Pascal Siakam scored 21 points to lift the Indiana Pacers to a 126-112 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday in Indianapolis.
The Pacers (44-34) won for the third time in four games.
The Thunder (52-25) have dropped three consecutive games for the first time this season.
Oklahoma City remained without All-Star guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (quad) and second-year forward Jalen Williams (ankle), their two leading scorers.
Gilgeous-Alexander was out for the fifth time in six games. Before the game, Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said Gilgeous-Alexander had been sent back to Oklahoma City, making him likely to miss the team’s Sunday game at Charlotte.
Tyrese Haliburton had 11 assists to break Mark Jackson’s Pacers franchise record for assists in a season. Haliburton now has 714, one more than Jackson’s total in 1997-98.
Siakam finished 8 of 10 from the floor as Indiana, which came in leading the league in shooting at 50.4 percent, hit 52.3 percent.
The Pacers made 15 3-pointers, including four from Aaron Nesmith, who finished with 17 points.
Luguentz Dort led the Thunder with 22 points while Kenrich Williams added 18 off the bench. Josh Giddey contributed 14 points and 12 assists.
The Thunder cut what was once a 13-point deficit down to two with less than five minutes remaining in the third quarter, but a 15-4 Pacers run stretched out the lead once more and the outcome was never again in much doubt.
Indiana grabbed the lead for good in the opening minutes of the second quarter on T.J. McConnell’s 3-foot floater and extended the margin to 10 with a 16-5 run to start the quarter.
McConnell had three of his 10 assists during that sequence.
The Thunder answered with nine consecutive points from a bench-heavy lineup before Indiana ripped off nine consecutive itself.
Gordon Hayward started in Williams’ place for Oklahoma City but played just more than 13 minutes before leaving due to left lower leg soreness. He finished with seven points.
–Field Level Media
