Let’s just get this out of the way: what Tyrese Hiliburton and the Indiana Pacers are doing shouldn’t work. Not in the NBA Finals. Not against an elite Oklahoma City team. Not with 19 first-half turnovers. Not while trailing by 15. And definitely not while letting Chet Holmgren throw a block party in the paint. However, here we are.
According to The Ringer, Game 1 was Indiana’s fifth win this postseason after falling behind by 15 or more. Although that’s not just gritty, it’s historic. No other playoff team in the play-by-play era has done it more. And somehow, it’s not a fluke. It’s their personality. Tyrese Hilliburton was ready to show up.
“This group never gives up. We never believe that the game is over until it hits zero, and that’s just the God’s honest truth,” said Tyrese Haliburton, who hit his fourth clutch shot of this postseason, most by any player since 1998.
Tyrese Haliburton was Built For Moments like These
You know what makes this run so insane? The Pacers and Tyrese Haliburton never stop being themselves. Even when they’re coughing up the ball like they’re allergic to it (19 turnovers in the first half!), they’re still zipping around, cutting, passing, and flying off handoffs like nothing’s wrong. They don’t slow down or panic. They double down. It’s chaos. And they thrive in it.
“They went up 15, and we just said, ‘Hey, let’s just keep chipping away at the rock,’ you know?” Rick Carlisle said postgame. “Got to keep pounding the rock and just chip away and hang in.”
Sound familiar? Carlisle’s 2011 Mavs were the last team to erase a 15-point fourth-quarter Finals deficit and win. That same stubborn, chaotic magic is alive and well in Indiana. Just ask Thunder coach Mark Daigneault, who gave Carlisle his flowers earlier in the week: “His teams play a clear identity and stay in character through all the ups and downs.” Boy, did that quote age like fine wine.
Even when it looked like Oklahoma City was ready to blow them out of the building, Indiana kept coming. In the second half, they trimmed those 19 turnovers down to just five. Four were dead balls. Translation: the Thunder couldn’t feast in transition. T.J. McConnell, who was key to the comeback, said it best: “How much they pressure you, force you to drive and speed up, and just make live-ball turnovers really hurt you.” The Pacers learned quickly, tightened up, and flipped the script.
The Indiana Pacers Are The Real Deal
And don’t overlook the defense. Andrew Nembhard was a pest all night, hounding SGA, rotating with precision, and even baiting a crucial foul on one of the game’s biggest momentum plays. Daigneault warned pregame: “Nembhard is good at that; he knows how to get those calls. He deserves the calls.” Welp. He got one.
Tyrese Haliburton said it bluntly: “This game, if you look at all the numbers, it’s not the recipe to win.” And he’s not wrong. Turner banked in a wild 3. Pascal Siakam got a bonus free throw thanks to a lane violation. OKC bricked 31 of 54 paint attempts. It was weird, messy, but yet so Pacers
But while the weirdness makes headlines, Indiana’s consistency behind the chaos is what wins games. They move the ball, make smart decisions, and stick to what they do—even when it’s going south. “We just go out there and always do what we do,” said Obi Toppin, who splashed five threes, nearly doubling his total from the previous two rounds combined.
Carlisle summed it up perfectly: “This is all about keeping poise and at the same time having a high level of aggression. And those two forces fly in the face of each other a bit.” That’s Indiana’s edge. They live in that contradiction. So can they ride this chaos all the way to a title?
Honestly? Why not. The Pacers have already thrown out the rulebook on what a Finals team is “supposed” to look like. At this point, betting against them feels like betting against gravity. You’ll feel smart, right until the moment they come crashing down on you. Three more wins. One stubborn, chaotic, unshakable identity. And a head coach who’s done the impossible before. Good luck trying to stop that.
Emma Taylor 
