ANOTHER MIRACLE

WILLIAM PURNELL/GETTY IMAGES - Pacers forward Aaron Nesmith (23) congratulates 

guard Tyrese Haliburton after scoring a basket against the Oklahoma City Thunder during 

the fourth quarter in Game 1 of the 2025 NBA Finals at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City.

Pacers take only lead of Game 1 in final .3 seconds

7 Jun 2025 - The Indianapolis Star

Zach Osterman

Indianapolis Star USA TODAY NETWORK

OKLAHOMA CITY – Tyrese Haliburton sat, bemused, in front of his locker, scrolling through his phone in the afterglow of yet another come-from-behind victory in a playoff run now defined by them.

On another night when the Pacers became the first team to do this when trailing by that much with so many minutes left on the clock since when, Haliburton stared at the screen the way you do when your mind is distracted, quietly trying to process events whose magnitude is still unfolding. The more he scrolled, the more he laughed.

This was, he said, even crazier than “the other ones.”

No further explanation needed. There have been enough “other ones.” Just none so important as this.

The Pacers’ 15-point fourth-quarter rally Thursday night handed them a last-second 111-110 win here in Oklahoma City, tilting Game 1 and control of this seven-game series toward Indiana. It was the latest in what has become a defining series of never-say-die comebacks from a never-been-dead team, whose signature event in these playoffs has become snatching victory in seemingly impossible circumstances.

Impossible, it turns out, might just not apply to these Pacers. When happens often, it stops being a miracle and becomes expectation instead.

“We’re just a resilient group. We know how to fight. We never give up, until the buzzer sounds,” Aaron Nesmith said postgame. “We honestly believe no game’s out of reach, no score’s out of reach. If we dig ourselves a hole, we’ll get out of the hole.”

Make no mistake: Indiana dug itself that hole.

For 24 minutes Thursday, all the imbalances of this series — all the belief in Oklahoma City and all the doubts about Indiana — manifested themselves relentlessly.

The Pacers scored just 45 points in the opening two quarters, all while matching a postseason single-game high with 20 turnovers.

Before Thursday night, that had been a full-game high. This was just halftime.

Oklahoma City’s across-the-board athleticism and withering defense forced the Pacers’ Formula 1-car offense into heavy traffic, and Indiana responded by turning the ball over in just about every way imaginable.

There were other problems, like spotty defensive rebounding effort and an

Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton makes the game-winning shot over Oklahoma City Thunder guard Cason Wallace (22) during Game 1 of the 2025 NBA Finals. inability to leverage the 3-point line the way Indiana has on more successful nights this postseason. But the sheer collapse of what had been such an impressive, exciting transition attack in the face of the NBA’s best defense was jarring. The Pacers were lucky to go to intermission down just 12.

That’s where the seeds of their comeback were sown.

“When you have a half like that, when you’re throwing the ball to the other team … we only gave up nine (points off turnovers),” Haliburton said afterward. “That’s not that bad when you think about it that way.”

Every box score tells its own story, each game a tale made distinct by the small numbers that add up to big ones. The ones that count in the end.

Nine was one such number Thursday. All those wasted possessions should have amounted to more, for the NBA’s best team. The Thunder should have punished Indiana more mercilessly, should have geared up that transition offense that helped spur them to 68 wins in the regular season.

This game should have been out of Indiana’s reach long before the Pacers got back to their feet.

But, once again, it wasn’t.

For all the Pacers’ failings in those opening two quarters, this team that has become the tick no boot heel can crush did what it now does best: It stuck around.

“We have a group that, nothing’s over until it’s over,” Andrew Nembhard said. “We stay connected. We play until the whistle blows, you know? It didn’t feel like we were down 20 or something. “We felt like we were just right there.” They started by tightening those turnovers.

Reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored a game-high 38 points, at times personally stifling Indiana runs. But those runs kept coming. Oklahoma City managed to shoot the Pacers almost to a standstill behind the 3-point line in the first half, hitting seven 7s to Indiana’s 8, but where that threat dried up for the Thunder after halftime, it only intensified for the visitors.

If nine was the number that defined the first half, six did the same for the second. That’s how many more 3s the Pacers made than their hosts after halftime, the entirety of that gap manifesting itself in a fourth quarter that ended with a once-raucous Paycom Center stunned into defeated silence.

Obi Toppin led the way from the bench, hitting a team-best five, including three after halftime.

“His confidence,” Myles Turner said of Toppin, “just never shook.”

But he was not alone. Of the 10 Pacers who played Thursday, nine hit at least one 3. In that fourth quarter alone, while Oklahoma City threw up a zero, four different Pacers made a shot from distance.

It’s one thing to believe in your comeback. It’s another to possess the tools to do it.

Indiana entered these Finals the only team in the league shooting better than 40% from behind the arc. It has been the Pacers’ great equalizer, with Rick Carlisle directing from the sideline and Haliburton pulling the strings. The offense that ground to a calamitous halt in the first half flowed as freely and fluidly in the fourth quarter as it has throughout the playoffs.

“You tip your hat to them. They made plays,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “They’ve done it all playoffs. This is part of their identity. They have a lot of belief. They never think they’re out of it, so they play with great confidence even when their back’s against the wall.”

All that set the stage. Haliburton then took it with what has become his customary flourish.

After a coach’s challenge confirmed a loose ball off Pascal Siakam with just under 23 seconds left and Oklahoma City up one, Nembhard forced GilgeousAlexander into a difficult fadeaway jumper that landed short.

Nesmith grabbed his game-best 12th rebound, and Indiana pushed the ball to Haliburton up the floor.

Here is where he thrives. Where his amoebic style and unnatural offensive feel fill the pregnant seconds of a game in the balance, when there’s no time for offense and no energy for defense and he who acts quickest gains most.

Trailing Siakam — who cut to the rim, forcing Alex Caruso out of a double team — Haliburton pushed Cason Wallace to Wallace’s left, before drawing back. From 21 feet, he rose uncontested and silenced the Paycom Center for the final time. His game winner stopped the clock at 0.3 seconds, enough time for Oklahoma City to see Turner tip away its inbounds pass and Indiana march off the floor a winner.

This was not a vintage night for Haliburton, who scored just 14 points to go with his 10 rebounds and six assists. He attempted the fourth-most shots in the game, as Indiana spread out in search of offense.

And yet, as Haliburton elevated for that final shot, Toppin threw his arms in the air. Haliburton’s teammate for two years now, Toppin knew full well where the ball was going, and how the game would end.

“We’ve been in positions like this throughout the postseason,” Toppin said. “We know what we’ve got to do, who we’ve got to get the ball to, and just watch magic happen.

Magic eventually runs out, but this might not. Because this might be more than magic.