The Indiana Pacers did it again.
They are now 10-0 since mid-March in games immediately following a loss, and the latest of those wins came at a big time — in Game 3 of the NBA Finals. The Pacers beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 116-107 for a 2-1 series lead.
Game 4 is Friday night in Indianapolis.
Wednesday’s NBA Finals news
— Familiar territory for Thunder
Previous stories of note
— Pacers, back home, have things to figure out
— The moment is not too big for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
— Don Nelson wins Chuck Daly Award and makes a Luka Doncic statement
— There’s Canadian intrigue in these finals
— Tyrese Haliburton is Mr. Clutch
— In OKC, everybody must visit the memorial
— Commissioner Adam Silver talks parity, expansion, more
— Things to know about these NBA Finals
— The long, winding road for Rick Carlisle
— Players play for the trophy. Referees ref for the jacket
— Ashley Kerr wins a lot of titles. She’s Mark Daigneault’s wife
— The ratings might not be good. The NBA has 76 billion reasons not to worry
— In Seattle, the message is clear: ‘Go Pacers’
Moving on up, Part 1
The win in Game 2 of the NBA Finals was Oklahoma City’s 81st of the season (68 regular season, 13 playoffs).
The Thunder won’t catch Golden State and its record 88 wins in 2015-16, nor will it catch Chicago and its 87 wins in 1995-96.
But the Thunder could move into a tie with the 1996-97 Bulls for No. 3 all-time for most wins in a season.
A look at where the Thunder are on the all-time wins list:
88 wins — Golden State, 2015-16
87 wins — Chicago, 1995-96
84 wins — Chicago, 1996-97
83 wins — Golden State, 2016-17
82 wins — Los Angeles Lakers, 1999-2000; Boston, 1985-86; Miami, 2012-13; Boston, 2007-08; Chicago, 1991-92.
81 wins — Oklahoma City, 2024-25; Los Angeles Lakers, 1971-72; Los Angeles Lakers, 2008-09.
Moving on up, Part 2
The Thunder will set an NBA record for total points scored in a season on Friday. They really set it on Wednesday, but it doesn’t count.
So far, including regular season and postseason games, the Thunder have scored 12,094 points this season. That’s third-most all-time behind No. 1 Golden State (12,161 in 2018-19) and No. 2 Los Angeles Lakers (12,096 in 1984-85).
Oklahoma City needs only 68 points on Friday to pass the Warriors.
But if the NBA Cup championship game — technically an exhibition since it doesn’t count in any standings — was included, the Thunder would already have 12,175 points this season and have topped the Warriors’ record.
Betting odds
Oklahoma City (-250) remains the favorite — a considerably smaller one — to win the NBA title, according to BetMGM Sportsbook. Indiana’s odds are now +200 after the Game 3 win.
The Thunder are 6.5-point favorites over Indiana for Game 3.
The Pacers have covered in 13 of their first 19 games of these playoffs. The Thunder — favored in every game so far — have covered eight out of 19 times to this point.
NBA Finals schedule
All games of the NBA Finals will be aired on ABC.
June 5 — Game 1, Indiana 111, Oklahoma City 110
June 8 — Game 2, Oklahoma City 123, Indiana 107
Wednesday — Game 3, Indiana 116, Oklahoma City 107
Friday — Game 4, Oklahoma City at Indiana, 8:30 p.m. EDT
Monday — Game 5, Indiana at Oklahoma City, 8:30 p.m. EDT
June 19 — Game 6, Oklahoma City at Indiana, if necessary, 8:30 p.m. EDT
June 22 — Game 7, Indiana at Oklahoma City, if necessary, 8 p.m. EDT
(And good news: No NBA Finals games conflict with Stanley Cup Final dates!)
A close finals, geographically
The 688 miles by air between Oklahoma City and Indiana — by road, it is a bit longer — represents the shortest distance between finals cities in 69 years. That doesn’t count the bubble season, when the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat were in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, for the entirety of the 2020 finals.
The last time a between-cities finals trip was this short was 1956, with only 530 miles separating Fort Wayne and Philadelphia.
Other short finals trips, in air miles: Syracuse to Fort Wayne (489 miles, 1955), Rochester to New York (253 miles, 1951) and Baltimore to Philadelphia (90 miles, 1948).
The longest distance between finals cities was Boston to San Francisco for the 2022 finals; those cities are 2,704 miles apart by air. That’s just about 10 miles longer than Boston to Oakland, and about 100 miles longer than Boston to Los Angeles.
Under the current league format, the shortest possible distance between finals cities would be the 297 miles that separates Minnesota and Milwaukee. That’s just a bit shorter than Memphis-Atlanta (331) and Minnesota-Chicago (334).
Key upcoming events
June 25 — NBA draft, first round.
June 26 — NBA draft, second round.
SGA is the MVP
A recap of Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s winning of the NBA MVP award.
The story: Gilgeous-Alexander tops Jokic for MVP award
The reaction: SGA tears up when talking about his wife
Steve Nash speaks: Canada’s 1st MVP thrilled to see SGA follow him
The notebook: Jokic finishes top-2 again, Giannis’ streak ends, LeBron gets votes
Stats of the day
— Indiana leads the series 2-1 and has yet to have a double-digit lead in these NBA Finals. Since at least 1978, no team has led the finals after three games without a double-digit lead at some point.
— Indiana’s TJ McConnell is the third player in the last 40 years with at least 800 points, 400 assists and 95 steals off the bench in a season. The others: Sam Cassell and Michael Cooper.
Quote of the day
“This competition is one of the best in the world because you have to go out there and earn it. Every series leading up to this one, we have. So, we got another opportunity to come out in Game 4 and earn a win.” — Thunder guard Alex Caruso.
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