Tyrese Haliburton #0 of the Indiana Pacers scores a basket with .3 seconds remaining in the course of the fourth quarter in opposition to the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder in Sport One of many 2025 NBA Finals at Paycom Heart on June 05, 2025 in Oklahoma Metropolis, Oklahoma. Matthew Stockman/Getty Photos/AFP
OKLAHOMA CITY — You’re Tyrese Haliburton.
You went to the Japanese Convention finals final yr and bought swept. You went to the Olympics final summer time and didn’t play a lot. You got here into this season with excessive expectations and your Indiana Pacers bought off to a 10-15 begin. And on high of that, a few of your NBA friends evidently suppose you might be overrated.
READ: NBA Finals: Tyrese Haliburton, Pacers stun Thunder in Sport 1
HALIBURTON WINS GAME 1 FOR THE PACERS.
THEY TRAILED BY 15.
ANOTHER CRAZY INDIANA COMEBACK 🚨 https://t.co/heI0ELIivW pic.twitter.com/1Qr6XlDbA7
— NBA (@NBA) June 6, 2025
You bought indignant.
“I feel as a gaggle, we take all the pieces private,” Haliburton stated. “It’s not simply me. It’s everyone. I really feel like that’s the DNA of this group and that’s not simply me.”
The anger fueled focus, the main target grew to become confidence, and the arrogance delivered a 1-0 sequence lead within the NBA Finals. Haliburton’s penchant for last-second heroics — one of many tales of those playoffs — confirmed up once more Thursday night time, his jumper with 0.3 seconds left going into finals lore and giving the Pacers a 111-110 win over the closely favored Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder.
The Pacers led for 0.0001% of that sport. It was sufficient.
“In terms of the moments, he desires the ball,” Pacers teammate Myles Turner stated. “He desires to be the one to hit that shot. He doesn’t shrink back from the second and it’s essential this time of the yr to have a go-to man. He simply retains discovering a approach and we preserve placing the ball in the best positions and the remainder is historical past.”
READ: NBA Finals: How the Pacers pulled off a comeback in Sport 1
Haliburton is 4 for 4 within the closing 2 seconds of fourth quarters and overtimes in these playoffs, all of these photographs both giving the Pacers a win or sending a sport into OT earlier than they received it there.
The remainder of the NBA, in these conditions this spring: 4 for 26, mixed.
If Haliburton takes a type of beat-the-clock photographs within the first three quarters of video games in these playoffs, he’s a mere mortal, simply 1 for 7 in these conditions. However with the sport on the road, he’s excellent.
“You don’t need to stay and die with the most effective participant on the opposite workforce taking a sport winner with a pair seconds left,” Thunder guard Alex Caruso stated.
No, particularly when that finest participant on the opposite workforce is Haliburton. Simply ask Milwaukee. Or Cleveland. Or New York. They might have all advised Oklahoma Metropolis who was going to take the massive shot and what was in all probability going to occur.
READ: NBA Finals: Thunder collapse when it mattered most in Sport 1
In opposition to the Bucks on April 29, it was a layup with 1.4 seconds left that capped a rally from seven factors down within the closing 34.6 seconds of additional time. Last rating: Pacers 119, Bucks 118, and that sequence ended there.
In Cleveland on Could 6, it was a 3-pointer with 1.1 seconds left for a 120-119 win — capping a rally from seven factors down within the closing 48 seconds. At Madison Sq. Backyard in opposition to the Knicks on Could 21, a sport the Pacers trailed 121-112 with 51.1 seconds left, he hit a jumper with no time left to pressure OT and Indiana would win once more.
All these performs got here with a little bit one thing additional. His father, John Haliburton, bought a little bit too exuberant with Giannis Antetokounmpo after the Bucks sport and wasn’t allowed to return to the following few video games; the ban has since been lifted. Haliburton did a sure dance that the NBA doesn’t like a lot after the shot in opposition to the Cavs. He made a choke sign, a la what Pacers legend Reggie Miller did in opposition to New York a era earlier, after hitting the shot in opposition to the Knicks.
However on Thursday, all enterprise. These finals are a great distance from over, and he is aware of it. Sport 2 is Sunday night time in Oklahoma Metropolis.
“Once more, one other large comeback however there’s much more work to do,” Haliburton stated. “That’s only one sport. And that is the most effective workforce within the NBA, they usually don’t lose typically. So, we anticipate them to reply. We’ve bought to be ready for that. We bought a pair days to observe movie, see the place we will get higher.”
READ: NBA Finals drought over, Pacers look to beat snake-bitten historical past
Haliburton is in his first yr of a supermax contract that may pay him about $245 million alongside the way in which. He has the Olympic gold medal from final summer time and certainly shall be a severe candidate to play for USA Basketball once more on the Los Angeles Video games in 2028. He’s now a two-time All-NBA choice. And he’s formally an authorized postseason, late-game hero.
Three extra wins, and he’ll be an NBA champion as effectively. The anger is gone. Haliburton was all smiles after Sport 1, for apparent causes.
“Final, final confidence in himself,” Turner stated. “Some gamers will say they’ve it however there’s different gamers that present it, and he’s going to let you realize about it, too. That’s one of many issues I respect about him. He’s a baller and a hooper and actually only a gamer.”
And in his NBA Finals debut, Haliburton reminded the world that’s the case.
“This group by no means provides up,” Haliburton stated. “We by no means consider that the sport is over till it hits zero, and that’s simply the God’s sincere reality. That’s simply the arrogance that we now have as a gaggle, and I feel that’s an enormous purpose why this is happening.”
