OKLAHOMA CITY – Tyrese Haliburton heard the scorn during the offseason. He read the mockery at the start of the 2024-25 season.
The Indiana Pacers’ run to the Eastern Conference finals last season was a fluke. The beat up the injury-riddled Milwaukee Bucks and New York Knicks to reach the Eastern Conference finals.
“As a group, like I’ve said many times, after you have a run like last year and you get swept in the Eastern Conference Finals, and all the conversation is about how you don’t belong there and how you lucked out to get there, and that it was a fluke, guys are going to be pissed off,” Haliburton said. “We’re going to spend the summer pissed off.”
Then the Pacers started this season 10-15.
“You come into the year with all the talk around how it was a fluke,” Haliburton said. “You have an unsuccessful first couple months and now it’s easy for everyone to clown you and talk about you in a negative way, and I think as a group we take everything personal as a group. It’s not just me. It’s everybody.
“I feel like that’s the DNA of this group and that’s not just me. It’s our coaching staff does a great job of making us aware of what’s being said. Us as players, we talk about it on the locker room and on the plane. We’re a young team, so we probably spend more time on social media than we should.”
No matter who wins the NBA Finals, the Pacers are not a fluke. They’re the real deal, proving that with a come-from-behind 111-110 victory against the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 1 of the Finals Thursday, June 5.
“Really proud of this group,” Haliburton said. “And we just all got each other’s back at every point. Any negative thing that’s said about anybody, we got full belief in each other. So the more that’s talked about, like right now, we’re whatever underdog that gives us more confidence as a group. We enjoy that.
“But there’s still a lot of work to be done. This is an exciting time.”
Since Jan. 1, the Pacers have been among the best teams and emerged as the best team in the East during the playoffs, beating Milwaukee, Cleveland and New York.
They took Game 1 of the NBA in yet another one of their come-from-behind, last-second triumphs that have become legendary. Haliburton’s 21-foot jumper with 0.3 seconds left put the Pacers ahead for the first time and propelled them to the victory.
Indiana overcame 20 first-half turnovers and a 14-point deficit early in the fourth quarter and a nine-point deficit with 2:52 remaining.
Entering Game 1, teams were 0-182 when trailing by 9-plus points in the final three minutes of an NBA Finals game since 1971. It’s now 1-182.
“When it gets to 15, you can panic or you can talk about how do we get it to 10 and how do we get it to five and from there?” Haliburton said, adding, “This game if you look at all the numbers, it’s not the recipe to win. We can’t turn the ball over that much. We have to do a better job of being in gaps, rebounding, all over the floor but come May and June, it doesn’t matter how you get them, just get them.”