Tyrese Haliburton extended his all-time clutch run with another game-winner to help the Indiana Pacers steal Game 1 111-110 against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Matched up against Cason Wallace, Haliburton drove right and pulled up just inside the three-point arc and nailed a long mid-range jumper. The Oklahoma City crowd was in stunned silence, the players dejected. After leading for the entire game, they were staring at defeat with 0.3 seconds remaining.
Indiana entered the Finals with a historically great playoff offense but hadn’t seen a defense like the Thunder’s yet and it showed early. The Pacers committed 19 first half turnovers, 12 of which were via steals by Oklahoma City.
Impressively, the Pacers only conceded nine points off those turnovers and that allowed them to stay in the game. Their defense was actually terrific, limiting the Thunder to sub-40 percent shooting from the field in the first half. In stark contrast, Indiana’s offense found a groove in the second half, coughing up the ball just six more times and knocking down the three.
Obi Toppin made five threes, Aaron Nesmith hit a couple big ones in the fourth, and Myles Turner had a brief scoring stretch, too.
Andrew Nembhard, though, was sensational in the fourth quarter. With the Thunder smothering Haliburton, Nembhard took over the reins. He knocked down some big time shots including a step back triple to make it a three-point game.
Siakam had a key putback off a Nembhard miss to make it a one-point game, setting the stage for Haliburton’s heroics.
Game 2 of the NBA Finals is Sunday at 8:00 p.m. EST in Oklahoma City.
Thunder Make First Chess Move To Counter Pacers’ Transition
Before the game, Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault turned some heads when he confirmed that center Isaiah Hartenstein would be replaced in the starting lineup by guard Cason Wallace.
This was a move clearly made out of respect for the Pacers’ tremendous ability in transition. Oklahoma City, at the end of the day, led for all but 0.3 seconds of the game so there is reason to believe the change in strategy was effective.
There will certainly be hindsight speculation from the outside, though. The Pacers outrebounded the Thunder 56-39 and Daigneault even resorted to benching both Chet Holmgren and Hartenstein down the stretch. Key rebounds were missed late. Perhaps the lack of size helped Indiana look to attack the rim more and create kickout opportunities as well.
Protecting the rim has been a calling card of the Thunder defense and going small certainly took away from it. In addition, they have surrendered threes in order to do so. When the Pacers started hitting their outside shots, it all steadily fell apart.
Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 38 points but no one else reached 20. Jalen Williams had 17 points but shot just 6-of-19 from the field.
Indiana won the bench battle 39-28. Depth has been a key factor for both teams leading up to the Finals and the Pacers took this round.
