2025 NBA Finals: Pacers Beat Themselves, Have To Own Late-Game Failure

Forbes

8 hours ago

Indiana, UNITED STATES - June 13: Tyrese Haliburton #0 of the Indiana Pacers reacts at the end of ... More the game against Oklahoma City Thunder during Game four of the 2025 NBA Finals on June 13, 2025 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu via Getty Images)
INDIANAPOLIS — Tyrese Haliburton sat at his locker, largely motionless. His team had just fumbled a win on the biggest stage, and his eyes wandered. Haliburton's Indiana Pacers led by four points with only three minutes to go in Game 4 of the 2025 NBA Finals. Yet those three minutes, among the biggest in Pacers history, were a disaster. The Oklahoma City Thunder outscored the Pacers 12-1 in that stretch to take the battle and even the best-of-seven set at 2-2.
'It's frustrating,' Haliburton said when asked to describe his emotions. They were obvious. 'You want to win that game, especially a game at home where, like you said, you have the lead late. But that's just not how the cookie crumbled today.'
The Pacers are in the Finals for just the second time in franchise history. They've never won more than two games on this stage, yet they had an opportunity to do so on Friday night. That chance slipped through their fingers. Haliburton was staring at a blank white board, then down in his lap as he iced his legs postgame. He hid his emotions well, yet terribly at the same time. The series is far from over, but the weight of the emotion was clear. It's going to be hard for him, and his team, to forget that moment.
A few stops here or a few baskets there was all Indiana needed. They did 94% of the work. The final six percent began with a bad omen as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander buried a three-point shot with 2:58 on the clock that cut the lead down to one point. The Pacers had been in control for much of the game, but the MVP was waking up with time ticking down.
Gilgeous-Alexander would score on the next Thunder possession, too, giving OKC the lead for the first time of the second half. His offensive play would continue to be a major part of the story the rest of the way. But the Pacers will remember the end of the game not for their inability to stop a superstar, but rather their failure to execute their offensive identity.
That's the end of the floor where the Pacers are supposed to be at their best. When they play with pace, pass the ball, and keep moving as players, they tend to score with ease. Even against the mighty Thunder defense, they've had success on the offensive end. Throughout Game 4, those principles were there. Indiana had just enough offensive flow to keep themselves ahead for 45 minutes of play.
In the final minutes, they abandoned those core values. The ball stopped moving. Possessions turned into one or two-pass sequences followed by isolation attacks. It's a common late-game shift for teams looking to avoid turnovers, but it backfired. They couldn't score at all, and the one real action they ran resulted in a turnover and free point for Thunder wing Lu Dort. Their offensive process was a mess. The flow was gone.
'Kind of slowed it up, bogged it down and got a little stagnant,' the always reserved Andrew Nembhard said at his locker after the game. His one shot attempt late ended up being a drive past elite defender Alex Caruso that ended with a tough layup being missed over Thunder big man Chet Holmgren.
On the other end of the floor, Indiana's defense abandoned them. From the fourth quarter of Game 3 until those final minutes of Game 4, it was great. OKC still hadn't reached 100 points before the meltdown started. But the Thunder turned to their stars, running actions involving Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams over and over again. They were clinical.
Gilgeous-Alexander, the MVP, scored 15 points in the final 4:38 of play. Aaron Nesmith, one of Indiana's best defenders, fouled out trying to stop him. The Pacers couldn't get the Thunder to miss, and they mixed in their own miscues via turnovers and missed free throws. In the end, that 12-1 run was their undoing.
Indiana Pacers forward Aaron Nesmith (23) looks to pass as Oklahoma City Thunder guard Aaron Wiggins ... More (21) defends during the first half of Game 4 of the NBA Finals basketball series, Friday, June 13, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
A blown opportunity took poor play on both ends, and it happened on the biggest stage. The Pacers were right there, seconds from a commanding 3-1 lead. Instead, they have to feel agony and are going through a bitter two days of reflection.
'Yeah, a tough one,' Nembhard said after the 111-104 loss. 'But the good part about it is in two days we play again.'
The final 2:58 was a painful stretch for a team that controlled so much of Games 3 and 4. They only have a split to show for it. Opportunities like this – the NBA Finals stage, at home, with a series and game lead – almost never come. The Pacers needed to be their best for 200 more seconds. But when it mattered most, they weren't.
Throughout the playoffs, they had been. The Pacers clutch mastery has become signature, and they won Game 1 of the Finals by making the extraordinary routine once again. Entering Game 4, they were 9-1 in clutch games in this postseason. There was confidence they could do it again. Gainbridge Fieldhouse was electric, it was as loud as ever. But the fans didn't get the ending they'd grown used to. They got the opposite as Indiana froze.
Now, the Pacers must regroup. They got in their own way, abandoning their offensive style and losing their defensive force. That's why the loss stung so deeply. 'This is a big disappointment,' Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said. 'But there's three games left.'
That last line is important. They've consistently responded to adversity, and if that trend holds, they'll be champions. But this is the hardest possible version of needing to respond. They not only have to do so on the court, but emotionally, too. They went from a euphoric high to a crushing low in minutes. That's what happens when you beat yourself.
Recovering from that, especially in the bright lights of the NBA Finals, is a huge task. And OKC is a monster foe in their home arena, where Game 5 and a possible Game 7 would be played. The road ahead is daunting. Yet winning two more times and picking themselves up mentally is a task the Pacers are capable of.
'We've got to bounce back. I don't need to motivate these guys. I think they have a sense of where they are,' Carlisle said. 'But this kind of a challenge is going to have extreme highs and extreme lows. This is a low right now, and we're going to have to bounce back from it.'
So as the stunned Pacers walked off the court and into the locker room, their thoughts were everywhere, just like Haliburton's vacant gaze. They were all thinking about the chance they just squandered. How quickly they can move on will define the rest of the 2025 NBA Finals.