Latest / Bleacher Report / Chuck & GameTime Crew Talk Pacers Game 3 Win vs. Thunder _ 2025 NBA Finals

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Chuck & GameTime Crew Talk Pacers Game 3 Win vs. Thunder _ 2025 NBA Finals · Bleacher Report

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Go to the highlight.
• 0:00
  Speaker 2: Here Meetium.
• 0:02
  Speaker 3: Well, here we go with what happened in this one.
• 0:06
  Speaker 3: Look how aggressive both teams were right out of the gate.
• 0:10
  Speaker 4: Here Candae Yes Dort doing a great job stepping up,
• 0:13
  Speaker 4: knocking down shots twelve points four or five from.
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: Beyond the yard and then the thunder out and running.
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: Chet had thirteen points in the first quarter. In fact,
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: he scored twelve of the first nineteen points for OK.
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: See that it's Halliburton getting going here Grant and.
• 0:31
  Speaker 5: In transition Indiana at their best. Halliburton to Toppen and
• 0:35
  Speaker 5: Benjie Miller.
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: Approves Halliburton from downtown. Halliburton makes it a two point game.
• 0:45
  Speaker 6: You know, this is when the game was won in
• 0:47
  Speaker 6: the second quarter, and in the fourth quarter. The bench
• 0:50
  Speaker 6: TJ mcconnor with the steels, Matthern with these all these baskets,
• 0:55
  Speaker 6: their bench singer Hendlely won this game tonight.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: It was beautiful to watch.
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: It was that energy that forced they played with Obi
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: top and part of that great find there finds Mathern,
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: who is an absolute stud in this game. Matherid in
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: company making a one point game. Now Indiana up by five.
• 1:14
  Speaker 7: You talk about a grown man move. Jay Dug doing
• 1:17
  Speaker 7: a great job.
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: I'd like to see him get more touches for OKC
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: in his offense because when he gets going downhill, he
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: is a problem.
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: SGA had twenty four points, Tyrese Halliburton twelve point seven
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: assists in the first half.
• 1:34
  Speaker 8: And it was the bench that was the.
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: Storage of Benchin Chuck in the second quarter, the second quarter.
• 1:39
  Speaker 6: Here's Haliburton the second quarter, in the fourth quarter of
• 1:41
  Speaker 6: the benches because they were down five or six going
• 1:44
  Speaker 6: into the fourth quarter, and the bitch came.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: Out and was terrific.
• 1:47
  Speaker 7: Do you know what, Chuck, they did.
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: They took a page out of okc's book. They had
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: thirteen steals to OKC six.
• 1:53
  Speaker 8: Here's SGA step back.
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: Then j dubb over to chet home Grin sht great
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: game for him.
• 2:04
  Speaker 8: Jay Dove was tremendous and they were great.
• 2:07
  Speaker 5: Third quarter, as Chuck said, the first quarter, third quarter, OKC,
• 2:10
  Speaker 5: yep that second and fourth.
• 2:12
  Speaker 8: Indian Indiana bench, Oh Indiana bench. Here it is again Matherin.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: He had twenty seven, Chuck and TJ McConnell. Let's start
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: look at that steal steal.
• 2:22
  Speaker 6: He had five or six steals man and they were
• 2:25
  Speaker 6: all layups.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: On the other end, Oh Halliburton, he was shooting thirty
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: three percent from three over the first two games.
• 2:36
  Speaker 8: The big putback by Topping Man.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: His energy level off the bench was fabulous today.
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: Eight point seven rebounds for Topping That just about three
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: minutes to go. This is Nie Smith, huge shots, big three,
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: big shot homebred gets blocked by Miles Turner, leads the
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: NBA postseason blocks, comes up with one on the perimeter,
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: huge turnover.
• 3:05
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I think right now this is probably much sealedy
• 3:08
  Speaker 6: right here. I love you know, I know how that
• 3:11
  Speaker 6: Burden didn't want to throw him. Minus Siakam was really
• 3:14
  Speaker 6: way more aggressive than night than he was in game.
• 3:17
  Speaker 6: In the first couple of game, he came out aggressive.
• 3:19
  Speaker 6: He came yes two three possessions of the first quarter,
• 3:22
  Speaker 6: and I know Holly.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: Didn't want to throw him under the bus.
• 3:24
  Speaker 6: But that was like night and day when he I
• 3:26
  Speaker 6: told you if he's aggressive, and they think we need
• 3:30
  Speaker 6: more out of Miles Turner. But man, this was just
• 3:33
  Speaker 6: a bench game today. Get a bench. All the love
• 3:35
  Speaker 6: and the flowers. That was McConnell. His numbers don't show
• 3:39
  Speaker 6: up to still show up. But Matthlin withod fabulous and
• 3:41
  Speaker 6: topping with fabulous.
• 3:43
  Speaker 8: Well, I'll tell you about about TJ. McConnell, which does
• 3:46
  Speaker 8: show up.
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: First player in NBA history, NBA Finals history to have
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: a ten point five assists, five steel game off the
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: bench ever first so great game by McConnell. He Matherin
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: and Topping combined for forty five off the bench.
• 4:01
  Speaker 8: You mentioned Siakam Candice.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: In the first three minutes the game, he scored the
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: first six points for the Pacers, and again, he.
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: Wasn't going east and west, he was going north and south.
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: And I think it was his decision making off of
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: the catch. It was quick, it was decisive, it was
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: to the basket, and I think he got rewarded from that. Again,
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: you said he scored the first six points for the Pacers,
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: and I think that sets the tone of getting the
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: ball to the paint and putting the pressure on the Thunder.
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: The Thunder picked up two early fouls and they couldn't
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: play as physicals as they like at the start of
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: the game, and he took advantage of that.
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: The Thunder signature all year has been turning over their
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: teams and not turning it over themselves. Grant tonight, it
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: was very uncharacteristic of this thunder team. They only forced
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: fourteen turnovers, only turned that into fourteen points. But yet
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: OKC turns it over nineteen times. The Pacers put that
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: up for twenty one points.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 4:58
  Speaker 5: The only other game I can think in the postseason
• 5:01
  Speaker 5: where OKC looked rattled offensively and just out of sorts
• 5:06
  Speaker 5: was that Game three in Minnesota in the Western Conference
• 5:08
  Speaker 5: Finals where they got blown out. But give credit this defense.
• 5:12
  Speaker 5: They were swarming, and Chuck talked about it. It's the
• 5:15
  Speaker 5: depth and the energy off the bench, McConnell, Mathern topping
• 5:21
  Speaker 5: that energy. It comes in waves and it's a force.
• 5:26
  Speaker 5: And it really started with the defense presenting those opportunities
• 5:31
  Speaker 5: in transition, creating opportunities within their offense off of good defense,
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: and it just kind of wore down.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: I felt like it wore them down.
• 5:40
  Speaker 5: It wore them down in the first half and in
• 5:42
  Speaker 5: the second half as well in those quarters seventy two
• 5:45
  Speaker 5: to forty six in terms of scoring. Second and fourth
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: quarter favored Indiana. So that's a big I mean, they
• 5:52
  Speaker 5: turned it on there at the end of both halves and.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Really that was the difference.
• 5:56
  Speaker 6: Yeah, And I told you this is I was like,
• 5:59
  Speaker 6: when I was at home watching Game one, I'm like,
• 6:02
  Speaker 6: Holy smoy, what are these guys doing? I like, and
• 6:07
  Speaker 6: I hate to be Redunda, I said, I go back
• 6:09
  Speaker 6: to Avery Johnson when the Mavericks switched up this line
• 6:12
  Speaker 6: up against Don Nelson's Golden State Warriors. I'm like, if
• 6:16
  Speaker 6: I got the best team in the world, I'm not
• 6:18
  Speaker 6: changing anything. I'm not changing anything. We're in the NBA Finals.
• 6:22
  Speaker 6: We got We've been the best team in NBA all year,
• 6:25
  Speaker 6: and can you change it up during the game, Yes
• 6:28
  Speaker 6: you can, But I thought, you know, Kenny always talks
• 6:32
  Speaker 6: about when a player comes back, it puts everybody in
• 6:35
  Speaker 6: their right situation. I don't think Oklahoma City has because
• 6:39
  Speaker 6: I told the Game two was just a wash. For me,
• 6:41
  Speaker 6: that was just desperation. But I said, this game tonight
• 6:45
  Speaker 6: gonna show me a lot more. And I didn't like
• 6:47
  Speaker 6: to line up adjustment, and because I'm not sure how
• 6:50
  Speaker 6: it benefits them because they were the deepest team in
• 6:52
  Speaker 6: the league. Now their bench is getting out played. They
• 6:56
  Speaker 6: have the best bench in the NBA and they're getting
• 6:58
  Speaker 6: out played. And that's been the difference in the series
• 7:01
  Speaker 6: so far.
• 7:01
  Speaker 7: And what you're saying is it takes guys out of
• 7:03
  Speaker 7: their roles.
• 7:03
  Speaker 8: It takes guys, the guys out of the world role.
• 7:07
  Speaker 6: But you know, some of these guys they think they
• 7:09
  Speaker 6: damn read our back out there, and we act like
• 7:11
  Speaker 6: they're the smartest dude in the room.
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: Well, you're a spot. You're right about taking out of roles.
• 7:16
  Speaker 5: And like you said, the bench forty nine to eighteen,
• 7:19
  Speaker 5: I mean, and that okay, see strength this season it
• 7:21
  Speaker 5: has been then, it's been.
• 7:23
  Speaker 7: The bench that has won each of the three games.
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: Question at it, because you know it was Caruso and
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: Wiggins in Game two that gave you twenty and eighteen.
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: And then in this game. I don't think we've talked
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: about Bennett Maathron enough and what he's done. He was
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: able to play under control, get to his spots, and
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: have a crucial game. I mean nine or twelve efficiency,
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: got to the free throw line eight times. I mean,
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: it just seemed like he played that calm, cool, collective game.
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: Because the role players play better at home, I'd be curious.
• 7:54
  Speaker 6: I mean, I don't know who, because underdog he's the
• 7:56
  Speaker 6: greatest in the world of what he does.
• 7:58
  Speaker 8: Justin Nixon's pretty good too.
• 8:00
  Speaker 6: Okay, Okay, But I'd wonder how many times this year
• 8:03
  Speaker 6: Okay's bench it's been outscored. I bet it's if they
• 8:08
  Speaker 6: played over one hundred games. I bet you're only twenty
• 8:10
  Speaker 6: times this year. I'm just taking a random guess. I
• 8:13
  Speaker 6: wonder how men I would love to somebody to look
• 8:15
  Speaker 6: at that, how many times their bench has been outscored?
• 8:18
  Speaker 6: That to me would be like because they have the
• 8:21
  Speaker 6: best bench in the NBA.
• 8:22
  Speaker 5: You also wonder, too, when you when you make an
• 8:24
  Speaker 5: adjustment before the series starts to your starting line, what
• 8:29
  Speaker 5: kind of psychological effect does it have on.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: It's huge grands.
• 8:32
  Speaker 5: One thing, if you're in the series and you lose
• 8:35
  Speaker 5: a gamer here and now you've got to make a change, Yes,
• 8:37
  Speaker 5: but to be preemptive to do it.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: Early, it just sometimes can mess with the team.
• 8:42
  Speaker 6: Psyche and I and I and I believe it has.
• 8:45
  Speaker 6: That's just my personal opinion. Whether people think I'm right
• 8:47
  Speaker 6: or wrong, I don't care. I do think it because.
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: Okay, now it was it was a two point game,
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: no I going into the into the fourth quarter.
• 8:55
  Speaker 6: Well it shouldn't have been. Because the Oklahoma City has been
• 8:57
  Speaker 6: the best team in the NBA all year. What they
• 9:00
  Speaker 6: should have. They are the best team. If you're the best,
• 9:03
  Speaker 6: you don't change anything. We can say, will you barely
• 9:06
  Speaker 6: win and there're barely losing. Grant just hit the point
• 9:09
  Speaker 6: there's got to be a psychological I think has effected
• 9:12
  Speaker 6: their bench. I truly do, and I listen, they might
• 9:18
  Speaker 6: come back and win this series. I just think it
• 9:20
  Speaker 6: was a mistake. Like I said, I said the same
• 9:21
  Speaker 6: thing back the other time.
• 9:23
  Speaker 7: You are who you are.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: You are who you are. You don't change you in
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: the finals.
• 9:26
  Speaker 7: You know you're the best at it.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: You are you.
• 9:29
  Speaker 6: Listen, you have the They've been the best team in
• 9:31
  Speaker 6: the NBA all year.
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: They lost one game to an Eastern Conference team in
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: the regular.
• 9:37
  Speaker 8: Season on the road. On the road. Well just Jaylen
• 9:40
  Speaker 8: Williams Jalen Williams.
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: Was asked about this very topic yesterday at Media Day
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: UH In part, what he said was, we have so
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: many different lineups. Nobody is shocked when Mark Dagnall wants
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: to go small or change things around.
• 9:53
  Speaker 8: You kind of don't notice it, he said.
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: Williams said that you're just ready to play when your
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: number is called, And I think that's what's made our
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: team so well.
• 10:00
  Speaker 6: First of all, he's just wrong, uh, because he don't
• 10:02
  Speaker 6: want to throw his coach under the bus. They didn't
• 10:04
  Speaker 6: make the adjustment to game one of the finals. They're
• 10:06
  Speaker 6: in the finals, but you're that worse than the regular season.
• 10:09
  Speaker 6: This regular season, you can you know, first of all,
• 10:12
  Speaker 6: guys are hurt homeg Hartenstein.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: But when you get into the postseason, you play a
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: different bas.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: Playing against them.
• 10:19
  Speaker 6: Because this is the other thing about it, Jared This,
• 10:23
  Speaker 6: people don't most people don't notice they any other pacers.
• 10:25
  Speaker 6: If I had the second best regular NBA since January
• 10:27
  Speaker 6: the first, so they're not. There's no Orlando Magic or
• 10:31
  Speaker 6: Atlanta Hawks walking through that damn door. This team is
• 10:33
  Speaker 6: in the NBA Finals. So and see I say, like
• 10:37
  Speaker 6: I said, I don't know what's gonna happen in this series,
• 10:39
  Speaker 6: but one game can change the series. And my opinion,
• 10:43
  Speaker 6: Game one was the one that had changed. So I
• 10:46
  Speaker 6: was just a tremendous amount of pressure on OKC in
• 10:49
  Speaker 6: the next game.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: But man, when you get like the Knicks, we talked
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: about it.
• 10:55
  Speaker 6: The next blowing Game one changed that entire It changed
• 10:59
  Speaker 6: the tire series. And people say, what's the first one
• 11:02
  Speaker 6: to four? I says, yeah, But if you give a
• 11:05
  Speaker 6: game away. You got to win five games against a
• 11:08
  Speaker 6: really good team. So what would you do going into
• 11:11
  Speaker 6: Game four?
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: Would you revert back to that same starting lineup that
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: you went got to the finals with or the one
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: you've been rolling with.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: What I think happened? What I think happened. This was
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: my personal opinion.
• 11:22
  Speaker 6: I think he realized that the game won, he screwed up,
• 11:25
  Speaker 6: but he didn't want admit he was wrong. Now he's
• 11:29
  Speaker 6: got he's down two to one, he got to do
• 11:31
  Speaker 6: some damn soul searching. I would go back to my
• 11:34
  Speaker 6: best line up personally, but that is the one, the
• 11:39
  Speaker 6: one that got him to the yes because they could
• 11:44
  Speaker 6: hammer Indiana on the boards.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: That I would you.
• 11:49
  Speaker 6: I always think my size is always an advantage, so
• 11:54
  Speaker 6: I would go back. But coaches hate to admit they
• 11:58
  Speaker 6: were wrong. But it's going to be a long four
• 12:00
  Speaker 6: to eight hours because the them bars come in here
• 12:02
  Speaker 6: and lose the next game, they gonna get beat.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: Well.
• 12:05
  Speaker 5: The great thing though, with these teams mirror each other
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: in a lot of ways. They have depth, and they've
• 12:11
  Speaker 5: shown in the postseason when they've lost they can bounce back,
• 12:16
  Speaker 5: and so you know the difficulty of losing this game
• 12:19
  Speaker 5: here for Oka.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: See, they've done it before, they've.
• 12:21
  Speaker 5: Been on the road, they've lost, they won in three
• 12:23
  Speaker 5: right now in game threes throughout the posts.
• 12:26
  Speaker 8: And Indiana's first win in the game three.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So I mean, I think Okac can bounce back.
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: But I agree, like you gotta you gotta stick with
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: what got you here.
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: But I also but also to Chuck's point, on the
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: defensive end, where they thrive is off of rotation, off
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: of you know, you learn to play with certain dudes
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: on the defensive end in terms of being on a string,
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: having another size and length to help. Yes, And I
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: feel like to some extent at times they were small
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: and the Pacers, I know they lost the rebounding battle,
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: but they got timely offensive rebounds that I think hurt
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: the thunder well.
• 13:05
  Speaker 5: I also think home Grin and Hartenstein, although they didn't
• 13:08
  Speaker 5: play a lot together this year, they started most of
• 13:11
  Speaker 5: the year when they played. That's a role that they're comfortable,
• 13:14
  Speaker 5: you know. And then you bring that small lineup to
• 13:16
  Speaker 5: match up with the energy in the second and fourth
• 13:19
  Speaker 5: quarter of Indiana.
• 13:20
  Speaker 6: And also I actually think Chet. I think Chet his
• 13:23
  Speaker 6: length would bother Seokam. I think his Yeah, and I
• 13:26
  Speaker 6: think Hartenstein he's gonna be all right against Myles Turner,
• 13:30
  Speaker 6: but I think there will be a better rebounding team,
• 13:32
  Speaker 6: a better defensive team.
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: But the reasoning he did that was because of the
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: three point shot. He was afraid that his bigs could
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: not get out to defend.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: Well, you don't do that before the series.
• 13:41
  Speaker 7: Man, you're not disagreeing.
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: I'm just saying you may improve it to you, you prove.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: It to me.
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: Chuck, you had a question for the great Justin Nixon,
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: who's our lead researcher or not? Yes, By the way,
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: just two steps over your left shoulder, you could have
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: just asked them yourself.
• 13:54
  Speaker 6: I didn't see him right there, that little man to
• 13:57
  Speaker 6: be looking down that low. I couldn't see him over there.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: I didn't laugh.
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: Just there.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: I didn't laugh.
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: There have been forty nine games this year where the
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: OKC bench has been outscored forty nine. They were thirty
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: six and thirteen in those games.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 14:11
  Speaker 6: Well, listen, man, they got the best bench and they're
• 14:14
  Speaker 6: getting out played now. So something changed. I don't know
• 14:16
  Speaker 6: what that is. I do know what it is, but
• 14:18
  Speaker 6: I don't want to keep eving redundant. That means I'm
• 14:21
  Speaker 6: repeating myself. Jared Oh, thanks, appreciate it. I appreciate, appreciate you.
• 14:24
  Speaker 7: That old Auburn education