TJ McConnell and Bennedict Mathurin couldn’t seem more different. Together, they were a two-man bench wrecking crew for the Indiana Pacers in Game 3 of the NBA Finals.

NBA Finals marquees aren't for backups. However, as the 20,000 golden T-shirts in the arena said on Thursday, "But this is Indiana."

Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark has attended eight Pacers playoffs games this postseason, and the Pacers have won all eight.

However, what won the 68 games and got them to the Finals was their defense, and the Pacers torched that for a long stretch of Game 3. Indiana took better shots and capitalized on them, finishing with a 116 offensive rating (9.5 points higher than the Thunder allowed on average during the playoffs coming into the game).

Udonis Haslem hypes up the crowd after telling Pat McAfee he's siding with the Pacers and trusting Rick Carlisle's leadership.

The Pacers are back in the NBA Finals for only the second time in franchise history, 42 years after Herb and brother Mel bought the team.