NBA Finals: Video of Haliburton's buzzer-beater that gives Indiana Game 1 victory over Oklahoma
The Pacers lead the series 1-0 thanks to this inspiration from their brilliant point guard.
By Le Parisien with AFPThe Indiana Pacers, who were battered throughout the game, upset the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday with a last-second shot from Tyrese Haliburton to take a 1-0 lead in the NBA Finals.
Finally, the storm has passed. After seeing their plane diverted Tuesday night, then a deluge hit the city Wednesday afternoon, the Pacers weathered the storm for a long time in the infernal din of the Paycom Center, finally silenced by Tyrese Haliburton.
The Pacers point guard, who similarly shut down New York's Madison Square Garden in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, continues to build a reputation as a supervillain in the NBA's hottest arenas.
Specialists in comebacks and improbable endings, the Pacers won this first meeting of a best-of-seven series, having led for a total of three-tenths of a second, the last three games.
The Thunder, who still led by 15 points with 9 minutes to go, seemed to have gotten off to a perfect start thanks to their stifling defense, which forced the otherwise somewhat clumsy Pacers into 24 turnovers, including 19 before the break.
Above all, regular-season MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander seemed on cloud nine, having compiled 38 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists, and having scored the first basket of a game that should have been his. But "SGA" missed, as he rarely does, a mid-range shot that could have given the Thunder a 3-point lead with 11 seconds left.
- " Hold " -
Tyrese Haliburton, for his part, did not miss this golden opportunity.
"We just had to hold on. Our first half was tough with 19 turnovers, luckily we were only down by nine points" at halftime, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said at a press conference.
"We've been through a lot of these kinds of games. The guys know what they have to do to give themselves a chance. We've had some luck."
This unprecedented final will offer a first NBA title to one of the two franchises, even if the Thunder's ancestors, the Seattle SuperSonics, had been crowned in 1979.
The Pacers thus took the lead before Game 2 on Sunday, still in Oklahoma, where the Thunder settled in 2008, gathering a loyal fan base around a gem that few saw coming, Gilgeous-Alexander.
But the dragster support of the Canadian point guard, helped by Jalen Williams (17 points) and Luguentz Dort (15 points, all from distance), was not enough on Thursday, several teammates not showing up to the level in attack like Chet Holmgren (6 points).
Despite the pre-match prayer at the stadium microphone, punctuated by a collective "amen", despite the 18,200 spectators singing Titanium by David Guetta and Sia at the top of their lungs in the 4th quarter, the Pacers ended up coming back thanks to their skill from afar (18 out of 39 at 46.2%).
Pascal Siakam (19 points, 10 rebounds), already champion with Toronto in 2019, also held his own, before long-range shots from Obi Toppin (17 points), Myles Turner (15 points) and Andrew Nembhard (14 points) brought Indiana closer before Haliburton's last shot (14 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists).
Le Parisien
