Three stinking minutes doom the Pacers in Game 5 of the NBA Finals; now it's tied at 2 games apiece

They got outscored, 31-17. They couldn't corral a rebound. Their free-throw shooting went sideways. And now the advantage slides back to OKC.

Three minutes. That’s all they needed after Tyrese Haliburton’s floater put the Pacers ahead, 103-99 with 2:54 left. That’s all they needed to take a stranglehold on the NBA Finals, to put Oklahoma City away for good. Just a couple of stops, a few rebounds, a made basket or two and we could start making parade plans in earnest.

But something weird happened.

The Pacers, 9-1 in the playoffs in clutch games (defined as any game within a margin of five points or less with five minutes or less remaining) and 18-2 in their last 20 clutch games, fell to tiny little jagged pieces. Haliburton got turned over. He missed a three. Benn Mathurin, an 89 percent free throw shooter in the post-season, missed three free throws and committed two heinous off-the-ball fouls in the final moments. And the offense, so effective, so beautiful to watch, thoroughly stagnated.

In a 17-point fourth quarter, the Pacers went 1-for-8 from 3 and were outscored, mostly by Shai Gilgeous Alexander, during a 12-1 run to close out the game. They couldn’t grab a rebound. They couldn’t defend without fouling. Pascal Siakam? He had one shot in the fourth quarter.

Three stinking minutes and we’d be dreaming of parades down Meridian.

Three stinking minutes and now you’re wondering if the Pacers didn’t just drop-kick away their best and perhaps only chance to win this series over the favored Thunder. If this thing ends badly, Indiana – the city and the team – will remember Friday night as the game that got away, the loss that turned the emotional tide of this fabulous series and put Oklahoma City back in the driver’s seat. I felt all along the winner of Game 4 would win the series. I stick by that prediction. OKC in six. But I’d be thrilled to see a seventh game because this Indiana team is so focused, so talented and so tough-minded, I think they can go into Loud City and do to the Thunder what they did to the Knicks one year ago in Madison Square Garden.