Mathurin madness as sub sinks Thunder

Indiana bench roars past OKC in game 3

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The Indiana Pacers, fuelled by a near triple-double from Tyrese Haliburton, out-duelled the Oklahoma City Thunder 116-107 on Wednesday to take a 2-1 lead in the NBA Finals.

Haliburton scored 22 points with nine rebounds and 11 assists to spearhead a tremendous collective effort that included a career playoff high 27 points from reserve Bennedict Mathurin.

The Pacers bench outscored Oklahoma City's reserves 49-18 and Indiana wore down NBA Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, whose 24 points included just three in the fourth quarter.

"So many different guys chipped in," Haliburton told broadcaster ABC. "Ben Mathurin was amazing off the bench tonight. He just stuck with it. We just had guys make plays after plays."

Pascal Siakam scored 21 points for Indiana and TJ McConnell added 10 points and five steals off the bench to help the Pacers improve to 10-0 since March 11 in games immediately after a defeat.

They'll try to stretch their lead in the best-of-seven championship series when they host game four today before the series heads back to Oklahoma City for game five on Monday.