Pacers collapse in fourth quarter

CHRISTINE TANNOUS/INDYSTAR - Indiana Pacers forward Pascal Siakam (43) 

drives on Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) on 

June 13 during Game 4 of the NBA Finals at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

Defeat means series with Thunder tied 2-2

15 Jun 2025 - The Indianapolis Star - USA TODAY NETWORK

Dustin Dopirak

INDIANAPOLIS -- Tyrese Haliburton’s hopeless heave from the logo caromed hard off the left side of the backboard and he and the other four Pacers on the floor immediately turned and headed for the tunnel as fast as they could go without running.

ABC’s cameras picked up Haliburton telling teammates, “Let’s win one on the road, we alright.” It was, on one hand, necessary optimism from the face of the franchise in a time of despair but also seemed to be a mechanism to delay emotionally processing what the last 12 minutes had cost the Pacers.

Indiana’s lead on the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 4 of the NBA Finals on Friday night was never an overwhelming one. It peaked at 10 points with 2:08 to go in the third quarter, and that double-figure edge lasted all of 96 seconds. They entered the fourth quarter with a sevenpoint advantage, and no one has done more in these playoffs to show exactly how fragile a seven-point lead is than the never-dead Pacers.

Still, the advantage felt bigger because of how thoroughly the Pacers had dominated fourth quarters in this series. In Games 1-3, they outscored the Thunder by a combined margin of 100-73 in the fourth quarter with a dramatic comeback in Game 1 and a dominant finish in Game 3. It also felt bigger because the Thunder seemed winded by the Pacers’ relentless pressure and the deafening Gainbridge Fieldhouse crowd was edging close to delirium at the prospect of a commanding 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals and being just one win away from an NBA title, something the franchise had never experienced.

But for one of few occasions in this postseason it was the Pacers who were walking off the floor stunned and wondering how exactly a late lead had gotten away from them. They lost Game 4 111-104 to the Thunder after being outscored 31-17 in the fourth quarter in their first sub-20point quarter since the first period in their Game 5 win over Cleveland in the Eastern Conference semifinals. They led by four points with 3:20 to go but were outscored 12-1 the rest of the way, missing their last five field goals as well as three of their last four free throws.

So now the series is tied 2-2 and the Pacers have lost the home-court advantage they stole in Game 1 on Haliburton’s game-winning jumper with 0.3 seconds to go. It’s essentially a best-of-three series with Game 5 on Monday and Game 7 on June 22 to be played in Oklahoma City and the series guaranteed to go at least six games.

“It’s frustrating, of course,” Haliburton said in his post-game news conference, acknowledging reality without giving in to any sense of impending doom. “You want to win that game, especially a game at home where, like you said, you have the lead late. But that’s just not how the cookie crumbled today. So take a shower, watch film and see where we can get better and get ready to go for Game 5.”

The Pacers seemed to be at a loss for exactly why the cookie crumbled that way, except everyone interviewed from the team or coaching staff seemed to have settled on the term “stagnant” to explain the offense. It was certainly difficult to argue with that assessment as the Pacers’ ball-movement-based offense registered just one assist in the period and zero after the 10:56 mark.

The Pacers made just 5 of 18 field goals in the fourth quarter. They missed all eight of their 3-pointers and their three turnovers in the period all happened at inopportune times.

“We just got too stagnant,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “The ball was not being advanced quickly enough. We weren’t creating problems and we were up against the clock a lot. Things got very difficult.”

Carlisle acknowledged that the Thunder had a lot to do with making it difficult. With the prospect of a nearly insurmountable deficit staring them in the face, the Thunder dialed up pressure, fought through screens, stepped up on the glass and did whatever they had to do to keep the Pacers from functioning as they planned.

The Thunder got excellent point-of-attack work from ace defenders Luguentz Dort, Jalen Williams and Alex Caruso, who spent all night navigating a bevy of screens but still had enough juice left to stay with their primary assignments for most of the period. When they had to switch, however, MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and 7-1 big man Chet Holmgren held their own and Holmgren in particular kept smaller Pacers ball-handlers in front of him at key moments.

“I just thought we showed great will in the game,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said.

Haliburton scored eight of the Pacers’ 17 points in the period and was responsible for three of the five field goals with all of them being driving layups. However, he was 3 of 7 from the floor in the period, missing on all three of his 3-point attempts. The rest of the team, however, was 2 of 11 from the floor and managed just one field goal after a run-out dunk by forward Obi Toppin with 10:56 to go.

Haliburton acknowledged that the failed overall operation falls on him as the point guard. The ball frequently got stuck above the 3-point line with no direction and the offense failed to involve Pascal Siakam down the stretch, even though he was the team’s leading scorer on the night with 20 points.

“I have to do a better job of keeping pace in the game, Haliburton said.

As Haliburton mentioned, the Thunder helped their defense with their offense. Gilgeous-Alexander seemed exhausted for much of the game with the full-court pressure he was dealing with but Oklahoma City relieved some of that by using forward Jalen Williams to take the ball up and giving Gilgeous-Alexander a bit of a breather. That helped him close strong as he scored 15 points in the fourth quarter on 3 of 6 shooting to finish with 35 points. The NBA’s foremost expert in drawing fouls was 10 of 10 at the line in the game, including 8 of 8 in the fourth quarter and he drew two key fouls on forward Aaron Nesmith to get him fouled out with 44 seconds left. The Thunder had a miserable 3-point shooting night, making just 3 of 16 attempts, but Gilgeous-Alexander’s 3 with 2:58 to go cut a four-point lead to one and helped turn the tide.

“I just tried to be aggressive,” GilgeousAlexander said.

For as poorly as they shot the ball, the Pacers still had an opportunity in the game’s final minute thanks, in large part, to hustle plays. They took a four-point lead with 3:52 left because Nesmith rebounded a blocked shot by Haliburton and drew a foul from Dort and hit two free throws. The Pacers were down four with 24 seconds to go when Bennedict Mathurin chased down a rebound on a missed 3pointer by Myles Turner and drew a loose-ball foul from Holmgren.

However, Mathurin missed both free throws. The Thunder called timeout after grabbing the rebound and Mathurin was called for an away-from-the-play foul that give Oklahoma City a free throw and possession of the ball. Gilgeous-Alexander hit the free throw and Mathurin managed to complete a steal off a deflection by Haliburton and draw another foul at the rim, but this time he missed the first free throw before hitting the second. Mathurin was then called for another away-fromthe-play foul and the Thunder scored the game’s last seven points without needing a field goal.

The Pacers collapse will certainly sting for the next two days and could for eternity if they don’t find a way to win the series. They held a 3-1 lead in each of the previous three series in the playoffs and there’s no way to get that back.