It was all going against the Thunder.
The fans, who serenaded their Pacers hero Obi Toppin with chants of his own name after he flagrantly fouled Alex Caruso and shoved an angry Isaiah Hartenstein.
The bounces, as OKC clanked three after three.
And certainly history, as teams trailing 2-1 in the Finals have won just 13 of the previous 63 series.
Ultimately, all of it – the suffocating noise from the crowd, another clunky offensive showing and a seven-point deficit heading into the fourth – wasn’t enough to stop Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s last gasp heroics as the Thunder won 111-104.
The MVP – following an anonymous showing late in Game 3 – scored 15 of the Thunder’s last 16 points (including 13 in the final 3:34) to snatch a vital victory for the Thunder.
It was a both a vintage and uncharacteristic performance from the 26-year-old (who finished with 35 points), though the former characterization will certainly be the prevailing memory. He produced zero assists, and seemed passive at points before taking over, with the visitors relying heavily on Jalen Williams (27 points) for long stretches.
The Oklahoma City Thunder are level in the NBA Finals after a massive fourth-quarter showing from Shai-Gilgeous Alexander
Tempers flared at one stage between Pacers’ Obi Toppin and the Thunder’s Isaiah Hartenstein
Tyrese Haliburton had 18 points and seven assists but was kept quiet for long stretches
‘He really didn’t have it going a lot of the night,’ coach Mark Daigneault said of Gilgeous-Alexander. ‘He was laboring. We had a hard time shaking him free. For him to be able to flip the switch like that and get the rhythm he got just speaks to how great of a player he is.’
Ultimately, as the Pacers continue to repeat their mantra of state basketball pride -‘But this is Indiana’ – Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder had a retort of their own as they completely swung the pendulum of the series and earned what Daigneault called a ‘blood and guts’ win.
‘I just thought we showed great will in the game,’ the coach said ‘…We had some deflating plays. It was an easy game to give up on.’
Several such moments come to mind, perhaps none more than Obi Toppin’s offensive contributions on the night.
The uber-athletic forward, who finished with 17 points, has developed quite the knack for clutch plays.
His dunks (he had three more on Friday) have electrified Pacers fans the entire series, while he hit three-pointers on consecutive possessions in the third quarter to give the Pacers an 80-72 lead.
The crowd also needed no invitation to chant his name after his scuffle with Hartenstein, while he also drew a flagrant foul (and the admiration of the crowd) later in the first half when Lu Dort caught him with a wind-up of his arm.
That was far from the only storm the Thunder had to endure.
The early stages of the game didn’t provide a ton of confidence for the visitors. Indiana looked the more dynamic and fluid of the two teams following the quick turnaround from Game 3, and made seven of their first 10 shots.
For a period, the fans in Gainbridge seemed to get get a decibel louder after every make – their volume almost mirroring their growing confidence that the underdog Pacers could, actually, pull this off.
An early Andrew Nembhard three which gave the Pacers a 20-12 lead and forced an OKC timeout was another ‘deflating’ play in the words of Daigneault.
But the Thunder – despite carrying over some worrying trends from Game 3 – fought back.
12 first-quarter points from Williams were a positive, while sloppiness and some bad transition turnovers ( there were five total giveaways in the first period) were not. Somehow, OKC still found themselves down just one at the end of the first quarter.
Isaiah Hartenstein and Jalen Williams celebrate their Game 4 win after beating the Pacers
Obi Toppin electrified the crowd with his dunks on Friday night in Game 4 of the Finals
And they looked a slightly better outfit in the second. The Pacers’ open looks dried open and the ball stopped sticking as much for the visitors, who played too much clunky, iso-heavy ball in the period before.
But – in keeping in theme with the fourth quarter of Game 3 – Gilgeous-Alexander was at times too quiet for an MVP. It wasn’t that he was missing shots, but rather that there were several possessions towards the end of the end of the quarter where he didn’t even touch the ball.
There was nothing quiet about Gainbridge, though. A handful of calls earned the stadium-wide scorn of the fans (some reactions were typical homer-ism, while the fans had a point when Caruso grabbed Tyrese Haliburton and escaped a foul call after he poked the ball free).
Regardless, the refs got back in the fans’ good graces when they slapped Dort with the aforementioned flagrant foul, which led to a mini 8-2 surge for the Pacers to close the half up three.
That sequence, if somewhat belatedly, set the tone for the third quarter, where the ball started flying again for this selfless Pacers team.
Another possession of crisp ball movement finished with Myles Turner assisting Pascal Siakam for a wide-open three, and the Pacers lead stretched to 71-64 with 7:06 remaining in the period.
At the same time, the OKC offense was flagging and suffering from severe spacing issues. Their 3-of-16 mark from deep on the night – even in a win – is particularly ghastly in this NBA age of spacing.
The Pacers would lead by as much as 10 in that quarter, though Gilgeous-Alexander dug in his heels to make some tough looks and keep his team within single digits heading into the fourth.
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault insisted his team needed to improve after Game 4
They’d soon tie the game back up in the next period thanks to a Chet Holmgren put-back dunk which quieted the crowd, and a one-for-two trip to the line for Caruso.
This was never the dominant performance of a team who won 68 regular series games. But the Thunder had clawed their way back.
‘No matter what happens, good or bad, pretty or ugly, we’re always going to stick together,’ Holmgren said after the game.
‘We’re going to win together, we’re going to lose together, we’re going to have great moments together, we’re going to fail together. No matter what happens, we’re going to do it together.’
That sort of connectedness paid off in a painfully tight beginning to the fourth quarter, as both sides traded buckets. Williams kept the visitors alive with a couple of big drives. Haliburton, quiet for much of the game, began hurting the visitors inside.
But this time it was Indiana who faded down the stretch (they scored just one point in the final 3:20) while Gilgeous-Alexander ascended.
From the brink of a near-fatal 3-1 deficit, the Thunder can breath again. But Daigneault still made sure to issue his team a warning afterwards.
‘We’ve got to get better now,’ he said.
