INDIANAPOLIS — After the final buzzer sounded, Tyrese Haliburton jumped on the scorer’s table, pumped his arms and encouraged the sellout Gainbridge Fieldhouse crowd to scream louder.
They obliged.
A week after being voted most overrated in The Athletic’s NBA Player Poll, the Indiana Pacers star soaked in the moment, raising the front of his jersey as they cheered. The moment followed Tuesday’s incredible, 119-118 overtime comeback victory over the Milwaukee Bucks to close out their first-round series in Game 5. And it was an example of the bond shared by a team’s star and its fans.
WHAT A MOMENT. https://t.co/t6Vps9Sacn pic.twitter.com/ZSkL8bDsxm
— NBA (@NBA) April 30, 2025
With 35 seconds to go in overtime, the Bucks led 118-111. Some fans even started trickling toward the exits, a decision they will likely regret.
As long as there was still time on the clock, the Pacers refused to concede. The best comebacks are fueled by belief.
Haliburton thought he’d let the Pacers down in the fourth quarter when he missed a few key shots. He also missed six shots in overtime, including four 3-pointers.
But Myles Turner, the longest-tenured Pacers player, believed. He refused to let his point guard shy away from the moment. Despite the misses, Haliburton’s team believed the lights weren’t too bright for their star.
“These are the situations you prepare for,” Turner said. “I know (he) trained for it.”
With no timeouts and a potential Game 6 in Milwaukee looming, Turner yelled at Haliburton, “Go get the ball!”
Haliburton listened. And he helped deliver one of the most memorable finishes in franchise history.
“I got a little down about it. But my teammates encouraged me to stay with it,” Haliburton said. “They said we would get a chance to win at the end. They would rely on me to do that. Those guys kept me up.”
First, Haliburton attacked for a layup and drew a foul from A.J. Green for a three-point play with 17 seconds left. Then, Gary Trent Jr., who cooked the Pacers from 3 on 8-of-17 shooting from deep, couldn’t corral the ball off a pass from Green and let it slip out of bounds. On Indiana’s final possession, Haliburton dribbled to his right and blew past Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo for a layup to close an 8-0 run that gave the Pacers the lead with 1.3 seconds left.
Antetokounmpo, of course, had been a problem for Indiana the whole series despite the Pacers’ best efforts to slow him down or contain him. He finished with 30 points, 20 rebounds and 13 assists on Tuesday.
The Bucks scored the first 13 points of the game; the Pacers trailed by as many as 20 before rallying to trim the lead to six at halftime. In the third quarter, they played with a sense of urgency, but mistakes and missed shots were abundant.
The Bucks also played as physically as one would expect from a team facing elimination. The game was riddled with dust-ups and disruptions thanks to the growing beef between the two teams. There was pushing, shoving, trash talk and tie-ups. The lead swung back and forth late, but for much of the game, it looked like Indiana just didn’t have enough, despite the team’s depth. The vibe from Pacers fans was nervous until a Haliburton dunk tied the game with 10.8 seconds left to force overtime and set the stage for an epic overtime collapse and comeback.
Coming off a dominant 129-103 road win in Game 4, Indiana didn’t play its best on Tuesday. But in the end, it was the Pacers’ “blue collar gold swagger” that mattered.
“Fortune favors the bold,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “This game will go down as one of the all-time great Pacer wins because of the circumstances in overtime and what was on the line. Ty, obviously, authored a big part of this ending.”
Haliburton finished with 26 points on 10-of-22 shooting with nine assists and five rebounds as the Pacers improved to 3-0 in the playoffs at home. Turner had 21 points and nine rebounds. Aaron Nesmith added 19 points and 12 rebounds, while Andrew Nembhard had 15 points, including the 3-pointer that started the run to close the game.
Indiana will face the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference semifinals, with Game 1 on Sunday in Cleveland. The Cavaliers, who finished with the best record in the East, swept Miami in the first round. Indiana and Cleveland split a pair of home-and-home games in January, with the away team winning each time. The other two matchups came in April when the Cavaliers were resting their starters in anticipation of the postseason.
Haliburton and the Pacers know they have a tough task ahead. But on Tuesday night, they soaked in their improbable series-clinching win.
“It wasn’t pretty,” Haliburton said, “but I’ll take it.”
(Photo: Justin Casterline / Getty Images)
