bryant
totally scored 27 points and were important contributors to Indiana's victory.

Another fun fact is that Haliburton hasn't gone in the free throw area, 0, nada, zilch. And if the Pacers are going to win the title, it will be the first time that a player will achieved that, assuming that he will also not going to be fouled and not going to the free throw.

Might be one of the most weird stuff that we will hear in this finals. While SGA has like 20+ already in the first 3 games. And speaking of SGA, he was limited to 3 points in the 4th and way below his average of 30+ a game. So it just shows that they really shut him out in game 3 and not allow him to go to his comfort zone.

[Yaunfitda]

I said it in the past... Oklahoma City Thunder can be the favorite but my willings goes with Indiana Pacers, they have that i dont know, angel lets call, or luck of the champion, or faith of the champions, something like an inner fire in his players, for me they are the clear favorites.

Sorry for you Shai Gilgeous.

That surreal feeling isn't it? I guess that all of us that think Pacers got this have the same thought in common for the Pacers. Congratulations to them for winning the game 3 and making this series in 3-1, maybe they're going to end this at 5 or 6. I understand you and if it's likely the time for Pacers to have their very first title that they will ever have in the NBA in its history of its participation. The Oklahoma City Thunder is a strong team but, let's not judge yet and let's wait for it. Maybe this is also for them and they will recover on game 4.

Yes, I will admit that I'm one of those who didn't think that they will take a lead as I'm seeing that the Thunder should have taken two games in their homecourt. And yet it's the other way around. But if you have to look at it, throughout their journey, they have been the underdog but they have proven everyone wrong. Or maybe it's really their time right now to win and no one can stop them, not even the overall number one team in the NBA. And it's going to be gut wrenching for the Thunder to have the MVP and yet they can't win the championship. Maybe this is the curse for winning that individual accolade. In any case, for Thunder fans, it's not yet over, but this is a must win for them, game 4 is crucial as if another lost to the Pacers, down 1-3, might be very hard to win although it's not impossible as Lebron have down it before.

[AHOYBRAUSE]

Just saw an interesting video about the finals. Fun fact, if the Pacers would win this series they would be the team with the highest odds to win the championship before the season.
Also their odds pre season would be the 4th highest odds ever to win in sports all over the big 4 leagues in North America ( NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL ), that's crazy. This just shows how BIG of an upset this would be.
Even leading 2:1 in the series, with home court advantage, they are still the underdog to win those finals. I mean yeah, I also don't think they will pull it off, but they can certainly prove me and most people wrong of course.

[LogitechMouse]

Bennedict Mathurin became the 5th player to score 25+ points in an NBA Finals game before the age of 22.
---
totally scored 27 points and were important contributors to Indiana's victory.

Just to add on this achievement by him, he's also 4 points away from tying the record for most number of points in an NBA Finals game by a reserve. Just for context, the current record is 31 points by Sam Cassell back in 1995. Anyway, Mathurin's performance on Game 3 just shows how deep the bench can be. It just shows how reliable the bench players of Indiana is, and will be in the following years. Maybe we can put them at the level of Cleveland and Boston now, eh?

Oklahoma should definitely win Game 4, but for that Shai needs to score over 30 points again. He scored 24 points in this game. He had easily scored over 30 points in previous games.

Mathurin contributed very well to the score in Indiana and played a big role in the victory. I can say that this was the surprise of the game for me.

Haliburton was very good both defensively and offensively.
Indiana took another step towards the championship with this win and the next game will be very critical for Oklahoma.

It's a must win for both teams.
If Indiana win, they'll up 3-1 and the only time we saw a team blowing out a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals was the 73-9 Golden State Warriors, and I don't think the Pacers will do that. Now if the Thunder wins, the momentum will be back to them since the series is tied.

Shai will make some adjustments coming to Game 4 because the defense on him throughout the game is just that tight. They manage to lower his points though, but he still has huge contribution with his team. As for the Thunder, they need to stop Haliburton because if Hali is having a good night, his team wins. The Thunder must not let him score more than 20 points or their chances of winning increases by a lot.

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

Just saw an interesting video about the finals. Fun fact, if the Pacers would win this series they would be the team with the highest odds to win the championship before the season.
Also their odds pre season would be the 4th highest odds ever to win in sports all over the big 4 leagues in North America ( NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL ), that's crazy. This just shows how BIG of an upset this would be.

Specially in game 1, they are a big underdog, went down by huge margin and yet was able to win a just a point. But still people didn't believed them, or at least sports bettors. Although there are still some of us who won big in game 1 and probably bet on them in game 3.

Even leading 2:1 in the series, with home court advantage, they are still the underdog to win those finals. I mean yeah, I also don't think they will pull it off, but they can certainly prove me and most people wrong of course.

The odds start at 5.5 if I'm not mistaken for the next game. Rick Carlisle has recognized it during post game interview and it looks like he is not bothered by it. Game 4 will be a their their home court, so it's not going to be very difficult for sports bettor again as who is going to bet.

[Fredomago]

And speaking of SGA, he was limited to 3 points in the 4th and way below his average of 30+ a game. So it just shows that they really shut him out in game 3 and not allow him to go to his comfort zone.

And for doing this Pacers managed to win the game, limiting SGA productions and taking care of offensive attacks gives them decent edge to win the game, they'll be playing at home one more time let see if they can continue doing what's they've done last game 3 or there's  agood adjustment that OKC will do to prevent losing another game and giving Pacers a 2 game advantage.

[dwyane36]

Just saw an interesting video about the finals. Fun fact, if the Pacers would win this series they would be the team with the highest odds to win the championship before the season.
Also their odds pre season would be the 4th highest odds ever to win in sports all over the big 4 leagues in North America ( NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL ), that's crazy. This just shows how BIG of an upset this would be.
Even leading 2:1 in the series, with home court advantage, they are still the underdog to win those finals. I mean yeah, I also don't think they will pull it off, but they can certainly prove me and most people wrong of course.

Well, if the Pacers win the next game, they won't be the underdogs.
p.s.
I wonder what the odds were for the Pacers to win the title before the regular season even began. I wouldn't be surprised if there were some risky guys who decided to bet on them back then.

[btc_angela]

Just saw an interesting video about the finals. Fun fact, if the Pacers would win this series they would be the team with the highest odds to win the championship before the season.
Also their odds pre season would be the 4th highest odds ever to win in sports all over the big 4 leagues in North America ( NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL ), that's crazy. This just shows how BIG of an upset this would be.
Even leading 2:1 in the series, with home court advantage, they are still the underdog to win those finals. I mean yeah, I also don't think they will pull it off, but they can certainly prove me and most people wrong of course.

Well, if the Pacers win the next game, they won't be the underdogs.
p.s.
I wonder what the odds were for the Pacers to win the title before the regular season even began. I wouldn't be surprised if there were some risky guys who decided to bet on them back then.

They have been the underdog in the first 3 games, and if they win here, the game will be in the Thunder's homecourt, so they might still be a huge underdog. Most likely the outright could be double digit odds for them to win the NBA title or even higher.

Yeah, not sure if someone within the community has bet on them, but if they did, maybe they are very nervous and at the same time excited to see if the Pacers are going to pull the biggest upset in the NBA history, at least in the recent memories that we have in the NBA finals.