Tyrese Haliburton #0 of the Indiana Pacers scores a basket with .3 seconds remaining through the fourth quarter towards the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder in Recreation 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 might be Tyrese Haliburton.
You went to the Jap Convention finals final 12 months and obtained swept. You went to the Olympics final summer season and didn’t play a lot. You got here into this season with excessive expectations and your Indiana Pacers obtained off to a 10-15 begin. And on prime of that, a few of your NBA friends evidently assume you’re overrated.
READ: NBA Finals: Tyrese Haliburton, Pacers stun Thunder in Recreation 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 believe as a gaggle, we take every thing 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 focus grew to become confidence, and the arrogance delivered a 1-0 collection lead within the NBA Finals. Haliburton’s penchant for last-second heroics — one of many tales of those playoffs — confirmed up once more Thursday evening, 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 recreation. It was sufficient.
“In relation to the moments, he desires the ball,” Pacers teammate Myles Turner stated. “He desires to be the one to hit that shot. He doesn’t draw back from the second and it’s essential this time of the 12 months to have a go-to man. He simply retains discovering a approach and we maintain placing the ball in the suitable positions and the remainder is historical past.”
READ: NBA Finals: How the Pacers pulled off a comeback in Recreation 1
Haliburton is 4 for 4 within the remaining 2 seconds of fourth quarters and overtimes in these playoffs, all of these photographs both giving the Pacers a win or sending a recreation 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 kind 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 dwell and die with the perfect participant on the opposite workforce taking a recreation 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 may have all advised Oklahoma Metropolis who was going to take the massive shot and what was most likely going to occur.
READ: NBA Finals: Thunder collapse when it mattered most in Recreation 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 remaining 34.6 seconds of additional time. Last rating: Pacers 119, Bucks 118, and that collection ended there.
In Cleveland on Might 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 remaining 48 seconds. At Madison Sq. Backyard towards the Knicks on Might 21, a recreation 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 bit one thing further. His father, John Haliburton, obtained a bit too exuberant with Giannis Antetokounmpo after the Bucks recreation 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 towards the Cavs. He made a choke sign, a la what Pacers legend Reggie Miller did towards New York a era earlier, after hitting the shot towards the Knicks.
However on Thursday, all enterprise. These finals are a good distance from over, and he is aware of it. Recreation 2 is Sunday evening in Oklahoma Metropolis.
“Once more, one other huge comeback however there’s much more work to do,” Haliburton stated. “That’s only one recreation. And that is the perfect workforce within the NBA, and so they don’t lose typically. So, we count on them to reply. We’ve obtained to be ready for that. We obtained a pair days to look at movie, see the place we are able to get higher.”
READ: NBA Finals drought over, Pacers look to beat snake-bitten historical past
Haliburton is in his first 12 months of a supermax contract that can pay him about $245 million alongside the best way. He has the Olympic gold medal from final summer season and absolutely shall be a critical 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 Recreation 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 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.”
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And in his NBA Finals debut, Haliburton reminded the world that’s the case.
“This group by no means offers up,” Haliburton stated. “We by no means consider that the sport is over till it hits zero, and that’s simply the God’s trustworthy fact. That’s simply the arrogance that we now have as a gaggle, and I believe that’s an enormous motive why this is happening.”
