INDIANAPOLIS — Oklahoma City did to Indiana what the Pacers have done to everyone else all playoffs and season long.
Indiana led by seven entering the fourth quarter in a game where it had largely been in control but it could never quite pull away. Then, with its season hanging in the balance, Oklahoma City played at its peak. The Thunder defense held the Pacers to one bucket from the floor in the final five minutes of the game, while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander took over and scored 15 points in the fourth quarter.
“We got stagnant, their second shots were a big problem,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said postgame, referencing the four offensive rebounds the Thunder had in the fourth quarter.
The result was only the second clutch game the Pacers lost this postseason, a 111-104 Thunder win that ties the series up at 2-2.
What has been a highly entertaining, well-played Finals will see Game 5 Monday night in Oklahoma City. It also feels like a series that is going to go seven games.
The Pacers have focused their defense this series on denying Gilgeous-Alexander the ball, then when he does get the rock and drives they make it hard to get his teammates involved and get their offense flowing. They did that in Game 4. The problem was that SGA took on the challenge and scored 35 on the night.
“I just tried to be aggressive, I knew what it would look like if we didn’t win this game, so I wanted to go out swinging,” Gilgeous-Alexander said of his play in the final minutes of the game.
This is the loss Indiana will regret if it does not win the series, on the night the Thunder were just 3-of-17 from beyond the arc (Indiana was 11-of-36, just 30.6%, but they still outscored OKC by 24 from beyond the arc). While Pacers fans in the building (and online) want to complain about foul calls the Thunder shot just five more free throws than the Pacers, and that was bolstered by some intentional fouling at the end.
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault made the first big adjustment of the series, returning to the double-big starting lineup of Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein, which had been effective throughout the Western Conference postseason.
It didn’t work — for the first time this series it was Indiana getting off to the fast start leading 20-12 behind fast starts from Pascal Siakam and Myles Turner (the Thunder starting five was -2 for the night).
Indiana had the ball moving a step ahead of Oklahoma City’s rotations and it was getting great looks. Indiana was also knocking down its jumpers (only six of their first 24 points came in the paint).
Despite the hot start by the Pacers and some cold shooting from 3 by the OKC, the Thunder were hanging around, and at the end of a high-scoring first quarter, the Pacers were only up one, 35-34.
Midway through the second quarter, Obi Toppin was hit with a flagrant foul on Alex Caruso for what was a non-basketball play (but might have been just a hard playoff foul in another era). Hartenstein had a few words for Toppin after that, but nothing came of it.
Toppin drew a flagrant himself on Lu Dort later in the quarter.
Indiana led 60-57 at the half and the difference was 3-point shooting: The Pacers were 7-of-19 from 3, while the Thunder were 1-of-10. The Thunder were 6-of-21 on shots outside the paint in the first half.
In the third quarter, the Pacers played like sharks smelling blood in the water — the crowd could sense it, their defensive pressure seemed to ramp up and the shots kept falling. Indiana led by 7 after three and Pacers fans were ready to celebrate being closer to an NBA title than the franchise had ever been.
Then came the Thunder’s fourth quarter and everything is even again.
