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Arizona basketball shows TJ McConnell, Bennedict Mathurin love during NBA Finals
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- Arizona basketball shows TJ McConnell, Bennedict Mathurin love during NBA Finals
Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images
The post Arizona basketball shows TJ McConnell, Bennedict Mathurin love during NBA Finals appeared first on ClutchPoints .
The Indiana Pacers continue to shock the basketball world, and now they are just two wins away from a championship. The Pacers took a 2-1 lead in the NBA Finals over the Oklahoma City Thunder with a 116-107 win in Game 3 on Wednesday night, and they have a pair of former Arizona basketball stars to thank for it.
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Both Bennedict Mathurin and TJ McConnell had monster games in Game 3 off the bench for the Pacers, helping lift them to the win. During the game, Arizona basketball showed love to two of its best players in the last 15 years after they linked up for a bucket.
Mathurin had one of the best games of his young career in the biggest spot, finishing with a game-high 27 points on 9-for-12 shooting with a pair of 3-pointers. His energy and confidence was infectious off the bench, as he notched the highest-scoring game off the bench in an NBA Finals game since Jason Terry back in 2011 with the Dallas Mavericks .
McConnell was his usual hyper self in this game and made a handful of massive impact plays despite not scoring a ton of points. The reserve guard stole two possessions for the Pacers by stealing two inbounds passes after Indiana baskets, which proved to be critical near the end of the game. He finished with 10 points, five assists and five steals for the game.
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If the Pacers are going to close out the Thunder and pull off one of the biggest upsets in NBA Finals history, they are going to need more excellent performances from the two Arizona products in Mathurin and McConnell along with the rest of the bench. Indiana has home-court advantage, so it will have two more cracks in front of its home crowd. If it can get a win in both games, the title will be in Indianapolis.
Mathurin's performance in Game 3 shows the potential that he has and the way that he unlocks the Pacers when he is on. He has had an inconsistent postseason so far, but he is finding his stride at exactly the right time.
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