Basketball, She Wrote

Tyrese Haliburton silences Thunder, pulls Pacers up to 1-0 series lead

Added 2025-06-06 19:56:44 +0000 UTC

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

Like a ray of sunlight streaming through a gap in the clouds, Tyrese Haliburton silenced the roaring Thunder, pulling off his latest miracle by pulling up to his preferred right for a game-winning two with 0.3 seconds left to play that saw the Pacers overcome a 15-point deficit in the fourth quarter as they closed big even while playing small. In that regard, Oklahoma City didn't just blink once, making a pre-emptive decision to split their bigs, the presumptive favorite also blinked again, getting outscored 13-4 over the final 3:24 of action with neither big on the floor. As such, even in the absence of ball security, the Pacers still managed to secure lighting in a bottle, washing away the turnovers with a downpour of late-game shot-making.

Joining me to, perhaps, come up with more weather metaphors and analogies to explain a win that didn't initially appear to be on the (ahem) radar for the Pacers is once again Samson Folk.

Here are the relevant timestamps:

0:00 - Introductions

1:06 - Breaking from Xs and Os to rave about how the Pacers keep doing this!

3:17 - Ok, back to Xs and Os: Detailing Nembhard's game-winning stop & Haliburton's game-winning shot

14:07 - The impact of Obi Toppin being disrespected on both ends of the floor

22:14 - OKC finishing the game without any bigs on the floor

29:07 - Spacing Caruso in the dunker spot while being defended by Siakam

34:00 - Defensive tweaks against OKC's guard-to-guard screening actions (no screen, no scheme!)

38:45 - Next-ing against SGA + the reduction in his passing numbers

46:30 - The Pacers won a Finals game on the road while committing 20+ turnovers!

47:56 - Why improved spacing + taking quicker shots should lead to better ball security in Game 2

1:01:37 - Nembhard + Siakam doing a lot of heavy lifting