Thunder flip script against comeback-king Pacers, rally in fourth to tie NBA Finals

INDIANAPOLIS – The comeback kings had it happen to them for a change, and once again, the 2025 NBA Finals are tied because of it.

The Oklahoma City Thunder erased a 10-point second-half deficit to beat the Indiana Pacers 111-104 in Game 4 behind 35 points from NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and 27 points from Jalen Williams.

The Pacers had made it a habit of pulling off stunning victories in these playoffs after falling behind by sizable margins with seemingly not enough time left on the clock to fix it. On Friday, with a chance to take command of the series, they went uncharacteristically cold in the fourth quarter – failing to score from the 3:19 mark until Bennedict Mathurin’s free throw with 20 seconds left.

The Thunder, heavy favorites to win the finals at its outset, evened the series at two games apiece and will host Game 5 on Monday.

The Pacers were 60 game minutes away from being the lowest-seeded NBA champion in 30 years and just the third team in history to win a finals after entering the playoffs as something lower than a No. 3 seed. And then the fourth quarter began, and they simply couldn’t shoot. Indiana was 5 for 18 from the field and missed all eight of its 3-pointers.

Pascal Siakam, the Pacers’ leading scorer in the game with 20 points, was shut out in the fourth quarter. Aaron Nesmith and Andrew Nembhard combined to go 1 for 7. Only Tyrese Haliburton, who scored eight of his 18 points in the final quarter, could generate anything at all.

Gilgeous-Alexander, after being hounded by Nembhard again for most of the game, scored 15 in the fourth quarter and made all eight of his foul shots. His baseline jumper with 2:21 left gave the Thunder a 104-103 advantage they didn’t relinquish.

Williams, meanwhile, did most of his damage in the first three quarters. He was 8 for 18 from the field but 11 for 11 from the line and added seven rebounds. Chet Holmgren seemed to roll his ankle at least twice but battled through it to score 14 points and grab 15 rebounds. Alex Caruso added 20 points off the bench.

Obi Toppin was Indiana’s top bench scorer with 17 points.

The Thunder reinserted center Isaiah Hartenstein as a starter over guard Cason Wallace, which gave Indiana a chance to play even faster against a two-big unit with Hartenstein and Holmgren to open the game. After trailing substantially in each opening quarter heading into Friday’s game, the Pacers were up 20-12 through five minutes with the Thunder’s starters on the court. (OKC used Hartenstein as a starter for its first 16 playoff games, so this wasn’t really a “new” lineup.) For the first time in this series, Indiana led after the first quarter, 35-34.

Indiana took a 60-57 lead into halftime thanks to an old-fashioned three-point play from Haliburton, who finished a layup off a foul by Caruso and made the free throw (his first of the series). Between the bucket and foul shot, Haliburton slapped hands and barked back and forth with his dad, John Haliburton, who was temporarily banned from games for taunting Giannis Antetokounmpo earlier in the playoffs but was seated on the floor again. (When the elder Haliburton was permitted to attend games again during the Eastern Conference finals, he was in a suite upstairs.)

Oklahoma City was lucky to be down only three. The Thunder were 1 for 10 from 3-point range and had just six assists against eight turnovers in the first half. Sixteen free throws kept them in it.

The Pacers carried an 87-80 advantage into the fourth quarter. They achieved their largest lead of the series – 10 points – on Toppin’s baseline dunk with 2:08 left in the quarter. The Thunder almost immediately erased the deficit, dominating the first few minutes of the fourth quarter to tie the score at 89 on a Caruso free throw with 8:13 left, but he missed his second foul shot. Still, the stage was set for Oklahoma City’s strong finish and evening of this series, with home-court advantage swinging back in its favor.

Thunder regain mojo

From the brink of basketball disaster to new life. That’s the path the Thunder traveled.

This series between two closely matched teams is tied at 2, but the Thunder have the advantage, with Game 5 and a potential Game 7 set to be played in Oklahoma City.

In that sense, these NBA Finals may play out similarly to the Thunder’s Western Conference semifinals victory over the Denver Nuggets. The Thunder entered Game 4 of that series in Denver trailing 2-1, but the Thunder won Game 4. Then, the Thunder won Game 5 and Game 7 at home.

The Thunder looked to be in big trouble for most of Game 4. Oklahoma City trailed late in the third quarter by 10 points but recovered. For such a young team, the comeback road win is a huge feather in their cap.

The Thunder won Game 4 despite a gargantuan discrepancy in 3-point production. Indiana outscored Oklahoma City by 24 points on made 3s. It’s difficult for any team to overcome that disadvantage, but OKC did it and regained its mojo in the process.

You have to think the Thunder will shoot better from long range in Game 5 at home than they did in Game 4, when they went 3 for 17, right? – Josh Robbins

Pacers watch lead vanish in game, series

Clinging to a two-point lead in the third quarter, Siakam dribbled past half court as the Pacers got into their motion offense. He zipped the ball to Ben Sheppard in the corner, forcing the Thunder’s defense to rotate, and Indiana kept the ball humming. Using four more passes to keep OKC off-kilter, the ball eventually found a wide-open Toppin, who buried a wing 3.

The Thunder responded on the other end with just two passes in their half-court offense before Aaron Wiggins went 1-on-1 for a missed layup.

Indiana capitalized on the ensuing possession by using three passes in the half court to find Toppin wide open again in the corner, and he nailed another 3 to push Indiana’s lead to eight points, forcing OKC to call a timeout.

This was the Pacers at the peak of their powers, using their ball movement to break down the Thunder. But when the game got tight in the fourth quarter, Indiana’s team-oriented approach evaporated.

The Pacers finished with 21 assists for the game, but they produced just one assist in the fourth quarter while being outscored 31-17 in the final quarter.

Meanwhile, the Thunder survived with just 10 assists, their lowest mark of these playoffs, but had two assists (one more than the Pacers) in the fourth quarter. – James Boyd

Siakam’s big night

The Pacers parlayed an energetic start to Game 4 into a lead for most of Friday, but it didn’t matter in the end.

For most of the night, Indiana gave the Thunder the blues with its high-octane offense as Oklahoma City struggled to make 3s, create offense and contain the Pacers’ veteran-laden depth, but the Thunder made a late-game push to tie the series.

Haliburton’s box score (18 points, seven assists, five turnovers) was relatively pedestrian, but his energy helped Indiana maintain an advantage until the Pacers just ran out of gas. Siakam became the fourth player in the past 15 years with a 20-point, five-steal game in the NBA Finals, which helped the Pacers control both sides of the court for most of the night. – James Jackson

As a team, Indiana had four players each make multiple 3-pointers as Oklahoma City totaled just three makes all game, but the Pacers folded down the stretch because they missed crucial free throws. The Thunder capitalized when it mattered. – James Jackson