Derek Kramer

Tyrese Haliburton, Indiana Pacers showcase ‘iron will’ in improbable comeback, series clincher over Milwaukee Bucks

What just happened? The game ended hours ago and I’m still not sure that was real.

How am I supposed to convey THAT in words that do any justice to the unfathomable way the Indiana Pacers just closed out the first round series against the Milwaukee Bucks with a Game 5 victory by a final score of 119-118 after trailing by seven points with 40 seconds left?

“That’s the craziest game I’ve ever been a part of,” TJ McConnell said afterwards. “… I’ve never been a part of a game like that in my career.”

1,609 times a team had been down by 7 or more with 40 seconds left in the playoffs since 1997-98 and 1,609 times that team lost according to ESPN Stats and Info. But not these Pacers.

ESPN put the odds of the Bucks winning at 99.5%

“I’m still trying to process it,” Myles Turner added. “One of the craziest games that I’ve personally been a part of. We never stopped believing.”

So many things had to go right for the Pacers and wrong for the Bucks for Indiana to pull this improbable win off in overtime. This was a Reggie Miller type of miracle playoff moment.

Down 6 with 40 seconds left in the extra period as AJ Green headed to the free throw line with a few unnamed Bucks players talking a lot of trash according to Turner as they looked to poised to send these series back to Milwaukee and some fans were heading for the exits.

Green then missed one of two free throws to push their lead to 7. Andrew Nembhard, who continues to rise for these kinds of moments in the playoffs, hits a deep 3-pointer quickly with 34.1 seconds left and cuts the Bucks lead down to four. Crucially, the Bucks are not able to easily get the ball inbounds and Doc Rivers calls timeout to advance the ball.

The Pacers do not immediately foul and instead double Gary Trent Jr., who had started overtime by hitting four consecutive 3-pointers to put Milwaukee in a commanding position, who throws a pass to Green that Nembhard steals after making his break toward Green all the way from the beyond halfcourt, timed perfectly just as Trent had turned to adjust his body to jump and make the pass.

Tyrese Haliburton, who had missed four consecutive 3-pointers in overtime, gets the ball near halfcourt, drives by Green, hits a tough lefty layup and draws a foul. The Pacers have cut the lead to one with 17 seconds left. Rivers is in disbelief.

“I yelled at (Tyrese) and said ‘Go get the ball!’” Turner said of this point in the game. “These are the situations that you prepare for, train for. I said ‘Go get the ball’ and right afterwards is when he got that and one. I’m glad he stayed resilient and was able to pull off those moments. A lot of people would have shied away after missing two, three big shots … I wasn’t going to allow him to do that.”

Milwaukee is once again unable to get the ball in play and Rivers uses his final timeout which saves a pass that would have been stolen by Nesmith if the timeout wasn’t called. The Bucks advance the ball, throw it out to Kevin Porter Jr in the backcourt to try and waste time. The Pacers once again do not foul immediately. Porter passes the ball to Green, Green throws it to a wide open Trent, and the ball hits his hands and goes right between his legs and out of bounds.

No timeouts remaining for either team with 10 seconds remaining. Tyrese Haliburton gets a screen from Pascal Siakam and Giannis Antetokounmpo switches onto the Pacers point guard. Haliburton crosses over left to right, drives into the paint and right by the Bucks best player to hit a layup with 1.3 seconds left. Pacers lead by one. The heave from Trent is wide right. Indiana wins the game and the series 4-1.

The buzzer sounded. Haliburton ran and jumped on the scorers’ table, showing the Indy on his jersey to the crowd, yelling at the top of his lungs. Iconic.

“I think I blacked out after we won,” said Haliburton.

Haliburton now has three game winners with 3 seconds left or less against the Milwaukee Bucks in the last two seasons, his home state team and a fanbase that just chanted that he’s overrated. Two of these game winners come with Giannis as the primary defender, two coming in overtime in the first round of the playoffs, two on and-one buckets, and one that clinched a series and sent the Indiana Pacers to the next round.

Resilience was the name of this game. The Pacers opened this game with their worst first quarter performance of the entire season as the Bucks hit them in the mouth and made life difficult for their offense as the Pacers struggled to match the Bucks sense of urgency and physicality. They trailed 33-13 a minute into the second quarter.

3 game winners in the last two years against a fanbase that hates your guts despite you being from their state, that chant that you’re overrated. Two with Giannis on him. Two in OT in the playoffs. Two finished with a foul. One to end their season. Tyrese the Terror indeed(🎥 via Pacers)

— iPacers.com – Derek Kramer (@ipacers.bsky.social) 2025-04-30T13:21:54.323Z

By halftime, they had persevered enough to cut the lead to just six. TJ McConnell finally was able to provide some boost to the offense on his way to 18 points in just 17 minutes and the starters finished with a strong run.

Resilience.

In regulation, the Bucks went up 5 with 5:13 left. Pascal Siakam had been struggling all night but scores on next possession, Haliburton blocks a Bobby Portis shot, Siakam scores again, Haliburton steals the ball from Antetokounmpo, Nesmith gets the Pacers the lead back.

The Bucks still fight back have a 4-point lead again after Green hits a big 3-pointer with 1:19 remaining. Then Haliburton just decided he’s getting to the rim over and over again.

He hits a layup on the next possession. Antetokounmpo hits a floater and gets fouled but misses the free throw. Haliburton draws Giannis’s fifth foul on next possession after driving right by him again. Hits both free throws to cut it back to two.

Kevin Porter Jr., poster child for poor decision making, takes a bad midrange attempt with 25 seconds left, misses short after getting a switch with Giannis having a mismatch inside. Haliburton drives to the rim for the third consecutive possession and dunks it to tie with 10 seconds left. Giannis misses a fadeaway at the buzzer to send it to OT where the craziness only continued.

Rick Carlisle compared Tyrese Haliburton’s “iron will” to win with Reggie Miller, who he coached in his first stint with Indiana, saying that he’s reminded of the Pacers legend and Hall of Famer in body type, sheer toughness, and having that level of will to win the game. Watching Haliburton at the end of this one, reminded me of one Miller playoff game in particular: the Game 5 against the Nets where Miller hit a 35-footer to send it to OT and then dunked through multiple people in OT to get to double OT.

Miller didn’t come away with the win in that one but the Pacers legend did everything he could to prevent Indiana from losing to the 1-seed Nets in that game even with a rare dunk in traffic in the halfcourt. We don’t see Haliburton just drive and finish at the rim enough but when the Pacers needed it the most he came through. He finished with 26 points on 22 shots, added 9 assists, 3 steals, and 3 blocks. He led the team in rebounding in the series with over 6 per game.

“Anything that I do, especially in the clutch here consistently, is going to get brought in the same conversation as Reggie,” Haliburton said after the game. “… He’s had a lot of moments here and I’m trying to write my own story … Reggie made a lot of plays for a lot of you guys when you were younger and a lot of people when they were younger to see. They’re reasons why he’s such a legend here and the greatest player in our franchise history. I think he’s laid the groundwork and I’m just trying to get to that level. I think that I’m relied on to make plays down the stretch and just trying to do that to the best of my ability.”

Too many players for the Pacers deserve full articles about them after this game, thankfully I have four days to cover and write more about players like Aaron Nesmith who put up 19 points and 12 rebounds, had a critical 3-pointer to answer one of Trent’s and had a tip in in transition both late in overtime, Andrew Nembhard who continues to hit a ridiculous amount of his 3-pointers in the playoffs after making less than 30% from deep in regular season, TJ McConnell’s 18 points in 17 minutes, Myles Turner added 21 points, got to the foul line 10 times, and added 9 rebounds, and Jarace Walker finding ways to contribute in his first playoff series and being trusted to guard Giannis at crucial moments.

-#31-

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