Tyrese Haliburton steals Game 1 of Finals, as Pacers continue to perfect the heist

It happened again.

By: Samson Folk I @samfolkk

The Thunder abandoned the double big lineup immediately. Meaningful. No time wasted thinking about locker room politics or anything like that. Cut the fluff, go straight to the better lineups.

A winding, twisting layup from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander got the Finals started, and his downhill momentum was the motivator of everything OKC did early on (Aaron Nesmith and Andrew Nembhard performed a nearly perfect ‘next’ rotation to stomp one of his drives out for a block, which was nice), and the Pacers had to absorb the Thunder’s swarming pressure to start. The first bucket for the Pacers was, as everyone expected it might be, a mismatch bucket for Pascal Siakam - who was also doing a good job of disrupting the Thunder’s offense by hanging off of Lu Dort. Blown coverages by both teams allowed Canadian guards to bang triples (Nembhard & Gilgeous-Alexander) and by the time the first timeout was called, the game was tied up at 10. 

The rest of the first quarter featured a lot of pressure from the Thunder, and everywhere on the floor you could imagine. Myles Turner and Obi Toppin were thoroughly rattled by the digging and clawing. Dort missed shots, yes, but he collected the ball from the offensive glass and Pacers players. The home team, by and large, moved the Pacers offensive process out of Haliburton’s hands early and often, and turned off the water. Toppin and Nesmith combined for six turnovers. The Pacers scored a paltry 20 points in the opening frame, and looked like they hadn’t sorted out any definitive advantage outside of the Siakam mismatches - which they didn’t go to as often as they perhaps should have. 

Defensively, the Pacers did a pretty bang on job. Similar to their approach on Donovan Mitchell and Jalen Brunson, they wanted to coax a great deal of shots and effort out of the Thunder’s star guard. Gilgeous-Alexander closed out the quarter with 12 points on 12 shots. The Pacers proof of concept was sound enough in the half-court on defense, but they had proof of virtually nothing on the offensive end. 29-20, Thunder after 1. 

The second quarter was a continuation of virtually everything. The Pacers saw little means to create offense other than slinging the ball inside to draw bodies and beat the extended pressure that way. Outside of Siakam, it really was a mixed bag in what the interior stuff returned, but the Pacers were generally quite excellent at hitting their triples when open opportunities fell to them. 

“I’m settled in now. I was a little too antsy. A little too quick. I can breathe now.” - Haliburton, from the bench after his first stretch

Halfway through the second quarter the statistics had already swung to a crazy place. The Thunder were enjoying a +8 lead in the turnover battle, and had already managed to grab four more offensive rebounds than their opponents. They were also better in the open court. Ultimately though, the Pacers managed to hang within 4 points because the 3-point shot is a fantastic equalizer.

A string of, how do I put this? A LOT OF TURNOVERS from the Pacers, and a bit of open shot making from Dort helped the Thunder get all the stops they were looking for, and offered them a trebuchet to launch over the top of the Pacers siege lines. The Pacers finally paid for how often they were helping off of Dort, and they weren’t able to sort out much on the offensive end. 

“You can’t dribble into a crowd against this team. You won’t make those tight window reads.” - Rick Carlisle, from the bench

The Pacers had 19 turnovers in the first half. Their most in a half this season. The most turnovers in a half for a Finals team in the last 25 years. The Pacers average around 12 turnovers a GAME. 

Control was firmly held by the Thunder through the first 24 minutes. Their MVP wasn’t a sterling shot maker in the first half, but he was aggressive as hell moving the chains for them and unloading the clip to the tune of 18 shot attempts. The defense was where they maintained their foothold, as they waited for triples to drop and an opportunity to pull away. They entered the second half up by 12. 

Offensively, the second half started with a similar intention for the Pacers as the first half did. They worked hard to get the ball to the bigs, as Haliburton tried to use as many ball screen looks as he could to shake loose and force rotation to pepper passes against. He also started looking a little bit more aggressively for his shots in the middle of the floor. For their part, the Thunder were still plugging away on offense by relying on some Dort shot making — it only made sense, as that’s who the Pacers helped off of — and of course, their MVP. Their were some coverage mixups for the Pacers, but the Dort bend or break coverage loomed largest. Still though, the Pacers were within 11 points with 3 minutes left in the third quarter. 

A deficit that would have felt like nothing against the Knicks or Cavs felt like something entirely different against the Thunder. Something akin to a chasm. 

Mathurin got to the line to bring it to nine. Siakam and Mathurin controlled Gilgeous-Alexander in the middle to force a miss, but Caruso tapped it out to Joe for a made triple. Bryant and Siakam both hit from downtown to bring it to six, but Gilgeous-Alexander hit a buzzer beating pull up triple to end the quarter. That counter punching. That shot making. Those extra efforts that lead to extra possessions. That’s the stuff that makes the Thunder so difficult to climb all the way back against. That’s the chasm feeling. 

The opening run of the 4th quarter was a dreadful one for the Pacers. Whether it was a blurred, turbo dig against a Pacer who had turned their back, or just a walled up Thunder defender forcing a tough shot, the Pacers struggled immensely to create. Quite a few possessions tipped towards Mathurin and McConnell as they searched for paint touches, but it didn’t ultimately break them out of gridlock. On the other end, be it from breakdowns —miscommunications on back screens, mixed ball screen coverages — the Pacers let the ball drop a bit, and the Thunder, led by Jalen Williams’ probing work, crafted offensive looks repeatedly. What was a six-point lead mere minutes past in game time, had already ballooned to 15. 

The chasm once again. 

Starters + Toppin checked in. Caruso and Nembhard exchanged And1’s (although Nembhard finished his off with the free throw), and the Pacers started attacking the high pressure of the Thunder by working the ball to open shooters, two of which (Turner & Toppin) cashed from downtown. A quick flurry from the Pacers to snap off a 9-2 run and bring the Pacers back within 8. 

Clawing back close, for the close. Putting in work before the MVP hit the court again - he hit the court immediately.

Haliburton and Nembhard got caught on the same back screen that Siakam and Mathurin got stuck on, leading to a Thunder layup. Nesmith wrestled with the ball and the Thunder defenders before finding Toppin for his 5th triple of the night. Turner hit a sidestep triple that banked in. The shot making came in a wave and a rush, and pulled the Pacers back within 4 for the first time since the second quarter. 

Siakam checked back in. Both teams looked ready to take this thing to the death. 

The Thunder, like they should, went to their MVP over and over again. He had a dazzling split against Siakam & Nembhard before splitting two defenders for a layup. He shook loose of his matchup to force a foul on Haliburton and get to the line once again. He took the Thunder lead back up to 8 with 3 minutes and change to play. 

That damn chasm again. 

An incredible step back triple from Nembhard (who had completely taken over the offense) and a Nesmith triple combined to bring things agonizingly close. Close enough… to dream on stealing something. 

Whether it was Siakam stealing an airball and converting it into a made layup. Whether it was the wall that was presented to the league’s MVP repeatedly to coax the ball out of his hands, to find too many misses from his teammates. That set the stage for SGA to force up a miss with hardly any time left, and for Haliburton to grab the ball, in open play, with the full support of his teammates and coach… 

Haliburton rejected Nesmith’s screen, and drove toward a cutting Siakam, who Caruso stunted off of, and Haliburton read it all perfectly to rise up, and hit the jumper. 

With that jumper, Haliburton lifted the Pacers over the chasm. He stamped himself once again, as one of the greatest clutch shot makers in league history, already in his young career, as he hit the game winner in Game 1 of the Finals. The Pacers had the lead for .3 seconds in the whole game. That’s all this team needs. The ultimate bank robbers in the NBA. Gone in .3 seconds.

Absolute madness. 

Absolute Mandate of Heaven. 

Have a blessed day.