The Lineup
SPORTS EDITOR
Nat Newell
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITORS
Aaron Ferguson
Matthew Glenesk
PACERS BEAT REPORTER
Dustin Dopirak
COLUMNIST
Gregg Doyel
REPORTERS
Zach Osterman
Kyle Neddenriep
Nathan Baird
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Christine Tannous
Grace Hollars
Grace Smith
Mykal McEldowney
EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Eric Larsen
DESIGNERS
Joey Schaffer
Lee Benson
PROOFREADER
Heather Hewitt
FACT-CHECKER
Sherrill Amo
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Gene Myers
SPECIAL THANKS
Chris Thomas, Alicia Del Gallo,
Chris Fenison, Vanessa Cotton
About the book
“GOLD RUSH!” condenses a year’s worth of the world’s best coverage of the Indiana Pacers from The Indianapolis Star. Follow the Pacers at indystar.com. Order a print subscription at 888-357-7827. This book includes coverage from the USA TODAY Network, which includes the IndyStar.
On the cover
With a lifetime’s worth of last-minute heroics during a two-month playoff run in spring 2025, point guard Tyrese Haliburton catapulted the Indiana Pacers to the NBA Finals for the first time in 25 years. He hit game-winning shots against Milwaukee, Cleveland and Oklahoma City and a game-tying shot against New York, a game the Pacers then won in overtime.
TREVOR RUSZKOWSKI / IMAGN IMAGES
PREVIOUS PAGE: When Tyrese Haliburton nailed a 3-pointer with 1:17 left against Sacramento, the Pacers had their first lead since the second quarter. They won 111-109 on March 31.
TREVOR RUSZKOWSKI / IMAGN IMAGES
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the copyright owner or the publisher.
Published by Pediment Publishing, a division of The Pediment Group, Inc. • www.pediment.com
Printed in Canada.
This book is an unofficial account of the Indiana Pacers’ 2024-25 season by IndyStar and USA TODAY and is not endorsed by the Indiana Pacers or the NBA.
© 2025 by IndyStar and USA TODAY
16 48
CHAPTER ONE THE SEASON
CHAPTER TWO THE PLAYOFFS
How the Indiana Pacers claimed their first Eastern Conference title in 25 years
The Pacers swarmed Tyrese Haliburton (second from the left) after his 23-foot buzzer-beater against the New York Knicks tied Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals at Madison Square Garden. Indiana prevailed in overtime 138-135 and won the series in six games. BRAD PENNER / IMAGN IMAGES
FOREWORD
Pacers’ most magical of seasons derailed before a happy ending
GREGG DOYEL | INDYSTAR COLUMNIST
NOT LIKE THIS.
Not. Like. This. Not with Tyrese Haliburton, the MVP of the Indiana Pacers and these 2025 NBA playoffs, pounding the floor in pain and heartbreak just five minutes into Game 7 of the NBA Finals — what was left of his right Achilles tendon somewhere back there, screaming at him, telling him it’s over.
Not like this.
Not with Haliburton, the happiest-goluckiest player you ever saw, bawling on the court, shouting out his injury to the trainers crouched inches away. He’s trying to make them understand what has just happened over the madness in Oklahoma City’s Paycom Center, where fans were still roaring about the Thunder’s dunk at the other end.
Not like this. Not with an ugly 103-91 loss to Oklahoma City that ends the Pacers’ magical
2024-25 season — and a blowout injury to Haliburton’s right leg that could gut their 2025-26 season as well.
Not when Game 7 had seen Haliburton having his best start of the entire 2025 playoffs — and these have been his playoffs — draining a trio of 3-pointers in 92 seconds, giving the Pacers a 14-10 lead and shutting up the loudest arena in the league. It was so loud, before Haliburton got hot, that some players couldn’t hear the whistle on occasion and kept playing even as others had come to a stop.
It was so loud, there was no chance to hear what popped in Haliburton’s right leg. But TV replays showed it in super-slow motion, that spot in his lower calf that rose up and wobbled ominously before going back down. Was that his Achilles tendon?
That’s what everyone was diagnosing on social media, and to be sure, we’d seen this before in these playoffs. Boston’s Jayson Tatum popped his Achilles against New York. Milwaukee’s Damian Lillard popped
his against the Pacers.
And it was his Achilles, to be operated on less than 24 hours later.
“All of our hearts dropped,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said.
GREGG DOYEL HAS BEEN A sports columnist at the Indianapolis Star since 2014. Born in Hawaii, childhood in Norman, Oklahoma, and Oxford, Mississippi, high school in Macon, Georgia. All-state in baseball and soccer. Still bragging about it all these years later. College at Florida. Wrote journalism and sold plasma for meal money. Important to him: Raising ALS awareness. Teachers. Hospice care. Veterans. Rock Steady Boxing. Phoenix Society. Kids. Bald.
OPPOSITE: The Pacers solemnly gathered on the court after Tyrese Haliburton suffered a torn Achilles tendon with 4:55 left in the first quarter of Game 7 in the NBA Finals. Down 18-16 at the time, Indiana lost to the Thunder 103-91. SARAH PHIPPS / THE OKLAHOMAN
Overheard
“He authored one of the great individual playoff runs in the history of the NBA. It was something that no one’s ever seen — and he did it as one of 17. You know, that’s the beautiful thing about him. As great a player as he is, it’s always a team thing.”
RIGHT: Near the five-minute mark of the first quarter, Tyrese Haliburton crumbled to the court with a torn right Achilles tendon while starting to drive late in the shot clock. At the time, the game was tied at 16 and Haliburton had nine points.
CHRISTINE TANNOUS / INDYSTAR
OPPOSITE: Haliburton remained in the Pacers’ locker room for the rest of the game. He left Paycom Center with his right foot in a protective boot and on crutches. In the playoffs, two other Eastern Conference superstars suffered Achilles tendon tears — Milwaukee’s Damian Lillard (against Indiana) and Boston’s Jayson Tatum (against New York). All three players wore No. 0.
CHRISTINE TANNOUS / INDYSTAR
It felt like a time to mourn what just happened to Tyrese, to the Pacers, to their fans, to our city.
‘What basketball in Indiana stands for’ You’ve got to give the Pacers credit, though. They hung around, didn’t they?
The Thunder led 18-16 after the dunk on the play when Haliburton suffered the injury, but before you knew it, the Pacers had rallied for a 26-25 lead early in the second quarter and then played the Thunder even into halftime.
Andrew Nembhard threw a disappearing
pass to Myles Turner — if it didn’t disappear, you tell me how it got through all that traffic in the lane — for a layup attempt, and a foul. Nembhard scored one of those fullback layups, cradling the ball like a football player as he hit the line of scrimmage, er, the lane, before scoring at the basket. Turner scored from 17 feet. Aaron Nesmith hit a 3 after a Turner offensive rebound.
Pesky little T.J. McConnell gave a hint of what was to come in the third quarter when he drove the baseline against 7-foot-1 Chet Holmgren, decided to go back the
other way before turning around — nope, I’m coming right back — and blew past the stunned Holmgren for a reserve layup on the other side of the basket.
Nembhard hit a step-back 3-pointer before the halftime horn, and the Pacers went into the locker room with a 48-47 lead.
Haliburton was waiting for them, on crutches, where teammates comforted him.
Onward the Pacers continued, tying the score at 56 early in the third quarter on a Turner 3. The Thunder were playing around, fooling around, chucking silly 3s and watching Alex Caruso fly in from the
Rick Carlisle on Tyrese Haliburton
wing for an offensive rebound and trying to throw it down from a distance of 5 feet. Ever seen someone dunk from 5 feet away? Alex Caruso tried to do that.
Meanwhile, T.J. McConnell. What else is there to say? He did this in Game 5, keeping the Pacers in the game in that loss at OKC. He did it again in Game 6, helping spark the Pacers to the victory that forced Game 7. And then he scored 12 consecutive points for the Pacers in the third quarter on this Sunday night in June, all of them heavily contested, most from inside 3 feet as the crowd was groaning every time he touched the ball. Because the crowd knew. McConnell, the shortest, oldest player on the court — the only one who couldn’t dunk unless everyone got out of the way — was unstoppable.
But the rest of the Pacers cooled down. McConnell was the only Indiana player to score in the final 8½ minutes of the third quarter. The Thunder, meanwhile, was getting points from five players to outscore McConnell — and the Pacers — 25-12 for an 81-68 lead entering the fourth quarter.
And it was over. Soon it was 90-68, and while the Pacers fought back to get within 10 points — for the last time at 96-86 with 2:12 left — there was no more gas in the tank for a final surge. With Haliburton out of commission and with Nesmith fouled out, the Pacers were on fumes.
Even so, they won the fourth quarter 23-22. Carlisle wasn’t talking about moral victories afterward, but he admired what he saw in those final 12 minutes.
“The fourth quarter, and the effort our guys poured into the quarter to win (it) by one point was epic,” Carlisle said, “and it was symbolic of what this team stands for, what basketball in Indiana stands for.
There was no surrender. It was all defiant fight to the end.”
When it was over, Haliburton was still in the locker room, still waiting to be with his guys. Only now, he was the one comforting them.
“One of the greatest human beings I’ve come in contact with,” McConnell said. “Great teammate. A lot of us were hurting from the loss, and he was up there consoling us. That’s who Tyrese Haliburton is. He’s just the greatest, man.”
SGA: Haliburton’s injury ‘not
fair’
On the play that will break your heart, Haliburton was headed to the rim. He had hit those three straight 3-pointers, and he already had scored nine points in five minutes. These were his playoffs, and he was about to claim Game 7 as the bookend to his Game 1, when he beat the Thunder with a buzzer-beater in this same building. And that was just the latest of his lategame dramatics in these playoffs. He hit game-winners against Milwaukee, Cleveland and Oklahoma City, also produced a 32-point triple-double with no turnovers against the Knicks — a stat line nobody had ever achieved in the NBA Finals — and hit a buzzer-beater to force overtime in another game against the Knicks, another game the Pacers won.
“He authored one of the great individual playoff runs in the history of the NBA,” Carlisle said. “It was something that no one’s ever seen — and he did it as one of 17. You know, that's the beautiful thing about him. As great a player as he is, it's always a team thing.”
Haliburton, who nursed his strained calf for 72 hours to be able to play in Game 6, was looking like himself early in
REGULAR SEASON
FEB. 26, 2025 W 111 - 91 VS. RAPTORS
FEB. 28, 2025 L 125 - 120 AT HEAT
MAR. 2, 2025 W 127 - 112 VS. BULLS
MAR. 4, 2025 W 115 - 102 VS. ROCKETS
MAR. 6, 2025 L 124 - 118 AT HAWKS
MAR. 8, 2025 L 120 - 118 AT HAWKS
MAR. 10, 2025 L 121 - 103 AT BULLS
MAR. 11, 2025 W 115 - 114 VS. BUCKS
MAR. 14, 2025 W 112 - 100 AT 76ERS
MAR. 15, 2025 L 126 - 119 AT BUCKS
MAR. 17, 2025 W 132 - 130 (OT) AT TIMBERWOLVES
MAR. 19, 2025 W 135 - 131 VS. MAVERICKS
MAR. 20, 2025 W 105 - 99 (OT) VS. NETS
MAR. 22, 2025 W 108 - 103 VS. NETS
MAR. 24, 2025 W 119 - 103 VS. TIMBERWOLVES
MAR. 26, 2025 L 120 - 119 VS. LAKERS
MAR. 27, 2025 W 162 - 109 AT WIZARDS
MAR. 29, 2025 L 132 - 111 AT THUNDER
MAR. 31, 2025 W 111 - 109 VS. KINGS
APR. 2, 2025 W 119 - 105 VS. HORNETS
APR. 4, 2025 W 140 - 112 VS. JAZZ
APR. 6, 2025 W 125 - 120 AT NUGGETS
APR. 8, 2025 W 104 - 98 VS. WIZARDS
APR. 10, 2025 W 114 - 112 VS. CAVALIERS
APR. 11, 2025 L 129 - 115 VS. MAGIC
APR. 13, 2025 W 126 - 118 (2OT) AT CAVALIERS
PLAYOFFS
FIRST ROUND VS. MILWAUKEE BUCKS HOME GAME 1 APR. 19, 2025 W 117 - 98
123 - 115
GAME 5 APR. 29, 2025
W 119 - 118 (OT)
EASTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS VS. CLEVELAND CAVALIERS
ROAD GAME 1 MAY 4, 2025 W 124 - 112
GAME 2 MAY 6, 2025 W 120 - 119
-
ROAD GAME 5 MAY 13, 2025
W 114 - 105
EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS VS. NEW YORK KNICKS
ROAD GAME 1 MAY 21, 2025 W 138 - 135 (OT)
ROAD GAME 5 MAY 29, 2025
L 111 - 94
GAME 6 MAY 31, 2025 W 125 - 108 NBA FINALS VS. OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER ROAD GAME 1 JUNE 5, 2025 W 111 - 110
GAME 2 JUNE 8, 2025 L 123 - 107
GAME 4 JUNE 13, 2025 L 111 - 104 ROAD GAME 5 JUNE 16, 2025 L 120 - 109
Where’s the drama? Pacers elected to run it back with the rotation from the playoffs
DUSTIN DOPIRAK | SEPT. 30, 2024
THE PACERS APPROACHED THE offseason in a way that would seem to minimize training camp drama.
They not only maintained the core that reached the playoffs for the first time since 2020 and the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2014, they locked up many of their key cogs to long-term contracts. Power forwards Pascal Siakam and Obi Toppin signed four-year contracts after their deals expired and point guards Andrew Nembhard and T.J. McConnell signed extensions.
among the conference’s top contenders to dethrone the reigning champion Celtics.
How do the Pacers keep camp edgy?
Coach Rick Carlisle isn’t the sort to allow players to believe they had anything locked up, so even if he liked the combinations he created in the spring,
history, went into last season considered one of the most important pieces of the Pacers’ rebuild. However, Mathurin missed the playoff run because of a torn right labrum suffered in early March. Watching from the sidelines — the Pacers hoped and believed — gave him a better sense of how valuable he could be if he made quicker decisions and kept the ball moving.
ball in his hands. Although 6-feet-8 and 240 pounds, Walker played point guard as a sophomore at IMG Academy and rated as an exceptional ball-handler and passer. His jump shot made drastic improvement, and the Pacers thought he had as much of a chance to make an impact at small forward as power forward, where he was drafted.
“This is your opportunity in camp. Go compete. ”
GENERAL MANAGER CHAD BUCHANAN
The Pacers returned their entire starting lineup and a seemingly readymade second unit that included their four top subs from the playoffs and their fourth-leading scorer. They easily could begin the season with a rotation almost identical to April’s and May’s.
The biggest questions would come once the Pacers started playing games and tried to prove they still belonged
he would want everyone to operate as if they were playing for their jobs. How the Pacers responded might determine how much they got out of the preseason.
What has Bennedict
Mathurin learned?
Mathurin, the Pacers’ highest-draft selection since Rik Smits in 1988, the first Pacer to make first-team AllRookie since Smits in 1989 and the third-leading rookie scorer in team
Where does Jarace Walker fit?
The return of the playoff rotation meant there still was not an open spot for last year’s lottery pick. Walker appeared in only 33 games, playing 340 minutes mostly in games that were decided. Still, the Pacers retained high hopes for Walker, the eighth pick in 2023. They got him extensive work in the G League and the NBA Summer League, and they made sure he had the
Who will be the backup center?
After spending the past two years locked in a constant battle with Jalen Smith, Isaiah Jackson took over the job as backup center in the playoffs. Smith opted out of the final year of his contract and left for the Bulls. The Pacers signed James Wiseman, who at least has the talent to give Jackson a battle but who hasn't met expectations after going No. 2 overall to the Warriors in the 2019 draft.
OPPOSITE: Point guard Tyrese Haliburton struck a contemplative pose during media day in late September. During the summer, he won a gold medal at the Paris Olympics, although he called it “a little bit of an ego hit” playing in only three of Team USA’s six games and for only 26 minutes total. CHRISTINE TANNOUS / INDYSTAR
MARCH 11, 2025 W
PACERS 115, BUCKS 114
AT GAINBRIDGE FIELDHOUSE, INDIANAPOLIS
How Boucek’s flag football play turned into Haliburton’s four-point shot of the season
DUSTIN DOPIRAK
WHEN TYRESE HALIBURTON
found out what sideline-out-of-bounds play the Pacers were going to run when they were down three points to the Bucks with 3.9 seconds to go, he asked the coaching staff to change his assignment.
It’s not that he doesn’t like the football-inspired set first introduced to the Pacers by assistant coach Jenny Boucek and since tweaked by assistant Mike Weinar, who was charged with drawing up plays for special situations. It’s just that whenever the Pacers ran the play in practice, Haliburton never seemed to get the ball in his hands.
However, the coaching staff refused to change Haliburton’s part in the play.
“The first time we ever ran it in training camp maybe two years ago, I made the shot the same way,” he said.
“I haven’t made it since. I haven’t got the ball since or made it since.”
But against Milwaukee, Haliburton not only got the ball, he made the shot of a lifetime over one of the world’s greatest players, drew a foul and converted a four-point play to give the Pacers an astonishing 115-114 victory in a postseason-caliber back-and-forth battle between teams that met in the first round of last year’s playoffs and could meet in the first round again.
Haliburton ended up being mobbed by his teammates twice, first when he made the shot and then again when the clock ran out following a failed attempt by Giannis Antetokounmpo to retake the lead.
With one high-arcing, fallaway game-tying 3-pointer and the tiebreaking foul shot that followed, Haliburton saved the Pacers from seeing a losing streak hit four games and from falling into sixth place in the Eastern Conference by themselves. Instead, they ended the night at 36-28 in a virtual three-way tie for fourth
with the Bucks (36-28) and Pistons (37-29), and they got to celebrate their most dramatic victory of the year on a game televised on TNT with their all-time leading scorer Reggie Miller operating as the color analyst.
“The shot Tyrese hit,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said, “that’s one they’re gonna be talking about for a lot of years.”
The Pacers were pleased to simply have Haliburton back in the building and in uniform after he had missed three games with a left hip flexor strain. In his first seven games since the All-Star Game break, he was on perhaps the most spectacular tear of his career, averaging 23.9 points on 60% shooting, including 54.5% from the 3-point line, to go with 12.0 assists against 1.1 turnovers.
His impact was evident immediately and the gravity he created allowed the Pacers to move much more freely in space and play faster in transition.
Haliburton recorded 10 assists, cracking double figures for his seventh straight game.
His jumper looked good, but it took him a bit to find a kind rim. In the first half, he had six assists but was 1 of 5 from the floor and 0 of 3 from 3-point range. All three of his 3-pointers seemed to go in and then out. He finally got one to fall with 5:54 to go in the third quarter but was still 1 of 5 from deep heading into the final seconds.
“I felt good,” Haliburton said. “I just missed some shots.”
The same went for the rest of the team. The Pacers finished 13 of 39 from beyond the arc (33.3%), which was painful because of how many shots they had that were wide open. Pascal Siakam had an excellent allaround night with 25 points on 10 of 15 shooting to go with 12 rebounds and five assists; however, even he missed open 3s.
And because they kept missing open
OPPOSITE: Tyrese Haliburton delivered a late game-tying 3-pointer over Giannis Antetokounmpo and the game-winning free throw because of a foul. “There was a miscommunication on our coverage,” The Greek Freak said, “he was able to get to the corner and knock down an incredible shot.” TREVOR RUSZKOWSKI / IMAGN IMAGES
early in the second quarter. However, they followed that with a 39-18 stretch that gave them a lead early in the third quarter and set them up for a back-and-forth battle the rest of the way.
Haliburton’s most important contribution to the comeback was his consistent ability to get to the rim off the dribble. Haliburton is frequently criticized — by Pacers fans, by media, by his personal trainer Drew Hanlen and even by himself — for not shooting enough and particularly for not being aggressive enough about scoring in the paint.
Haliburton made 58.1% of his 2-point shots and 72.5% of his shots within 3 feet of the basket this season, but 55.9% of his field-goal attempts were 3-pointers and a career-low 10.1% came within 3 feet of the rim, according to Basketball Reference. Haliburton was a proud 3-point shooter and also deep in his heart and soul a passfirst point guard, so it took a lot to get him to prioritize hunting his own shot over creating for others. Trying to score through traffic if there was a pass to make went against his core beliefs.
Haliburton had made progress getting through that barrier, but he still held back when dealing with a high-level shot blocker in the lane. Throughout the series, Haliburton was hesitant to shoot if he got to the lane and found Antetokounmpo was waiting for him. However, the Bucks put Antetokounmpo on him as a primary defender at several points in Game 5, allowing Haliburton to drag him out into space rather than so frequently meeting him close to the rim.
Even when Antetokounmpo wasn’t guarding him, the Bucks put other defenders on Haliburton that he didn’t
have a problem blowing past and picked his spots to drive when Antetokounmpo wasn't in position to meet him at the rim. Seven of his 10 field goals were layups or dunks.
Haliburton didn’t score at all in the first quarter but got going with two secondquarter layups. In the third, he hit his only 3-pointer in regulation, a driving layup and a step-back 20-foot jumper for seven points. Then in the fourth, he didn’t score at all until the last 73 seconds of the period, but all of the Pacers’ final six points were his.
He chopped a four-point deficit to two points with a layup with 1:13 left. Antetokounmpo built the lead back to four with a driving floater with 53 seconds left, but he missed a free throw that followed. Haliburton drove to the lane and drew a foul from Antetokounmpo and hit two free throws with 39.8 seconds to go, the Pacers followed with a defensive stop and Haliburton drove in for a game-tying dunk with 10.8 seconds left. Antetokounmpo missed a turnaround jumper at the buzzer and the game went to overtime.
Haliburton drilled a 3-pointer over Antetokounmpo just over 33 seconds into overtime, but that’s when he went cold. He missed six consecutive field-goal attempts — four 3-pointers and two shots classified as layups, including one that was point-blank. The Bucks capitalized by building a 118-111 lead with 40 seconds to go.
Haliburton’s teammates made enough plays to keep the game from getting out of reach. They not only encouraged him to keep shooting but demanded it.
“They said if we get a chance to win at the end, they will rely on me to do that,”
Haliburton said. “Those guys kept me up.” Haliburton drove past guard A.J. Green and drew a foul with 17 seconds left. Bucks 118, Pacers 117. Indiana got the ball back when a pass slipped through Trent’s hands out of bounds with 10 seconds left. Then Haliburton blew past Antetokounmpo for the game-winning layup. Those ended up being two of the biggest shots of the Pacers’ season.
“I’m glad he stayed resilient and was able to pull it off in those moments,” Turner said. “A lot of people would have shied away. You miss two, three big shots and you can shy away from the moment. I wasn’t going to allow him to do that. It was big on him to go get the ball. I knew he needed a little bit of a nudge, and he was able to go make some great things happen.”
OPPOSITE: Tyrese Haliburton’s drive around Gary Trent Jr. that ended in a dunk tied the Bucks with 10.8 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Game 5 went to overtime after Giannis Antetokounmpo missed a turnaround 16-footer. Haliburton scored six points in the last 73 seconds of regulation. CHRISTINE TANNOUS / INDYSTAR
LEFT: Haliburton drove past Antetokounmpo and avoided Kevin Porter Jr. for a game-winning layup with 1.3 seconds left in overtime. The series ended when Trent missed a 62-foot heave. Haliburton scored four points in the last 17 seconds of overtime. A downcast Antetokounmpo said: “A lot of things happened down the stretch. You can break it down possession by possession, but it doesn’t matter. We lost the game. We’re sitting right here, right now and the season is over.”
CHRISTINE TANNOUS /
INDYSTAR
PACERS 138 , KNICKS 135 (OT)
AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, NEW YORK
Pacers’ other comebacks were improbable, but this one over New York was just absurd
GREGG DOYEL
AARON NESMITH IS TRYING TO make sense of what just happened, the latest in a growing list of improbable comebacks for the Indiana Pacers during these 2025 NBA playoffs. This one, this 138-135 overtime victory against the New York Knicks in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, this was the most absurd of all — and the Pacers have given us one absurd comeback after another.
Down 20 against Milwaukee: Win. Down 20 against Cleveland: Win. Down 19 against Cleveland: Win.
But this was …
Well, here’s one quote from Aaron Nesmith:
Sigh.
Seriously, that’s what he said — well, that’s what he exhaled — as he was trying to make sense of what had just
happened in the most famous arena in the world, Madison Square Garden, the Mecca of Basketball, where the Knicks were leading the Pacers by 15 points with less than five minutes to play when Nesmith caught a pass from Tyrese Haliburton and drilled a 3-pointer to
“It seems like it was five or six,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle was saying — he was guessing, really — in his postgame news conference.
Six, said a member of the New York media. Six, said another reporter, this one from Indiana.
“Probably the best feeling in the world, when that basket feels like an ocean. ”
cut the deficit to 113-101.
The crowd was almost laughing. Hey, look at these cute little Pacers …
Now Nesmith is making another one.
And another. And another. And another.
And another.
How many is that, anyway?
Now everyone’s speaking up: Six, six, six, six …
“They were all needed,” Carlisle said.
Nesmith scored 20 points in the final 4:45, scoring so much he lost track himself.
“I was letting it fly,” he said. “I didn’t really realize what I was doing in the
moment. … It’s unreal, probably the best feeling in the world, when that basket feels like an ocean and anything you toss up feels like it’s going in.”
Pause. Sigh.
“Just so much fun,” he concluded. But he didn’t hit the shot at the buzzer that put the game into overtime. And he wasn’t the main hero of overtime. Or the other hero.
It was that kind of game, for the Pacers. A typical game in these playoffs.
“It’s a muscle,” Carlisle was saying of the Pacers’ fourth comeback of at least 17 points in their nine playoff victories. “The more you exercise it, the stronger it gets.”
These Pacers? Their comeback muscle is jacked.
Tyrese Haliburton had something to do with this, obviously. He hit a shot that was almost one for the ages, then unleashed a celebration that was
OPPOSITE: At the buzzer, Tyrese Haliburton did his best Reggie Miller impersonation: First, he nailed a 23-footer to force overtime. Next, he directed a choke sign at the New York Knicks. Joining the fun (from the left) were Myles Turner, Aaron Nesmith, Andrew Nembhard and Pascal Siakam. BRAD PENNER / IMAGN IMAGES
AARON NESMITH
Overheard
“Ty’s got to do him. That’s what he’s got to do, he’s got to be himself every time he’s out on the floor. He can impact the game in so many ways. So I’m really not worried about his scoring. I just know that he’s going to make the right play. But when he’s intentional about doing that every single play, I know something good is going to happen. So as long as he keeps doing that, we’re going to be all right.”
Pascal Siakam
OPPOSITE: The crowd at Gainbridge Fieldhouse was loud and electric for Game 3, the first NBA Finals game in the state since June 16, 2000. On that night, the Pacers beat the Lakers 120-87 in Game 5 behind 32 points from Jalen Rose and 25 points from Reggie Miller. Shaquille O’Neal had 35 points but Kobe Bryant only eight for the Lakers, who sewed up the title three nights later in LA 116-111. GRACE SMITH / INDYSTAR
But there’s no debate about who has the most startling individual stat line from this game, and it’s neither Mathurin nor Haliburton. It’s McConnell, who becomes the first player in NBA Finals history to come off the bench and post 10 points, five assists and five steals. And he does it in 15 minutes. And he does it at 6-feet-1 and at age 33. A unique player, T.J. McConnell.
“His energy is unbelievable,” Haliburton says. “I think you guys know he’s a crowd favorite. I joke with him. I call him The Great White Hope.”
That’s what Haliburton said. Here’s what Carlisle said:
“T.J. brings some very unique elements to our team, and he brings unique elements to the game in general. We need all of our guys to bring whatever is their thing to our thing — and have it be part of our thing. But he’s a guy that inspires a lot of people. He inspires our team a lot.”
When the second quarter begins, the Pacers are trailing 32-24. But the second unit is on the floor, led by Mathurin, McConnell and Obi Toppin (eight points, six rebounds, two blocks off the bench), and soon the Thunder’s lead is gone. Now the Pacers are leading 49-42.
After the game, after the deal is done, Pacers sideline reporter Pat Boylan is interviewing McConnell on the court. They’re playing the conversation on the giant scoreboard, and Boylan is reminding McConnell how the Pacers’ second unit turned the game around. “How,” Boylan is asking McConnell, “did you turn the tide?”
McConnell is smiling. The crowd, wearing those gold T-shirts, is roaring. Now McConnell is gesturing around the arena.
“I mean,” he says, “do you hear this?”
All right, so it’s the fourth quarter. The
Pacers, as a franchise, have decided it’s time for their secret weapon — so they give the mic to sports media personality Pat McAfee. And McAfee delivers.
“It’s been 9,126 days since our state hosted an NBA Finals,” McAfee is shouting into the microphone. He might have looked up that fact or guessed or, honestly, done the math in his head. He has a pretty quick brain, this guy. Photographic memory, among other things. Anyway, McAfee is still shouting into the mic.
“Everyone’s talking about Oklahoma City fans,” McAfee says, then challenges Pacers fans to be even louder. “Let’s turn this city up! Let’s go!”
Now it’s bedlam, and they’re playing “Welcome to the Jungle” over the loudspeakers, and almost immediately Nembhard is scoring and McConnell is stealing the inbounds pass and scoring, and the hard things are just getting started for Oklahoma City. Mathurin’s hitting a 3. Now it’s Haliburton’s turn to hit a 3, and the Thunder wants a time-out to cool off the Pacers, and the crowd.
Yeah, good luck with that.
“They were great,” Carlisle said of the crowd, “especially in the fourth quarter. It just went up a few decibels.”
So did the Pacers. Haliburton has room to operate, and that spells trouble for OKC. After being bottled up for two games, Haliburton has been getting space in Game 3 by playing off screens or passing the ball to a teammate and rushing to get it right back, or by starting his sprint with the ball — getting downhill, you call that — before even crossing half-court. Now he’s playing off three screens, forcing the Thunder to switch time and again, until he’s alone on 7-1 Chet Holmgren and
running the pick-and-roll with Turner, who scores at the rim on his new (smaller) defender.
Soon Haliburton is getting to the rim and missing, but Toppin is flying through the air to slam home the rebound and it’s 107-100. This game is almost over, if the Pacers can get just one stop … and there it is. Holmgren shoots a 3, and Turner swats it out of the air. Holmgren grabs the offensive rebound and hurries to the rim to beat the shot clock, but Turner blocks that one, too. Turner doesn’t feel well, and he doesn’t shoot well — nine points on 3-for-11 shooting — but he blocks five shots.
Haliburton, after his Game 3 troubles, nearly finishes with a triple-double: 22 points (on 9-for-17 shooting), nine rebounds and 11 assists. And he started fast: 12 points (on 5-for-8 shooting), three rebounds and seven assists in the first half.
And now it really is over. The young, deep, athletic Pacers tend to tire out their opponents — “the wear-down effect,” they call it — and now they’re doing it to the younger, deeper, more athletic Thunder. The Thunder enters the fourth quarter leading 89-84, but over the final 12 minutes OKC will go just 6-for-17 from the floor (35.3%) and miss all four 3-pointers and get outrebounded by three, after winning the battle on the glass 35-26 through three quarters. They Thunder will have two assists in the quarter and five turnovers.
The Thunder will look, decisively, like the second-best team in the NBA. And normally I wouldn’t be saying that with only 80% certainty.
But this is Indiana.
PACERS 108 , THUNDER 91
Haliburton plays, Indiana soars, OKC flops; buckle up for one game for all the marbles
GREGG DOYEL
AND NOW, ANYTHING CAN HAPpen. Wait, hang on. Anything has happened. The Pacers, given no chance against the mighty Thunder when the NBA Finals began, have forced a Game 7 with a 108-91 blowout — it wasn’t that close — at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Game 6.
“One game,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said afterward. “This is what it’s all about. This is what you dream about growing up.”
Can this impossible dream come true? Think about it: The Pacers, two years removed from being a lottery team, were 48 minutes from winning their first NBA title. This wasn’t on anyone’s radar in the preseason, and things only got worse when the regular season began. The Pacers lost four of their first six games, though NBA insiders had a saying: You needed 25 games
to know what kind of team you had.
After 25 games, this team was 10-15.
Two of the Pacers’ top three centers were lost for the season after suffering torn Achilles tendons a few days apart. All-star and Olympian Tyrese Haliburton wasn’t playing like himself. The Pacers, surprise Eastern Conference finalists in 2024, were leaking like an Indiana basement. Water was finding its level. The Pacers, those plucky Pacers, were heading … … to Oklahoma City for Game 7? Is this really happening?
Pascal Siakam is filling the lane, and Haliburton isn’t looking but finds him anyway for a dunk. The Pacers lead 62-42.
Would Haliburton play in Game 6? Would he not? That was the question — “a game-time decision,” Carlisle had called it — although Carlisle was saying after the game “the drama was created in the press.”
Whoever created it, however it started, this was some serious drama. No Haliburton? No chance for the Pacers. That was the consensus as Haliburton was receiving one MRI and visiting with two specialists after returning from Oklahoma City. He got up some shots the next day, then warmed up 3½ hours before tip-off, wearing a gray sleeve on his calf, when the decision was made: Haliburton could play.
three trips to a hyperbaric chamber, members of the training staff coming daily to Haliburton’s home to treat his calf with an electronic stimulation machine that looks like a video game joystick and even members of his family pushing him to do what he could to get ready for Game 6.
“Are you doing treatment right now?” they’d ask him.
“Put something on your leg,” they’d tell him.
Haliburton didn’t have a typical Haliburton game — 14 points, five assists — and normally that’s a death knell for the Pacers, who were unbeatable when he posted a 20-and-10 double-double but vulnerable when his points and assists slipped below those thresholds. Normal was not happening anymore for the Pacers, who turned Williams — Mr. 40-Point Man from Game 5 — into Mr. Minus-40 for Game 6. JUNE 19,
Haliburton isn’t moving like someone with a strained right calf. He’s dancing with OKC defender deluxe Alex Caruso, in and out, left and right, before darting behind the arc for a 3-pointer and a 56-39 lead. Now he’s leaping for a pass by Thunder wing Jalen Williams, batting it out of the air, saving it from going out of bounds and then heading up the court.
This was the culmination of nearly 72 hours of treatment, including
OPPOSITE: After 72 hours of medical drama, Tyrese Haliburton let out a yell after his pass led to an Aaron Nesmith 3-pointer during a 28-9 run that ended the first half with a 62-42 lead. Over those eight-plus minutes, Haliburton had three baskets for eight points and three assists for seven more. CHRISTINE TANNOUS / INDYSTAR