Pacers' Bennedict Mathurin Has Bizarre Response to His Finals Meltdown

The Thunder won, 111-104, and knotted the series at 2-2 with Game 5 in Oklahoma City slated for Monday.

All told, the Pacers were outscored 31-17 in the fourth frame.

Among Indiana players, sixth man shooting guard Bennedict Mathurin had perhaps one of the roughest runs during that time.

In the game's final 24 seconds, with Indiana initially trailing by just four points, 107-103, the 6-foot-6 swingman was whistled for two consecutive fouls away from the ball (off which MVP Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander made two looks at the charity stripe) and missed three of four free throw tries. 

“It’s very tough,” Mathurin said. “I’ve made those free throws, and I love making tough free throws." 

Taking a page from the book of Captain Obvious, Mathurin noted, "The only thing I can do is to knock them down next time.”

It was such an obvious observation about his Nick Anderson-esque, anti-clutch collapse that, well, it didn't need to be said.

Across just 13:53 of action Friday, Mathurin finished with eight points on 1-of-2 shooting from the floor and 5-of-8 shooting from the foul line, and two rebounds.

In the playoffs thus far, Mathurin has been averaging 11.1 points on .504/.326/.865 shooting splits, plus 2.5 rebounds and 0.7 assists. He's converting the aforementioned 86.5 percent of his free throws while attempting 4.7 takes per bout, which makes it all the more disconcerting that he couldn't nail his attempts late.