The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Indiana Pacers in Game 4, and tied the series 2-2. Craig Carton, Danny Parkins, and Mark Schlereth ask if the Pacers blew their chance to win the series as they prepare for Game 5.

Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle comes to the defense of one of the more well-known officials in the league, Scott Foster.

Up by 10, late in the third quarter. Up by seven, going into the fourth. The Indiana Pacers had a golden opportunity. And then, thud.

INDIANAPOLIS — T.J. McConnell didn’t even need to dribble. When the Indiana Pacers guard came up with a loose ball in the fourth quarter of Friday’s Game 4 of the NBA Finals, he quickly fired it ahead to a streaking Obi Toppin. Indiana’s high-flying forward was all by himself as he received the pass and soared in for a right-handed tomahawk dunk.

The result was only the second clutch game the Pacers lost this postseason, a 111-104 Thunder win that ties the series up at 2-2. What has been a highly entertaining, well-played Finals will see Game 5 Monday night in Oklahoma City. It also feels like a series that is going to go seven games.

Indiana coach Rick Carlisle offered an impassioned and somewhat unprompted defense of referee Scott Foster on Sunday, evidently aware of the mountains of online criticism that came after Game 4 of the NBA Finals.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander came up clutch, finishing with 35 points in the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 111-104 win over the Indiana Pacers in Game 4 of the NBA Finals on Friday night, evening the series 2-2.

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).