3 Takeaways From OKC Thunder's Dropped Game 3 Loss

With a chance to take a 2-1 series advantage on the road, a downward fourth quarter kept the Oklahoma City Thunder neutralized against the Indiana Pacers in Game 3 on Wednesday night.

Taking a 116-107 win, Indiana out-hustled and out-performed Oklahoma City down the stretch. Tyrese Haliburton gave his best performance of the NBA Finals so far with a near-triple double of 22 points, nine rebounds and 11 assists on 9-of-17 shooting from the field.

The Thunder put up a fight as its trio of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren each provided 20+ points, but the loss of momentum and performances from the Pacers' bench unit stacked up too much in the end.

Here are three takeaways from the nine-point loss:

Indiana Bench Takes Control

Oklahoma City usually makes its bench a leading factor in wins, but last night, Indiana had the clear advantage over it in that department.

The Pacers' bench unit outscored the Thunder's 49-18, though most of the damage was done by one player only: Bennedict Mathurin. The microwave machine dropped 27 points on 9-of-12 shooting from the field, taking it to any defender that Oklahoma City threw on him.

Mathurin was the ultimate separator by the end of the game, as the leading man on the bench for the Thunder — Alex Caruso — only managed to score eight points. Isaiah Joe and Isaiah Hartenstein finished with six and four points, respectively, while Aaron Wiggins went scoreless.

This isn't typical of Oklahoma City, but it was concerning nevertheless. It'll have to come up with an answer to limit Mathurin, especially when Haliburton and Pascal Siakam are additionally putting up big numbers in the starting lineup.

SGA Gets Pressured

For the first time in this series — and one of the few times for the playoffs in general — Gilgeous-Alexander seemed to struggle to buy a bucket against Indiana.

The MVP still finished the night with 24 points, four rebounds and eight assists, but he did it on 9-of-20 shooting from the field and six turnovers. The shots that he typically knocks down in the mid-range didn't seem to fall, while constant pressure forced a plethora of turnovers.

Andrew Nembhard handled much of the assignment, and he did that with confidence. Every dribble and every move Gilgeous-Alexander took out of his bag seemed to have been met by the Pacers guard, which led to one of his more underwhelming playoff performances in his career.

Even at 24 points, that low of a number from Gilgeous-Alexander dramatically hurts the Thunder offense. While he usually finds a way to get separation and the ball in his hands, there were a vast number of possessions that didn't work his way.

It took long enough, but there's a team that has started to figure out ways to defend Gilgeous-Alexander. In Game 4, that's going to need to be flipped.

Crunch Time isn't Cutting it

With 5:25 remaining in Game 3, Oklahoma City only trailed Indiana 103-100. There was ample time to keep it within distance and possibly take a lead, but from then on, everything went downhill.

In the last 5:25, several things happened. The Thunder was outscored 14-6, and it shot 1-of-6 on 2-pointers, 0-of-4 on 3-pointers and just 5-of-8 from the charity stripe. The Pacers blocked five of those shot attempts.

In the NBA Finals, with a pivotal win on the road in front of them, that cannot happen if Oklahoma City wants to come out of this series with a championship. It lost momentum down the stretch and got frantic when the score became close, while Indiana kept calm and knocked down the shots it needed to.

A game this close is bound to happen again with how competitive each of these teams is, but the Thunder will have to perform better down the stretch. The Pacers are as clutch as they come, and certainly aren't scared of a big deficit to come back from.