OKLAHOMA CITY — Tyrese Haliburton raced up the court, paused for a moment to survey the crowded landscape in front of him and proceeded to calmly drill a last-second jumper over Oklahoma City Thunder guard Cason Wallace to give the Indiana Pacers their first lead Thursday night.
What else is new? The Pacers, who have now pulled off dramatic comebacks in all four rounds of their playoff run, erased a 15-point fourth-quarter deficit to steal a 111-110 victory over the Thunder in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Remarkably, Indiana trailed by nine points in the final three minutes and ultimately led the opener for only 0.3 seconds — the amount of time remaining when Haliburton rattled home the game-winner from the right wing.
“We never think the game is over, ever, honestly speaking,” Haliburton said. “That never creeps in. I had a good idea [the shot was going in]. I’m obviously confident in my ability and feel like if I can get to that spot, I feel very comfortable in there. It’s a shot I’ve worked on a million times, and I’ll work on it a million times more.”
Haliburton’s winner, which provided a stunning end to an unusually sloppy night for the Pacers, elicited a collective groan of disbelief from an Oklahoma City crowd that had expected to see a wire-to-wire victory. Haliburton finished with 14 points, 10 rebounds and six assists, and Pacers forward Pascal Siakam posted a team-high 19 points, including a clutch basket in the final minute, and 10 rebounds.
For much of the night, the Pacers looked as if they might be the latest victims of the Paycom Center slaughterhouse: Oklahoma City entered Game 1 with an 8-1 home record in the postseason and a whopping average winning margin of 24.6 points. The Pacers approached the difficult environment with eyes wide open and their typical unwavering confidence.
“We know we’re a pretty heavy underdog,” Pacers Coach Rick Carlisle said before the game. “You’ve got to love a challenge like that.”
The Thunder started fast despite its seven-day break before the Finals, taking an early 7-0 lead and stretching its advantage to double digits before the end of the first quarter. Shortly before tip-off, the Thunder whipped its crowd into a frenzy by raising the Western Conference championship banner to the rafters alongside matching fabric from 2012.
That wasn’t Oklahoma City’s only ploy to start Game 1 on the right foot. Thunder Coach Mark Daigneault inserted Wallace, a defensive-minded guard, into his starting lineup in place of center Isaiah Hartenstein, a shift aimed at making life as difficult as possible for Haliburton and the Pacers’ backcourt. The smaller look helped Oklahoma City match up more cleanly with Indiana’s spacing-oriented offense and helped the Thunder build a 57-45 halftime lead.
The Pacers, who had the third-lowest turnover rate during the regular season, had significant trouble adjusting to the Thunder’s nonstop defense. Indiana had more turnovers (nine) than made baskets (eight) in the first quarter, and Haliburton struggled to generate open looks against a rotating cast of defenders that included Wallace, Lu Dort and Jalen Williams. By halftime, the Pacers had already committed 19 giveaways, one shy of their highest total during this postseason run.
“I was a little jittery in the first quarter,” Haliburton said. “I’m sure other guys felt that way. You have a [first] half like that where you’re throwing the ball to the other team. We like controlled chaos, but that was just chaos, ugly.”
Despite their early misadventures, the Pacers recovered to shock the Thunder thanks to steadier play in the second half and an impressive display of outside shooting.
Still, Indiana’s win materialized out of thin air. Williams converted a breakaway dunk to give the Thunder a 15-point lead with under 10 minutes to play, and Oklahoma City had a 96.4 percent win probability when it led by nine points in the final three minutes, according to ESPN Analytics.
But Pacers forward Obi Toppin came off the bench to score 17 points and hit five three-pointers, preventing the Thunder from pulling away for good.
Pacers center Myles Turner banked in a three-pointer to cut Oklahoma City’s lead to four points with six minutes remaining, and Indiana pulled even closer when Andrew Nembhard buried another three-pointer to cut the Thunder’s lead to three points in the final two minutes. The Pacers, who shot 18 for 39 (46.2 percent) from deep, finished the game on a 6-0 run to complete their latest miracle.
“We just had to hang in,” Carlisle said. “The first half was rough. We were within reach. We just said, ‘Hey, keep chipping away at the rock.’ We have a lot of experience in these kinds of games. Our guys have a real good feel for what it’s all about.”
Earlier this postseason, the Pacers erased a seven-point deficit in overtime to eliminate the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 5 of a first-round series. In a Game 2 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round, Indiana pulled off another 8-0 closing run. Then the Pacers rallied from 14 points down in the final three minutes of a Game 1 victory over the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference finals. Indiana now has an 8-1 record in games that were within five points in the final five minutes during this playoff run.
For Oklahoma City, the late-game collapse provided a different flavor of déjà vu. The Thunder lost Game 1 of the conference semifinals to the Denver Nuggets when Aaron Gordon hit a game-winning three-pointer in the closing seconds. Oklahoma City held a nine-point lead over Denver in the final three minutes, just as it did over Indiana on Thursday. The Thunder rebounded from its opening loss to Denver with a 43-point blowout victory in Game 2 before eventually winning the series in seven games.
“Credit [the Pacers],” Daigneault said. “They’ve had so many games that have seemed improbable. They play with a great spirit. They keep coming. They made plays and made shots. They deserved to win. We would have liked to win tonight, but tonight was a starting point, not an end point. There’s a lot of things we can improve on.”
Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander attacked the heart of the Pacers’ defense to finish with a game-high 38 points to go with five rebounds and three assists in his Finals debut, but Oklahoma City was outscored 35-25 in the fourth quarter and couldn’t find enough answers offensively down the stretch.
Gilgeous-Alexander had a layup blocked by Siakam with a little more than a minute to play, and he missed a midrange jumper with 11 seconds left that would have given Oklahoma City a three-point cushion. Oklahoma City missed all five of its three-point attempts in the final period, and Williams tallied 17 points on 19 shots during a cold-shooting night.
The Thunder’s offense ground to a halt as it tried to protect its lead, setting the stage for Haliburton’s heroic moment. Turner sealed the win by deflecting a lob pass on the Thunder’s final possession.
“It happened so fast,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “[Haliburton] just made a play with the time winding down. We had control of the game for the most part. Now, it’s a 48-minute game. [The Pacers] teach you that lesson, more than anyone else in the league, the hard way. … We’ve been in this situation before. In the other situation [against Denver], we handled it well. We were better for Game 2. That’s the goal.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
