Game Rewind: Pacers 93, Thunder 90

Despite trailing the Oklahoma City Thunder by as much as 15 points on Monday night, Indiana stormed back into the game using a massive third quarter to regain the lead and capture its seventh victory in a row, besting the Thunder 93-90 in a chaotic finish.

In the third, the Pacers blitzed the Thunder 32-18, quickly erasing their 11-point halftime deficit as momentum-shifting baskets from C.J. Miles and Glenn Robinson III helped send Indiana on a 16-4 scoring run.

Not surprisingly, Westbrook and the Thunder — playing on the second night of a back-to-back — did not go down without a fight. In the fourth quarter, Paul George hit a 3-pointer to give the Pacers a 10-point lead, but Oklahoma City responded with a 13-2 run, surging back into the game and cutting the score to a 91-90 Pacers lead after a Westbrook layup in traffic.

With 1:30 left in the game, Pacers head coach Nate McMillan called a timeout following a missed OKC shot, giving Indiana a chance to regroup for the final 90 seconds.

Out of the stoppage, the Pacers ran a play for George, who shook his defender on the elbow and splashed a jumper to put the Pacers up by three. The bucket gave George his team-high 21st point, and served as redemption for a first half in which he struggled from the field.

Westbrook attempted to strike back with a 3-pointer, but it glanced wide, giving Indiana another rebound.

The pulse-pounding finish wasn't close to over yet, as Westbrook — at his signature speed-of-light pace — collapsed the defense and found an open Victor Oladipo in the corner. Luckily for the Pacers, Oladipo's shot was wide as well, as C.J. Miles corralled the rebound to give the Pacers possession in the final minute.

With 7.6 second left, PG found Miles for a would-be, put-it-away 3-pointer, but his shot rimmed out as Westbrook rose up to snare his game-high 18th rebound with 7.6 seconds remaining.

With the game's final possession, OKC inbounded the ball to Westbrook, who pulled up from far beyond the arc and fired up a three. His shot rattled out, but a teammate was able to find him for yet another last second look, which also rimmed out, sending the Pacers to their seventh straight win.

"The first one (Westbrook) took, I didn't think necessarily that was a good look," George said of the frantic final seconds. "But as soon as he shot it, all I saw was a blur just take off. Next thing you know, he got it again. He got a better look; but hopefully us putting the pressure on him all night was the reason he didn't have the legs for that one.

The win gives the Pacers their longest winning streak since March of 2015, and gave the Pacers a season sweep of the Thunder for the first time since the 2008-09 season.

In the first half, the Pacers found themselves in a hole against the breakneck style of play of the Thunder. Westbrook nearly had his nighty triple-double at the halftime break, while no one on the Pacers seemed to be able to find their rhythm. As a team, Indiana shot just 29 percent in the first half.

"I thought the first half was a wakeup call," said McMillan in the postgame. "We came out like it was just another game, they're a playoff team and they came out like it was a playoff game. The second half we started to play like we're capable of playing. Offensively we had more rhythm, more spacing and better execution. But defense was the difference in this ball game."

Had it not been for a 3-pointer from Glenn Robinson III to close the half, the Pacers would've been trailing by 14 at halftime. But thanks to Robinson — one of the few Pacers who had it going early — Indiana trailed by just 11 at the break.

After the Thunder opened up the scoring in the second half with a pair of Steven Adams free throws, Indiana settled in, embarking on an 11-0 run to pull within one point of the lead, erasing its 11-point halftime deficit.

But with the athleticism of Westbrook on full display, the comeback didn't last long. After Westbrook — who came into the game averaging a triple-double but fell one assist shy on Monday — connected on a 3-pointer to put the Thunder up four. Following his three, a steal and fastbreak assist to Oladipo gave OKC a 63-57 advantage midway through the third.

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But with Indiana's home crowd smelling blood in the water, the noise at The Fieldhouse intensified as Robinson III — who finished the evening a perfect 5-for-5 — canned a 3-pointer to bring the Pacers back within two. After a free throw from Turner cut to deficit to one, Paul George was able to get a bucket, giving Indiana its first lead since the score was an 18-17 Pacers advantage.

Over the next two minutes of play, the lead changed hands five times, with Teague eventually seizing it for the final time in the third quarter, as he got a layup to fall on a drive to the hoop.

The strong third quarter allowed the Pacers to withstand OKC's final rally, as both teams put up 20 points in the dizzying finish to the action at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

Thunder guard Russell Westbrook fell just shy of a triple-double, tallying 27 points, 18 rebounds, and nine assists.

In the second half, Indiana held the Thunder to just 13-of-43 (30.2 percent) shooting, while the Pacers made 46 percent of their shots over the final two quarters.

Glenn Robinson III had a game-high +13 plus-minus. The next closest Pacers player was a +4.

"It's tough. He's so fast, his 0-100, there's nobody better in this league. How quick he can cover ground and how explosive he is. You've got to anticipate with him and I was able to do that some." -Paul George on guarding Westbrook

"I thought our guys played very, very well. You knew Indiana was going to make a run at some point. I think it was a tale of two halves for both teams. Nate (McMillan) is probably looking at his team thinking 'we didn't play particularly well in the first half' and I'm saying the same thing about our team in the second half." -Thunder head coach Billy Donovan

"We did a good job of trying to force them to make tough two's and try to make them make contested shots. In the first half they were making a lot of things, getting in the paint and making things happen. We did a better job in the second half of corralling and being tight in the paint. We locked in, bumped the rollers a little bit and tried to make Russell (Westbrook) make tough jump shots. He's a heck of a player, he makes tough shots all the time but we knew him shooting more and more jump shots would be good for us." -Jeff Teague

Despite being outrebounded by 24, Indiana still escaped with a victory. It was only the second time in Pacers franchise history that the team was outrebounded by 24 or more and still ended up getting a win. The only other time was a January game in 1996 against the Dallas Mavericks in which Dallas outrebounded Indiana 66-39 (-27 differential), but the Pacers won 91-84. (Per Basketball-Reference.com)

Indiana has the third game of its three-game homestand, facing LeBron James and the Eastern Conference leading Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night at 7 PM ET. Find Tickets »

Shadow Hooded Fleece - $25. Game Night Specials can be purchased in the Home Court Gift Shop or any of our souvenir stands located on all levels of Bankers Life Fieldhouse. The special is also available online at PacersGear.com until midnight.