The Indiana Pacers are up 2-0 on the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers after yet another unbelievable comeback win by a final score of 120-119 capped by a Tyrese Haliburton 3-pointer with 1.1 seconds left, his second game-winning shot of the playoffs in the last week.
Once again, the Pacers were down by seven points with under a minute left. Once again, they ended up winning the game.
Just like against the Bucks in Game 5 only eight days ago, it all started with a missed free throw. Only this time it was two and it was by a Pacers player in Pascal Siakam. None of this makes any sense.
Aaron Nesmith flew into the lane and slammed the miss back into the basket with force, and easily could have been given an and-1 for the play. After an unnecessary review to make sure it wasn’t goaltending, Nesmith followed up the play by pressuring Donovan Mitchell after the inbounds and taking an elbow to the face for an offensive foul (probably a flagrant at an earlier time in the game). Just like that the Pacers were alive, down 5 with the ball and 45 seconds left.
Haliburton had his layup attempt blocked out of bounds on the following possession but Pascal Siakam scored on a driving layup to cut the Cavs lead to 3. The Cavs—much like the Bucks—were then unable to get the ball inbounds for the second time in the game’s final minute and forced to call their final timeout to advance the ball. The Pacers defense allowed nobody any space and forced an errant pass that Andrew Nembhard stole easily to give the Pacers possession down three with 27 seconds remaining.
Haliburton drove into the teeth of the Cavs defense and was fouled on a layup attempt with 12 seconds remaining. He makes the first and then misses (unintentionally by reports) the second. Myles Turner, much maligned for his rebounding over his 10 years in Indiana, tips the ball with two Cavs boxing him out and it goes right to Haliburton in the paint.
Haliburton dribbled back outside the arc, sizing up Ty Jerome. Jerome, shading him right towards help defenders, gets crossed up by Haliburton as he goes left. Haliburton creates enough space with his stepback and nails the 3-pointer with 1.1 seconds remaining leaving a Cleveland crowd that had chanted that he was overrated stunned in disbelief. The Cavs with no timeouts are forced to try to get up and a heave and fail to do so before the buzzer. Pacers completed the impossible comeback once again.
Haliburton celebrates with the celebration that Sam Cassell made famous and now comes with a fine for anyone that does it. Worth it. What a game. What a moment.
There is so much more to talk about in this game. To do so, I joined Tony East on Locked on Pacers to discuss yet another insane finish. Watch below or listen at any of your typical podcast locations.
We talk the unreal nature of the deja vu nature of this win, the importance of Bennedict Mathurin, the clutchness of Tyrese Haliburton, how all the starters contributed in the final minute, the awful first quarter that saw the Pacers go down 17 (just like the Bucks game), Myles Turner’s defense showing up in the first quarter, strange rotations that suddenly made sense, what the Pacers need to do better as they look to close out this series, and thoughts on Donovan Mitchell, Max Strus, and Kenny Atkinson.
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