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League MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander vs. basketball’s clutch king Tyrese Haliburton is the headline-drawing matchup of the 2025 NBA Finals, and for sure it delivered in spades throughout Recreation 1 on Thursday.
Trailing by 9 factors with 2:52 remaining, the Pacers went on a 12-2 run to safe a jaw-dropping 111-110 win. Let’s get into the way it went down.
How It Occurred
For 47:57.97 seconds of motion, Gilgeous-Alexander saved the Thunder within the lead with one in all his signature high-volume scoring performances. SGA tallied 38 factors on 14-of-30 taking pictures and solely took eight free-throw makes an attempt, which is a fairly normal quantity for an attack-first guard given the situation.
Nonetheless, it wasn’t sufficient to stop Indiana’s late-game satan magic. It definitely wasn’t sufficient to outweigh no matter deal Haliburton made with the Prince of Darkness. The famous person level guard made his fourth game-winner of the postseason with 0.3 seconds remaining to finish one other inexplicable late-game comeback, earlier than greeting his elated teammates stone-faced after taking a 1-0 lead on the street as 5-to-1 underdogs within the sequence.
Recreation Thieves
The scariest a part of Indiana’s Recreation 1 win for Oklahoma Metropolis is the truth that the Pacers, together with Haliburton, actually didn’t play all that effectively. Haliburton and his working mate Pascal Siakam mixed to complete with 33 factors, 5 lower than Gilgeous-Alexander had on his personal. As well as, Indiana turned over the ball 25 instances and solely pressured seven turnovers themselves. Regardless of that, the Pacers turned the primary crew since 1971 to win an NBA Finals recreation when trailing by 9+ factors, breaking a 0-for-181 streak.
The Pacers tied the most important fourth-quarter comeback (15-point deficit) within the NBA Finals since 1971.
Indiana took its first lead of the sport with 0.3 seconds left within the fourth quarter. Since 1971, that is the most recent into any Finals recreation {that a} crew took its first lead. pic.twitter.com/zi6ASIqR0I
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) June 6, 2025
The Pacers additionally turned the primary crew since 1998 to finish 5 comebacks of no less than 15+ factors in a single postseason. All 4 of Haliburton’s game-winners this postseason have capped off 15+ level comebacks, once more proving that some form of supernatural deal was brokered with a darkish lord.
Championship Thieves?
Whereas Oklahoma Metropolis stays a -325 favourite to win the sequence, with Vegas nonetheless leaning towards a six or seven recreation conclusion, the very fact Haliburton and the Pacers have received a 3rd consecutive Recreation 1 improbably as underdogs lends credence to the concept the crew that entered as 5-to-1underdogs may plausibly go away the NBA Finals with the longest odds on upset within the league’s championship sequence because the 2004 Detroit Pistons took down the Los Angeles Lakers with an identical 5-to-1 odds.
Feels related https://t.co/CZgq5OhRo8 pic.twitter.com/sudIRtGUcp
— Will Despart (@WillDespart) June 6, 2025
Some meals for thought? The Pistons ended that sequence in opposition to the Lakers in 5 video games in 2004. If the Pacers can steal Recreation 2, we may probably be taking a look at a sweep favoring Indiana in a sequence the place many questioned whether or not they may even make one in all these video games aggressive. Some extra historic foundation? When Rick Carlisle’s Dallas Mavericks upset the closely favored Los Angeles Lakers within the 2011 Western Convention Semifinals, that was additionally a sweep. The Pacers wanted six video games in opposition to the Knicks, however they solely wanted 5 to dispatch a current champion within the Milwaukee Bucks and the 64-win Cleveland Cavaliers.
How Will It Finish?
However, everyone knows what occurred to Allen Iverson and the 2001 Philadelphia 76ers after Iverson’s Recreation 1 heroics that noticed him hand an all-time nice Lakers crew their solely postseason loss with a 48-point baptism and a step over Tyronn Lue. Granted, the Lakers have been about twice the favourite going into that sequence because the Thunder have been heading into the 2025 NBA Finals and that’s even with -700 odds of their favor.
Will Haliburton and the Pacers go the way in which of the ‘01 76ers or ‘04 Pistons? Will Gilgeous-Alexander be a part of the unique checklist of gamers in historical past who’ve received an MVP, the Finals, and Finals MVP in the identical season? It’s not lengthy till we discover out, and the ending is clearly not as a lot of a foregone conclusion as many predicted.
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