Chuck & GameTime Crew Talk Pacers Game 3 Win vs. Thunder | 2025 NBA Finals

Chuck & GameTime Crew Talk Pacers Game 3 Win vs. Thunder | 2025 NBA Finals

go to the highlight here meet him meet him well uh here we go with what happened in this one look how aggressive both teams were right out of the gate here candace yes dort doing a great job stepping up knocking down shots 12 points four of five from beyond the arc and then the thunder out and running chat had 13 points in the first quarter in fact he scored 12 of the first 19 points for okc then it’s hallebertton getting going here grant and in transition indiana at their best hallebertton to topping and reggie miller approves hallebertton from downtown hallebertton makes it a two-point game you know this is this is when the game was won in the second quarter and in the in the fourth quarter the bench tj mcconnell with the steals matarin with these all these baskets their bench single-handedly won this game tonight it was beautiful to watch chuck it was that energy that force they played with obie toppin part of that great find there finds matherin who was an absolute stud in this game mather in company make it a one-point game now indiana up by five you talk about a grown man move jay doug doing a great job i’d like to see him get more touches for okc in this offense cuz when he gets going downhill he is a problem sga had 24 points tyrese hallebertton 12.7 assists in the first half and it was the bench that was the story as you mentioned chuck in the second quarter the third quarter here’s hallebertton the second quarter and the fourth quarter the benches cuz they were down five or six going into the fourth quarter and the bench came out and was terrific you know what chuck they did they took a page out of okc’s book they had 13 steals to okc’s six here’s sga step back then jay dove over to chad homegrren chad great game for him jay dove was tremendous and they were great third quarter as chuck said the first quarter third quarter okc with that second and fourth indiana all indiana bench all indiana bench here it is again matherin he had 27 chuck and tj mcconnell the star look at that steal chuck what a steal he had five or six steals man and they were all layups on the other end oh hallebertton he was shooting 33% from three over the first two games the big put back by toppin man his energy level off the bench was fabulous today 8.7 rebounds for tophin that just about three minutes to go this is knee smith huge shot right there big three big shot homegrren gets blocked by miles turner leads the nba postseason in blocks comes up with one on the perimeter huge turnover yeah i think right now this is probably much sealed it right here i love you know i know halle burton didn’t want to throw him out seakum was really way more aggressive tonight than he was in game in the first couple of games he came out aggressive first two three possessions of the first quarter and i know hi didn’t want to throw him under the bus but that was like night and day when he i told you if if he’s aggressive and they think we need more out of miles turner but man this was just a bench game today get a bench all the love and the flowers that was but mcconnell his numbers don’t show up it still show up but matlin was fabulous and toppin was fabulous well i’ll tell you about about uh tj mcconnell which does show up first player in nba history nba finals history to have a 10-point five assist five steel game off the bench ever first so great game by mcconnell he matherin and tophin combined for 45 off the bench you mentioned seakum candace in the first three minutes of the game he scored the first six points for the pacers and again he wasn’t going east and west he was going north and south and i think it was his decision-m off of the catch it was quick it was decisive it was to the basket and i think he got rewarded from that again you said he scored the first six points for the pacers and i think that sets the tone of getting the ball to the paint and and putting the pressure on the thunder the thunder picked up two early fouls and they couldn’t play as physical as they’d like at the start of the game and he took advantage of that the thunder signature all year has been turning over their teams and not turning it over themselves grant tonight it was very uncharacteristic of this thunder team they only forced 14 turnovers only turned that into 14 points but yet okc turned it over 19 times and the pacers put that up for 21 points yeah the only the only other game i can think of in the postseason where okc looked rattled offensively and just out of sorts was that game three in minnesota in the western conference finals where they got blown out but give credit this defense they were swarming and chuck talked about it it’s the depth and the energy off the bench mcconnell matin toppenhen that energy it comes in with in waves and it’s a force and it really started with the defense presenting those opportunities in transition creating opportunities within their offense off of good defense and and it just kind of wore down they i felt like it wore them down it wore them down in the first half and in the second half as well in those quarter 72 to 46 in terms of scoring second and fourth quarter favored indiana so that’s a big i mean they they turned it on there at the end of both halves and really that was the difference yeah and i i told you this is i was like when i was sitting at home watching game one i’m like holy what are these guys doing i like and i i hate to be redundant i say i go back to avery johnson when the mavericks switched up this lineup against don nelson’s uh golden state warriors i’m like if i got the best team in the world i’m not changing anything i’m not changing anything we’re in the nba finals we got we’ve been the best team in the nba all year and can you change it up in during the game yes you can but i i thought you know kenny always talks about when a player comes back it puts everybody in their right situation i don’t think oklahoma city has because i told you game two was just a wash for me that was just a desperation but i said this game tonight going to show me a lot more and i didn’t like the lineup adjustment and i because i’m not sure how it benefits them because they were the deepest team in the league now their bench is getting outplayed they have the best bench in the nba and they’re getting outplayed and that’s been the difference in the series so far and what you’re saying is it takes guys out of their roles it takes guys out of takes guys out of their roles 100% out of their role but you know these some of these guys they think they damn red our back out there and want act like they’re the smartest dude in the room well you’re spot you’re right about taking out of roles and like you said the bench 49 to 18 i mean and that okc strength this season has been their bench that has won each of the three games look at it because you know it was caruso and wiggins in game two that gave you 20 and 18 and then in this game i don’t think we’ve talked about benedict matan enough and what he’s done he was able to play under control get to his spots and have a a a crucial game i mean nine of 12 efficiency got to the free throw line eight times i mean it just seemed like he played that calm cool collective game because the role players play better at home i’d be curious i mean i don’t who cuz underdog he’s the greatest in the world at what he does justin nixon’s pretty good too but okay okay but i’d wonder how many times this year okay he’s benched has been outscored i’ll bet it’s if they played over a hundred games i bet you only 20 times this year i’m just taking a random guess i wonder how i i would love to somebody to look up that said how many times their bench has been outscored that to me would be like cuz they they have the best bench in the nba you also wonder too when you when you make an adjustment before the series starts to your starting line what kind of psychological effect does it have on huge it’s one thing if if you’re in the series and and and you lose a game or here and now you got to make a change yes but to to be preemptive to do it early i it just sometimes can mess with the team psyche i and i and i and i believe it has that’s just my personal opinion whether people think i’m right or wrong i don’t care i do think it because okay now it was it was a two-point game going into the into the fourth quarter well it shouldn’t have been because oklahoma city has been the best team in the nba all year what they should have they they are the best team you if you’re the best you don’t change anything we can say well you barely winning or you barely losing i grant just hit the point there’s got to be a psychological i think has affected their bench i i i truly do and i listen they might come back and win this series i just think it was a mistake like i said i said the same thing back the other time you are who you are you are who you are you don’t change you’re in the finals you’re the best at it you you you are you listen you have the they’ve been the best team in the nba all year they lost one game to an eastern conference team in the regular season on the road on the road um well just jaylen williams jaylen williams was asked about this very topic yesterday at media day uh in part what he said was “we have so many different lineups nobody is shocked when mark dagnel wants to go small or change things around you kind of don’t notice it.” he said williams said that you’re just ready to play when your number is called and i think that’s what’s made our team so special well first of all he’s just wrong uh cuz he don’t want to throw his coach under the bus they didn’t make the adjustment till game one or the finals they’re in the finals well yeah that works in the regular season regular season you can you know you first of all guys are hurt home was out hart hartenstein but when you get into the postseason it’s a whole different ball you’re playing against because this is the other thing about it jared this people don’t most people don’t know this the indiana pacers have had the second best record nba since january the first so they’re not there’s no orlando magic or atlanta hawks walking through that damn door this team is in the nba finals so and see i say like i say i don’t know what’s going to happen this series but one game can change a series in my opinion game one was the one that had changed so obviously there’s tremendous amount of pressure on okc in the next game but man when you get the like the knicks we talked about it uh the knicks blowing game one ch changed that entire it it changed the entire series and people say “well it’s the first one to four.” i says “yeah but if you give a game away you got to win five games against a really good team.” so what would you do going into game four would you revert back to that same starting lineup that that you went got to the finals with or the one you’ve been rolling with what i think happened what i think happened this just my personal opinion i think he realized after game one he screwed up but he didn’t want to admit he was wrong now he’s got he’s down 2-1 he got to do some damn soul searching i would go back to my best lineup personally but so and that is what the one they the one that got them to the too big too big yes because they could hammer indiana on the boards that i would you i always think my size uh is always an advantage um so i would go back but coaches hate to admit they were wrong but it’s going to be a long 48 hours because if them boys come in here and lose the next game they going to get beat well the the great thing though with you know these teams mirror each other in a lot of ways they have depth um and they’ve shown in the postseason when they’ve lost they can bounce back and so you know the the the difficulty of losing this game here for okc they’ve done it before they’ve been on the road they’ve lost what they three right now in game threes throughout the the postseason and indiana’s first win in a game three yeah so i mean i think okc can bounce back but i agree like you you you got to you got to stick with with what got you here but i also but but also to to chuck’s point on the defensive end where they thrive is off of rotation off of you know you learn to play with certain dudes on the defensive end in terms of being on a on a string having another size and length to help yes deter and i feel like to some extent at times they were small and the pacers i know they lost the rebounding battle but they got timely offensive rebounds that i think hurt the thunder well i also think homegrren and and and hartenstein although they didn’t play a lot together this year they started most of the year when they played that’s a role that they’re comfortable with you know and then you bring that small lineup to match up with the energy in the second and fourth quarter of indiana and also i actually think chad i think chad his length would bother seakum i think his yeah and and i think hartstein he’s going to be all right against miles turner but i think they they’ll be a better rebounding team a better defensive team but the reasoning he did that was because of the three-point shot he was afraid that his bigs could not get out to defend well you don’t do that before the series i’m not disagreeing i’m just saying you make him prove it to you you’re giving up you pro you prove it to me chuck you had you had a question for the great justin nixon who’s our lead researcher tonight who’s by the way just two steps over your left shoulder you could have just asked him yourself well i didn’t see him i he that little man i can only be looking down that low i couldn’t see him over there really chuck uh there i didn’t laugh justin i didn’t laugh there have been 49 games this year where the okc bench has been outscored 49 they were 36 and 13 in those games yeah well listen man they they got the best bench and they’re getting outplayed now so something changed i don’t know what that is i do know what it is but i don’t want to keep being redundant that mean i’m repeating myself jared oh thanks appreciate it appreciate appreciate your good old auburn education

NBA TV GameTime crew Charles Barkley, Grant Hill, Candace Parker, and Jared Greenberg react to the Indiana Pacers win over the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 3 of the 2025 NBA Finals.

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