There was no lead, no rhythm, and for long stretches, not even a clean possession. But when it mattered most, the Indiana Pacers made the only play that counted.

Down one, clock ticking under five seconds, Tyrese Haliburton stepped back just inside the arc and drilled a jumper with 0.3 seconds left — just his second bucket of the fourth quarter, but it was enough.

A game they spent 47 minutes and 59.7 seconds trailing flipped on a dime. And with that, the Pacers walked out of Oklahoma City not just with a win, but with real confidence and a 1-0 lead in the NBA Finals.

If you’ve followed Indiana’s playoff run, none of this feels impossible. They’ve made a habit of digging holes, climbing out, and showing more fight than flash. This one just happened to be on the game's biggest stage.

Everything Was Tilting Thunder

Everything before tipoff pointed toward a Thunder win. Oklahoma City racked up 68 wins this season and looked like a team built for June. Their defense made life miserable for three straight playoff opponents, they had only lost one game at home in the postseason, and they had the MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, playing the best basketball of his career.

On paper, this was a mismatch. The Thunder were young, deep, and had the league’s most physical, connected defense. Meanwhile, Indiana was the fourth seed that had spent parts of the season under .500, and didn't have the offensive star power to match SGA. They survived Giannis and Dame, outpaced the Cavs, and stunned the Knicks with late-game heroics — but this was supposed to be a different beast.

Indiana’s pace-and-space attack had worked all year, but the Thunder were tailor-made to stop it. Long, athletic defenders like Lu Dort and Cason Wallace could hound their guards. Holmgren patrolled the paint. And on the other end, SGA was unguardable for most of the playoffs. It felt like Oklahoma City had the answers.

But that’s the thing about the Pacers. The more the math stacks against them, the more they seem to love the fight.

The Sloppy Start: Turnovers, Turnovers, and — Yep — More Turnovers

Rick Carlisle’s plan was pretty straightforward: push the tempo, get downhill, and force the Thunder defense to scramble in transition. But when your passes start flying into the front row, that strategy kind of falls apart.

Lu Dort set the tone early, picking up Haliburton full court and never giving him a moment to breathe. Alex Caruso read passing lanes like a defensive back, and the weak-side defenders baited Indiana into making aggressive skips that just weren’t there. That resulted in the Pacers turning it over a whopping 20 times in the first half alone.

That’s not a typo. Twenty. The most by any team in a Finals half since play-by-play records became official in 1997. And not all of them were forced, either — there were some true head-scratchers. Haliburton airmailed a couple crosscourt passes into the fifth row. Myles Turner lost one off his own knee. Even Andrew Nembhard, usually one of the most steady hands on the roster, threw an entry pass directly into the arms of a defender.

Despite all that chaos, the Thunder were only up 12 at the break, 57–45. They shot just 37 percent from the floor and couldn't take full advantage of Indiana’s mess. In fact, they only turned those 20 turnovers into nine points. It kept the door cracked open. And for a team like Indiana, that’s more than enough.

Carlisle’s Calm

Inside the visiting locker room, Rick Carlisle didn’t yell or point fingers. He just told his guys to stay with the process. They hadn’t played anywhere close to their best, but they were only down 12. The Thunder hadn’t put them away.

That quiet confidence carried into the third quarter. The Pacers cleaned things up, looked more composed, and finally started to resemble the team that carved up three rounds of the East. They gave the ball away just six times over the final 24 minutes. And once their possessions ended in shots rather than giveaways, everything flipped.

The ball movement came back. The spacing looked cleaner. And OKC’s defense, which had been airtight, started showing cracks. Indiana shot 52 percent in the second half, dropped 31 in the third quarter, and started putting real pressure on a Thunder team that hadn’t faced much of it all postseason.

You could see the confidence grow in real time. Turner hit a clean pick-and-pop three after a smart decoy screen. Toppin got loose in transition for a one-handed dunk that gave the Pacers their first single-digit deficit since the opening quarter. And then there was Nembhard — isolating SGA, taking a rhythm dribble, and draining a step-back three with just over two minutes to play. That one shifted the whole building.

While Indiana was coming alive, the Thunder offense tightened up. SGA still hit tough shots — he ended with 38 on 14-for-30 — but their movement stalled. There weren't as many secondary passes and guys looked unsure of where to be.

A Wild Finish in OKC

With just under 90 seconds left, the Pacers were still down by five, but clearly had the momentum. Two quick free throws and Pascal Siakam muscling past Kenrich Williams and laying it in on the next possession to cut the deficit to 110–109.

The Thunder, holding the lead but clearly tightening up, ran the clock and after, a challenge, got the ball back into Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s hands for what they hoped would be a dagger.

SGA had carried the load all night — floaters, leaners, contact finishes — but this time, with the shot clock winding down, he settled for a mid-range pull-up from the right elbow. It clanged off the back iron. Aaron Nesmith flew in to secure the board, then got the ball in Haliburton’s hands with a chance to win the game.

Haliburton brought it up cool as ever, with the clock ticking under 10. He didn’t rush. He crossed over to his left, got Cason Wallace on his heels, and rose up from just inside the three-point line. Ballgame. The Pacers were suddenly up 111–110 — with 0.3 seconds left on the clock.

The Thunder weren't able to get off a shot and had to watch the Pacers celebrate on their home court. 

Can the Thunder Bounce Back?

The Thunder have lost a Game 1 before — and handled it just fine. They’ve yet to lose back-to-back games this postseason, sitting at 4-0 after losses, and each of those bounce-backs has been emphatic. On average, they’ve won the following game by 20.5 points, including a 43-point demolition of Denver in the second round after dropping Game 1 at home.

Mark Daigneault doesn’t sugarcoat things in film sessions, and his team usually comes out sharper for it. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, in particular, doesn’t usually follow a quiet closing stretch with another. There’s every reason to believe the Thunder will come out with an edge and make some tactical changes — particularly around their transition defense and three-point defense in the corners.

That said, Indiana’s not exactly new to this whole 'steal Game 1 on the road' thing. They did it in Cleveland and at Madison Square Garden, and now they’ve done it in one of the loudest buildings in the league.

So now we’ve got a fascinating Game 2 setup: a Thunder team looking for their get-back, and a Pacers team that plays with house money better than anyone. Tipoff is Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. If it’s anything like Thursday night, you won't want to make any other plans.

All stats courtesy of NBA.com.