“Damn, what an f—ing game,” Tyrese Haliburton exclaimed in the visitors’ locker room at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday. The Indiana Pacers star then took a slice of pineapple from the postgame feast.
Like the rest of us, Tyrese Haliburton appeared shocked at what had transpired. The Pacers trailed the New York Knicks by 14 points with less than three minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. To force OT, Indiana wing Aaron Nesmith had to transcend to a higher plane in crunch time, and Tyrese Haliburton had to hit a game-tying, buzzer-beating, foot-on-the-line two after regulation. The shot hit the back of the rim, bounced straight up, and went through the net.
“It’s gotta be the shoes, man,” Tyrese Haliburton stated to no one in particular during the Eastern Conference Finals’ 138-135 overtime triumph in Game One. “Go grab them. “On sale now.”
Haliburton’s Pumas, which do not appear for sale, are not the key cause for the Pacers’ stunning comeback triumph. Tyrese Haliburton and his team have done what seems to be the impossible three times this postseason: the series-clinching Game 5 against the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round, Game 2 against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round, both of which concluded with Tyrese Haliburton game-winners, and now this.
The more they point the finger at their late-game victory probability, the more difficult it is to explain.
Before these playoffs, only one team in the play-by-play era (since 1995-1996) had ever overcome a seven-point deficit in the last minute of the fourth quarter or overtime in a playoff game. Indiana has accomplished this three times in 23 days. And its latest absurd rise was even more implausible than the two that came before it. Before Wednesday, teams that led by 14 or more in the last 2:45 of the fourth quarter had a 994-0 record, according to Josh Dubow of The Associated Press.
One possible explanation for the Pacers’ apparent superpower: Each comeback makes the next one appear more plausible. According to reserve center Thomas Bryant, they did not speak explicitly about their recent heroics following the Knicks’ 14-0 fourth-quarter surge. “We try not to,” he told me, “because that’s hard to do every time.” They didn’t have to mention their victories over Milwaukee and Cleveland to have benefited from them.
“We’d prefer not to be in those positions,” Bryant stated. However, they recognized “that we’ve been here before, and we can somehow get out of this.”
Coach Rick Carlisle believes Indiana’s ability to execute well at the end of games stems from regular-season workouts. No club had a higher point difference in the clutch in 2024-25.
“A lot of the games early where we were struggling were games we had to pull out,” Carlisle told ESPN. “They were crucial games when we weren’t doing properly. And it is a muscle. “The more you exercise it, the stronger it becomes.”
Tyrese Haliburton, who concluded the first game with 31 points and 11 assists in 42 minutes, went even further. He described it as a “baptism by fire” after the Pacers acquired him at the 2022 trade deadline.
“We would be in these moments where I would have to take these shots,” Tyrese Haliburton told the crowd. “I’d miss them, and no one would care. Pacer supporters would, but we weren’t perfect, so it didn’t matter; we weren’t in the playoffs.
Tyrese Haliburton argued that experience is the best teacher. Myles Turner referred to the team as “battle-tested.” One cannot expect a team to always go on historic runs, but he is no longer startled by it.
“It’s to the point where I’m just used to it,” Turner added. “I have so much confidence in this group.”
Another probable explanation: Indiana’s style of play encourages comebacks. Instead of embracing the cliché that the game slows down in crunch time, the Pacers just continue to play their style: rushing the ball full-court, running off makes and misses, and causing as much uncertainty as possible in the halfcourt. Their opponent, meantime, may be running on fumes, as everything Indiana does is intended to wear out the opposing team over time.
“It’s hard for me to discredit and say that the wear-down effect wasn’t there,” Tyrese Haliburton told the press. “From what you’ve seen, I believe that’s a part of it, and I believe it’s a part of our identity: how can we put on teams for 48 minutes? We are increasing our offensive pressure, moving downhill, and playing quickly. I thought we did a nice job offensively, playing our way.”
Indiana was outrebounded in Game 1, but it did not allow the Knicks to grab any offensive boards late in the fourth quarter and came up with a pair of its own in overtime. Tyrese Haliburton also stated that New York “missed a couple of free throws down the stretch, had a couple of short misses at the end of the game.”
The Pacers rely heavily on their depth, partly thanks to their physically demanding style. Before Nesmith erupted for 20 of his 30 points, including six consecutive three-pointers in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter, he was subbed out twice. Ben Sheppard, who did not play in the first three quarters, played seven minutes in the fourth, which “allowed Aaron a chance to rest a little bit,” Carlisle said. “So he came back in the game fresh and had his legs.”
Another probable explanation: Indiana is able to hold together in terrible conditions because, well, it has. Tyrese Haliburton drew a direct line from the front office’s efforts to maintain last year’s roster and the team’s resilience.
“We’re just a group that has spent much time with each other,” Tyrese Haliburton told the audience. He said that they’ve had big streaks in both directions and that they all believe in each other. “We feel like we know where everybody’s going to be,” he told me. “We have high expectations for each other, but I think we also hold each other accountable simultaneously.”
Tyrese Haliburton said his confidence stems from knowing his teammates, coaches, and Pacers fans expect him to attempt last-second shots. “I think everybody’s living and dying with it at that point,” he told me. During fourth-quarter timeouts, the Pacers showed “great contagious emotion for each other,” Bryant observed, even when they were down by 16 points (with 7:22 left) and 14 points (with 3:44 left). They were “clapping it up” and “talking to each other, giving each other confidence,” Bryant explained.
“We talked in the huddle about ‘keep working the game.'” Keep trying to make things difficult for these guys. “Find good looks,” Carlisle remarked.
Indiana was “very much teetering on the edge,” Carlisle said, but it could keep on course. After going on the heater of a lifetime, Nesmith remarked, “I didn’t realize what I was doing at the moment; I was just trying to win the basketball game.” In other terms, he was in a flow condition, unconscious. The last three minutes were “kind of a blur, to be honest with you,” he added. “Just fighting, scrapping for every loose ball, boxing out, making shots, making plays, and doing whatever we can to win.”
Initially, the Pacers believed Tyrese Haliburton’s buzzer-beater was a 3. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have jumped on him in joy, and he wouldn’t have imitated Reggie Miller’s choke celebration. After learning that they needed to play five more minutes, they had to “grab everybody by their jersey, neck, arm, whatever it takes,” Turner said. “Just get ’em in the huddle and say, ‘Let’s go, man.'” It is not over. “We gave ourselves a chance.
Turner stated that the objective going forward is not to rely on “hellacious shots for three minutes straight for the rest of the series.” Indiana will take wins any way it can get them, and if it finds itself facing another significant deficit in crunch time, it will keep playing its game. If the Pacers’ prior comebacks hadn’t made it abundantly evident, the series opener at MSG demonstrated that it can pay off spectacularly.
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