If you didn’t watch Game 1 of the NBA Finals, you missed something wild. The Pacers were honestly getting beat for most of the game. The Thunder had a 17-point lead, and it really felt like they were about to lock up a solid home win. But then, out of nowhere, Indiana flipped the script. In the last few minutes, they just started hitting shot after shot.Then, with just 0.3 seconds left, Tyrese Haliburton stepped up and nailed a crazy 21-footer to win the game 111-110. Like… that shot felt unreal.
The stats tell the story
Some of the numbers from this game don’t even feel real, honestly.
Here’s what stands out:
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Pacers were down by 17 points with less than 9 minutes.
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They trailed by 7 points in the final 3 minutes — no team had ever come back from that in the NBA Finals.
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Rick Carlisle, the Pacers’ coach, made a risky move by subbing in the bench squad mid-fourth — and it worked. That group led a 15-4 run.
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Haliburton’s game-winner made him the first player in 25 years to hit five go-ahead or game-winning shots in a single postseason.
It’s just one of those games where everything came together at the perfect moment — and for Indiana, it was magic.
The Pacers STEAL GAME 1 IN OKLAHOMA after a 111-110 WIN over the Thunder 😤🔥
— Basketball Forever (@bballforever_) June 6, 2025
TYRESE HALIBURTON HITS THE GAME-WINNER ‼️ pic.twitter.com/ntdybDR5iQ
The reaction was crazy
The moment that shot went in, you could feel the whole NBA world stop. Big names like Magic Johnson, Patrick Mahomes, Caitlin Clark — all reacting online. Twitter (or X, whatever you wanna call it now) exploded with people replaying that buzzer-beater. You could tell it wasn’t just a regular win. Even Thunder fans, who were rocking the place earlier, went dead quiet. You could almost feel the shock through the screen.
What this means for the series
Pacers are up 1-0, and that totally shifts the pressure onto the Thunder for Game 2. If they go down 0-2 at home, it could get rough real fast. But honestly, you can’t count OKC out — they’ve been a tough team all year. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander still had a good game, and you just know they’re going to come back hungry in the next one. Game 2 is set for Sunday, in Oklahoma City. And after what we just saw, everyone’s going to be tuning in.
