INDIANAPOLIS — 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.
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.
