The Indiana Pacers have done it again. The underdog Pacers pulled off another stunning win, this time taking down the Oklahoma City Thunder, 111-110, in Game 1 of the 2025 NBA Finals on Thursday night. The Pacers trailed by as many as 15 points in the fourth quarter and pulled off their fourth shocking late comeback of these playoffs.
Tyrese Haliburton hit the game-winning jumpshot with 0.3 seconds left. Take a look:
Haliburton's shot gave Indiana its first and only lead of the entire game. OKC was in control throughout and caused 19 first-half turnovers. Haliburton ended with only 14 points (and 10 rebounds and six assists), but he has made the key shot in every one of the Pacers' four ridiculous comebacks this postseason. They pulled off shocking wins against the Bucks in the first round, the Cavaliers in the second round, the Knicks in the conference finals, and now the Thunder in the Finals.
The Pacers cut down on the turnovers in the second half, and got a team-high 19 points from Pascal Siakam. Obi Toppin added 17 points off the bench and hit five 3-pointers.
The Thunder were 9.5-point favorites in this game, and led comfortably until the final six minutes. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had a game-high 38 points on 14-of-30 shooting. Lu Dort had 15 points (all on 3-pointers) and was a menace defensively, but OKC got just 23 combined points from Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren, who shot 8 for 28 from the floor.
Game 2 is set for Sunday night, but first, here are some key takeaways from the Pacers' thrilling Game 1 victory:
Haliburton, Pacers reinforce status as comeback kings
The Pacers have made a habit of borderline impossible victories. For example, they won all four of these games:
- In Game 6 of the Pacers' first-round matchup with the Milwaukee Bucks, they trailed by seven points with 35 seconds remaining.
- In Game 2 of the Pacers' second-round matchup with the Cleveland Cavaliers, they trailed by seven points with 48 seconds remaining.
- In Game 1 of the Pacers' Eastern Conference matchup series with the New York Knicks, they trailed by 14 points with 2:51 remaining.
- In Game 1 of the Pacers' NBA Finals matchup with the Oklahoma City Thunder, they trailed by nine with 2:52 remaining.
Making these four wins even more remarkable is the fact that Haliburton hit the game-winning shot (or game-tying against the Knicks, as the Pacers went on to win in overtime) on all four occasions.
What is there to even say about the Pacers at this point? They led Game 1 on Thursday for 0.3 seconds. Perhaps it's best to let Gilgeous-Alexander sum things up:
"It is a 48-minute game," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "[The Pacers] teach you that lesson more than anybody else in the league the hard way."
Pacers' turnovers somehow don't matter
Coming into the series, one of the biggest questions was whether the Thunder would be able to force the Pacers into a high number of turnovers.
Through the first three rounds, the Thunder had overwhelmed teams, racking up a stunning 17.7% opponent turnover rate, tops among all playoff teams. They had turned those extra possessions into 23.8 points off turnovers per game, again best among the 16 playoff teams.
As for the Pacers, they had mastered the high-wire act of playing extremely fast (98.44 pace, third among playoff teams) while taking care of the ball (12.7% turnover rate, third-lowest among playoff teams). They were only surrendering 12.5 opponent points off turnovers per game, which ranked first among playoff teams.
Early on, it was clear that the Thunder's defense was unlike anything the Pacers had seen during the postseason. The Pacers were discombobulated and coughing up the ball left and right. By the end of the first quarter they had nine turnovers, and by halftime they were up to 19. While the Pacers settled down in the second half, which was a major reason for their comeback, they still finished with 25 turnovers -- matching their season-high, which ironically also came in a win.
The Thunder's defense did enough to win them the game -- OKC took 16 more shots than the Pacers -- but their offense couldn't convert on those extra possessions. Notably, the Thunder only turned those 25 turnovers into 11 points.
"Yeah, I mean, the turnovers, that I thought was a big part of it," Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. "Our conversion, we want to be fast up the floor. I didn't think we converted a lot of advantageous situations tonight. So we can learn from that. Like I said, we want to be in the paint against this team. I felt like we got there a lot and didn't convert those. Offensively there's things we can look at."
The 3-point advantage
The Pacers have been the best 3-point shooting team in the playoffs, while the Thunder have been one of the worst. Entering Game 1 of the Finals, Indiana was shooting 40.1% from behind the arc -- no other team was even at 38% -- and OKC was making just 33.6% of its attempts, which ranked 13th out of the 16 playoff teams.
Though the Thunder were heavy favorites in this series, holding most of the advantages, it was clear the Pacers were a better outside shooting team. After watching their Game 1 comeback, perhaps that fact should have carried more weight.
The Pacers shot 18 of 39 (46.2%) from downtown on Thursday, while the Thunder were 11 of 30 (36.7%). This was the 10th time in 17 playoff games that the Pacers have shot at least 40% from 3, and their 21-point advantage in that category was one of the main reasons they overcame their turnover problem.
In the fourth quarter, the Pacers made six of their 10 3-point attempts. Toppin and Turner knocked down four in a two-and-a-half minute span that helped jumpstart their comeback, including one that Turner banked one in, while Aaron Nesmith made another big one and Andrew Nembhard gave Gilgeous-Alexander a dribbling clinic before burying one in his face.
If Indiana continues to make 3s at this clip, the Thunder are going to have a math problem that they may not be able to solve.
