Tipoff to Game 1 of the 2025 NBA Finals came just after 8:30 p.m. ET, with a deafening crowd at Paycom Center Roaring for Haliburton’s team Oklahoma City Thunder. Oklahoma City Thunder began their pursuit of a first-ever championship in Oklahoma.
For the Indiana Pacers, the game didn’t start until about an hour later.
The visitors came out tight, rushing possessions and abandoning key elements of their game plan.
Most damaging of all, they turned the ball over 19 times in the first half, a Finals record in the play-by-play era (since 1997). It was exactly what Indiana had hoped to avoid against OKC’s swarming, opportunistic defense.
And yet, what looked like certain doom was undone by Tyrese Haliburton, who shook off a shaky start to deliver one of his now-trademark game-winners. The win lifted the Pacers out of their self-inflicted mess and stunning the Thunder in the closing seconds.
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