Jalen Williams swished a tough pull-up 3-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer to give the Oklahoma City Thunder a five-point lead. Not much went right for them after that.
“We just had a lot of unforced errors,” Williams said after Oklahoma City’s 116-107 loss to the Indiana Pacers in Wednesday’s pivotal Game 3 of the NBA Finals. “They capitalized on them because they’re a good team.”
The Thunder were outscored 32-18 in the fourth quarter. It was the second time this postseason that Indiana outscored Oklahoma City by a double-digit margin in the final frame.
That is the difference in the series, as the Pacers, who are up 2-1, rallied from behind in the fourth quarter in both of their wins.
“In the fourth quarter, I just thought they really outplayed us on both ends,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said.
“I thought they were in character in terms of their physicality, their pressure on defense. Then they were in character in terms of their pace on offense.”
The Thunder’s two losses in the Finals have come down to the Pacers landing a flurry of punches at the end. Game 4 is Friday in Indianapolis.
