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 on 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 has three 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 game-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 now 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 seven 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 14 early in the fourth quarter and by five with 90 seconds to go – an eternity with Haliburton on the team.

As is often the case, the Pacers don’t owe this victory to Haliburton alone. Andrew Nembhard (Gonzaga University), their two-way stalwart who had a huge fourth quarter, drained a 3-pointer with 1:59 left to bring the Pacers to within three. 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 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.

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 from the field. Jalen Williams added 17 points for the Thunder and Luguentz Dort finished with 15 points and four steals.

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.

Haliburton had a quiet night up to that point, scoring 14 points to go with 10 assists. 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 3-pointers in about 5 minutes from Aaron Nesmith in Game 1 against New York just to set up Haliburton’s previous thriller.

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 in the first half of a finals game since 1990 and the most in a half of any playoff game since 1999. The Pacers’ 25 turnovers were among the most in a finals game.

Gilgeous-Alexander, the NBA’s scoring champ who averaged 32.7 points, obviously has 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 else in the league is defend. They were the league’s top defense in the regular season and have improved at that end in the playoffs.

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 Cason 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.

But the Pacers found their poise in the second half and a huge upset resulted. The Thunder are among the most heavily favored teams entering a finals in history. Now they trail 1-0 to the comeback kings.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.