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The Indiana Pacers took Game 1 against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals, the only way they know how to do it. The Pacers trailed the entire game, it didn't look like they were ever going to get it close enough to steal the game. Well, with around two minutes left, a few shots fell down, and they were as close as they've been since the start of the game. Tyrese Haliburton hit the go-ahead shot with .3 seconds remaining, and the Pacers walked away with the dramatic win.
Before the game even started, people were giving out their predictions, and a Bucks fan called it perfectly.
“111-110 pacers. hali game winner,” the user wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
That Bucks fan knows firsthand what Haliburton is about, because he eliminated them in the first round of the playoffs with a go-ahead layup after the Pacers were down several points with seconds left in the game.
The Pacers have shown all postseason that they're a resilient group, and they're never out of a game until the clock hits zero. They've once again gone into Game 1 and stolen one on the road, and now the Thunder are the team that has to answer.
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Pacers win Game 1 despite ugly first half
The Pacers were all out of sorts in the first half, and it looked like they couldn't keep the ball in their hand most of the time. They finished the first half with 19 turnovers and were down 12 points, but Haliburton said that didn't deter them from believing they could win.
“There was never a disbelief as a group, honestly,” Haliburton said via Tomer Azarly of ClutchPoints. “You have a half like that where you're just throwing the ball to the other team, we like chaos, we like controlled chaos, but that was just chaos, ugly … As a group, we never think the game is over, ever. Honestly speaking, ever. That never creeps in.”
They stayed within a 10-point deficit for most of the third quarter and the fourth quarter, but it was down the stretch of the game where they found their juice. Myles Turner and Aaron Nesmith hit some big threes, and then Andrew Nembhard hit one over Shai Gilgeous-Alexander that cut their deficit down to just three points.
The Thunder were not able to execute on offense down the stretch, and that gave the Pacers enough life to where Haliburton could come down and hit the go-ahead shot for them to steal Game 1.
