How the Pacers did it: Anatomy of a comeback

CHRISTINE TANNOUS/INDYSTAR - Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton (0) and forward Pascal Siakam (43) celebrate as they come off the court on June 5 during Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Paycom Center.

7 Jun 2025 - The Indianapolis Star

Pacers Insider Dustin Dopirak 

Indianapolis Star USA TODAY NETWORK

In four series in these NBA playoffs, the Pacers have pulled off four comebacks with a historic level of improbability.

On Thursday night, they managed to win a game they trailed for 47 minutes and 59.7 seconds, never once holding an advantage until Tyrese Haliburton hit his pull-up jumper with 0.3 seconds to go to claim a 111-110 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

The other comebacks the Pacers pulled off in these playoffs have been 3-5 minute blurs. This one was more of a slow-burn in which what was coming wasn’t entirely clear until Haliburton’s shot splashed.

Here’s a look at the key plays that made the comeback, starting with the one that gave the Thunder their biggest lead.

Thunder 94, Pacers 79, 9:42 fourth quarter

The Thunder turned the Pacers’ 20 turnovers in the first half to just nine points and rarely got the clean runouts steals would usually provide as Indiana did a good job getting back on defense. But T.J. McConnell’s giveaway with 9:42 left in the fourth quarter gave the Thunder one of their easiest buckets of the night.

On a baseline out of bounds play, McConnell tried to lob a pass to Thomas Bryant at the top of the key and overthrew it, allowing Jalen Williams to run under it and take it the distance for an easy dunk. The Thunder had outscored the Pacers 9-3 to start the fourth at that point with the Pacers playing a mostly sub lineup with McConnell, Bryant, Bennedict Mathurin and Ben Sheppard on the floor with Pascal Siakam.

Immediately after the dunk Pacers coach Rick Carlisle called timeout and brought in a whole new lineup with starters Haliburton, Andrew Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith and Myles Turner plus Obi Toppin to try to turn things around.

Thunder 96, Pacers 88, 7:47 fourth quarter

The new lineup started their shift with a 9-2 run that included a threepoint play by Nembhard and 3-pointers by Toppin and Turner. Oklahoma City’s Alex Caruso matched Nembhard’s and-1 but didn’t convert the free throw and the Pacers immediately jumped on that opportunity with two stops and two 3s.

Thunder 98, Pacers 94, 6:16 fourth quarter

Oklahoma City went back up double figures, but once again the Pacers got another 1-2 punch of 3s from Toppin and Turner. Turner’s was a bank shot from the left wing. The Pacers had already taken a double-figure deficit and trimmed it to two possessions.

Thunder 102, Pacers 98, 4:51 fourth quarter

Haliburton drove to the hole to make it a four-point game after the Thunder had built the lead back up to six points. Haliburton had a hard time getting space to operate most of the night as he was being defended by Luguentz Dort and Cason Wallace and this was his first bucket of the fourth quarter, but he was attacking off the bounce and finding some space to operate.

Thunder 106, Pacers 99, 3:07 fourth quarter

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander put the Thunder back up eight with a driving layup and then two free throws to put the Thunder back up eight points. Siakam then drew a foul and missed two free throws, but he got another opportunity on the second one because the Thunder committed a lane violation. He made his second chance at a second free throw and that ended up making a difference later.

Thunder 108, Pacers 105, 1:59 fourth quarter

Two more Gilgeous-Alexander free throws put the Thunder up nine again, but once again the Pacers stacked 3pointers. This time it was their silent warriors who came through — Nesmith and Nembhard. Nesmith hit one in the left corner off a handoff from Toppin, and Nembhard hit a step-back 3 over his Team Canada teammate Gilgeous-Alexander. Suddenly it was a one-possession game with less than two minutes to play.

Thunder 110, Pacers 109, 0:49 fourth quarter

Siakam was all the way in the left corner when Nembhard pulled up for a 3pointer from the top of the key, but he blitzed past Gilgeous-Alexander on the baseline to grab the rebound and get the immediate putback. In a playoffs in which the Pacers have struggled to rebound.

Thunder 110, Pacers 109, 0:23 fourth quarter

Jalen Williams missed a driving floater off the backboard which fell off the rim. Siakam and Oklahoma City’s Cason Wallace scrambled for it and the ball went out of bounds off Siakam, but the Pacers believed he was fouled and challenged the call. While they awaited the challenge, they schemed for what might happen next.

Pacers 111, Thunder 110, 0:00.3 fourth quarter

The challenge didn’t go the Pacers way, but they got the ball back anyway with just the right amount of time to win the game. Gilgeous-Alexander spun into Nembhard, took a step-back jumper and missed. Nesmith grabbed a rebound in the middle of the lane, and the Pacers had already decided to play through and not call timeout. Haliburton drove right from the top of the key on Wallace, got enough space to stop and pull-up and hit his latest miracle game-winner in these playoffs.

Ball game.

***

14 wild stats behind the Pacers’ unbelievable win

7 Jun 2025 - The Indianapolis Star

Lorenzo Reyes - USA TODAY

PACERS 111, THUNDER 110

The Indiana Pacers are starting to make this a habit.

The team, once again, pulled off an improbable fourth quarter comeback in the postseason to steal a game from its opponent. This time it came on the road against the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 1 of the 2025 NBA Finals on Thursday.

Indiana is on a remarkable run, proving it is never fully out of games. But games like these are sometimes best quantified in numbers, and this was no exception.

Here are 14 crazy stats from Indiana’s wild Game 1 comeback over the Thunder:

1. For the first time in almost 15 months — March 12, 2024 — the Thunder lost at home to an Eastern Conference team. Their opponent that night? The Indiana Pacers.

2. The Pacers committed 25 turnovers and still won. Their turnover differential of -19 is the worst for a team in an NBA Finals victory, and it clears the second-worst team — the 1974 Bucks — by seven.

3. The Pacers also set the record for worst turnover differential in a playoff victory, surpassing the -15 set by the Grizzlies in 2012 in a first-round game against the Clippers.

4. The 15-point, fourth quarter comeback tied for the fourth-largest in an NBA Finals since 1971.

5. The last two fourth quarter comebacks of at least 15 points in NBA Finals games have been by teams coached by Rick Carlisle: Thursday night’s Pacers victory and June 2, 2011, when Carlisle’s Mavericks toppled the Heat.

6. This postseason, when the Pacers have faced deficits of at least 15 points, their record is 5-3 (.625).

7. Indiana’s record this postseason in clutch games is 8-1 (.889).

8. The Pacers took their first lead — on Tyrese Haliburton’s 21-foot jumper — with 0.3 seconds left. It marks the latest into any Finals game since 1971 that a team had taken its first lead of the game.

9. The comeback marked Indiana’s fifth comeback from a deficit of at least 15 points in the 2025 playoffs, most by a team in a single postseason since 1998.

10. Since 1971, teams that had trailed by at least nine points inside the final 3 minutes of NBA Finals games had been 0-182. After Game 1, that mark is now 1-182 (.005).

11. There have been over 25,000 NBA games in the past 20 seasons (playoffs and regular season). Game 1 was the first time in that span a road team won despite leading less than a second of the game.

12. Thunder guard and NBA Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 38 points are third-most for a player making his NBA Finals debut behind Allen Iverson’s 48 (2001) and George Mikan’s 42 (1949).

13. During the regular season and playoffs, Tyrese Haliburton is 13-of-15 on shots inside the final two minutes (including overtime) to tie or take a lead. That gives him a shooting percentage of 86.7% on such tries.

14. Because six of those 13 made field goals were 3-pointers, he has scored 32 points across those 15 shot tries to give him a ridiculous 2.13 points per attempt.