Tyrese Haliburton clutch shot sinks Thunder as Pacers steal NBA Finals Game 1

OKLAHOMA CITY — How many times has Tyrese Haliburton done this already? Better yet, how many more will it take to make the Indiana Pacers champions?

We just might find out.

Haliburton, the new king of the playoff winner, did it again Thursday with a jumper with 0.3 seconds remaining to give the Indiana Pacers an improbable 111-110 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

This is getting ridiculous, for Haliburton and for the Pacers. He now has three game-winning shots during this magical postseason run — to beat Milwaukee in Game 5 of the first round, Cleveland in Game 2 for the second, and now this one, obviously the biggest shot of his career since this is his first NBA Finals. Throw in that tying stunner against the Knicks in which he hit the Reggie Miller choke pose in Game 1, and, yeah, his is quickly becoming a postseason of legend.

The same can be said of the Pacers, who are stockpiling shocking comeback victories at an alarming rate. They already owned an NBA-record three comebacks this postseason in which they trailed by 7 or more points in the final minute. It wasn’t quite that drastic in Game 1 of the finals, but they had never led in the game, were down by 15 early in the fourth quarter and by five with 90 seconds to go — an eternity with Haliburton on the team.

“When I got off the bus, when I put on my shoes, I mean, there was never a disbelief as a group, honestly,” Haliburton said. “They have a lot of confidence in me to make that shot. I don’t know what you say about it, I just know that this group is a resilient group and we don’t give up until there is zero on the clock.”

Tyrese Haliburton for the lead with .3 remaining.

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/bsYPIHo4tH

— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) June 6, 2025

As is often the case, the Pacers don’t owe this victory to Haliburton alone. Andrew Nembhard, their two-way stalwart who had a huge fourth quarter, drained a 3 with 1:59 left to bring the Pacers to within 3. Pascal Siakam, the Eastern Conference finals MVP, scored a driving layup with 49 seconds to go to cut the deficit to one, and then after a key defensive stop by Nembhard on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Haliburton delivered.

Driving against Cason Wallace on the right side, Haliburton started to break toward the lane, then stopped and took the shot that rattled around the rim and fell in. And with Haliburton’s latest winner, the Pacers tied the biggest fourth-quarter comeback in a finals game (15 points) since 1971.

“We just try to get the ball in his hands as much as possible in those situations, and when it doesn’t happen, we have Nembhard and we have Pascal,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “That gives us three playmakers in our closing group. So you know, all three of them do great things. So we were very fortunate tonight. But we did a lot of things to give ourselves a chance, and that was very good.”

Game 2 is at 8 p.m. Sunday at Oklahoma City’s Paycom Center.

Gilgeous-Alexander, the NBA MVP, finished with 38 points on 14-of-30 shooting. Jalen Williams added 17 points for the Thunder, and Luguentz Dort finished with 15 points and four steals. Gilgeous-Alexander was blanketed by Nembhard for most of the Thunder’s possession before Haliburton’s winner, but was able to get enough separation for a clean look that just didn’t fall.

“I thought I got a pretty good look, felt good; didn’t go in,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Then they got a look, and it went in. I don’t know. Basketball ups and downs. It is what it is. Can’t do anything about it now. Just got to be better for next game.”

The Thunder’s 68 wins during the regular season were tied for the seventh-most in league history, and they entered the finals with 80 wins — just the fourth team to win that many games heading into an NBA Finals. They are the second-youngest team to reach the finals and are looking for the first championship since moving to Oklahoma City in 2008.

The Thunder blew another big lead at home in Game 1 of a playoff series recently. The Denver Nuggets trailed by 11 with about four minutes left to start the Western Conference semis but stormed back at Paycom Center for a narrow win — the Thunder won that series in seven games.

“The series isn’t first to one, it’s first to four,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We have four more games to get, they have three. That’s just where we are. We got to understand that and we got to get to four before they get to three, if we want to win the NBA championship. It’s that simple. It’s not rocket science. We lost Game 1. We have to be better.”

Haliburton had a quiet night up to that point, scoring 14 points to go with 10 rebounds, and said that he “felt jittery” in the first half. Obi Toppin scored 17 points off the bench. Myles Turner scored eight of his 15 points in the fourth quarter, and Nembhard also scored eight of his 14 in the fourth. This is just how the Pacers roll. Remember, the Pacers needed six 3s in about five minutes from Aaron Nesmith in Game 1 against New York just to set up Haliburton’s previous thriller.

Tyrese Haliburton has hit a game-winner or game-tying shot in the final seconds in EVERY SERIES this postseason.

🥶🥶🥶🥶 pic.twitter.com/mhldSAE2pM

— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) June 6, 2025

Adding to the shock factor of this particular comeback was how badly Indiana handled the ball in the first half. The Pacers committed 19 turnovers through two quarters — the most turnovers in the first half of a finals game since 1990 and the most in a half of any playoff game since 1999. The Pacers’ 24 turnovers were among the most in a finals game, but the mistakes are a footnote instead of a cause of disappointment.

“When you turn the ball over that much, you expect to be down 20-plus,” Siakam said.

Gilgeous-Alexander, the NBA’s scoring champ who averaged 32.7 points, had a tremendous impact on the Thunder’s dominance during the regular season (they were a top-five offense with him as the engine), but what the team does better than anyone in the league is defend. The Thunder were the league’s best defense in the regular season and have improved at that end in the playoffs, allowing just 104.7 points per 100 possessions entering play Thursday.

The Pacers have one of the league’s fastest and best offenses with a signature style of getting the ball off the rim or out of the basket as fast as possible and pushing it up the floor. But with the collection of linebackers Oklahoma City employs on the wings — Dort, Williams, Gilgeous-Alexander and Alex Caruso are as long and stout as any collection of guards and wings — Indiana had trouble getting into the key, finding a clear passing lane, or simply holding onto the ball in the first half.

The Thunder also made a lineup change, starting Wallace instead of traditional center Isaiah Hartenstein, breaking up the Thunder’s starting lineup from each of their first 16 playoff games presumably to be better equipped to handle Indiana’s pace.

“Just had to hang in,” Carlisle said. “First half was rough. Nineteen turnovers. The good thing was it was only nine points (at the end of the third). So we were within reach. … We had a lot of experience in these kinds of games, and our guys have a real good feel for what it’s all about, giving ourselves a chance, and we got fortunate but made plays.”

The Pacers found their poise in the second half and a huge upset resulted. They turned up their defensive pressure — Indiana still plays with a bit of a reputation for not being a sound defensive team, which hasn’t been true for months — and limited Oklahoma City to 7-of-19 shooting in the fourth quarter and 0-of-5 from 3.

If there is something the Pacers did decidedly better than the Thunder coming into this series, it’s shoot 3s, and Indiana’s advantage from deep made a difference Thursday. The Pacers knocked down 18-of-39 3s, while the Thunder managed 11-of-30 shooting from beyond the arc.

The Thunder are among the most heavily favored teams entering a finals in history. Now they trail 1-0 to the comeback kings.

“They’ve had so many games like that that have seemed improbable,” Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault said. “They just play with a great spirit, they keep coming, they made plays, made shots. They deserved to win by a point.”

(Photo: William Purnell / Getty Images)

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