History not on Thunder's side after dropping crucial Game 3

Led by an aggressive Tyrese Haliburton and two heroic bench performances from T.J. McConnell and Bennedict Mathurin, the Pacers made the Thunder look uncomfortable and even inexperienced at times Wednesday night. 

What's more, the Pacers made the Thunder look their age, and not in a positive way. With an average age of 25.6, Oklahoma City is the second-youngest team to earn a Finals berth in the last 70 years. During Game 3, it looked like it. 

Despite mostly smooth sailing during their first three playoff matchups against the Grizzlies, Nuggets and Timberwolves, turnovers have begun to poke holes in the Thunder’s dynamic offense. The Pacers made the Thunder look out of sorts en route to forcing 19 total turnovers, including a playoff-career-high six from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

The Thunder are a historically great team amid a historically great campaign — they are just the 15th team in NBA history to win 80+ games in a season — so there's no chance they are panicking right now, regardless of what the numbers say. 

With that being said, however, Game 4 is an absolute must-win in Indiana. While history says being down 2-1 in the NBA Finals gives you about a 19.5 percent chance to mount a comeback, that drops down to 4.4 percent when down 3-1. 

Gilgeous-Alexander is the reigning MVP and scoring champion, but would he really be capable of leading his team back from 3-1 like LeBron James did during the peak of his powers back in 2016? 

There is still a viable path toward the Thunder making a comeback during this series, but there are certainly a handful of things they need to adjust going forward. They need to play with far more poise, as they did earlier in the postseason. They need to win the turnover battle, as they did during their Game 2 win. Finally, they need to find a way to limit Indiana's bench production, as OKC cannot afford to be outscored 49-18 by Indiana’s bench.

The Thunder are certainly capable and have the horses to turn things around, but by being down 2-1 with another road game to go before heading back home for Game 5, history would suggest that Oklahoma City has quite the uphill battle ahead of it.