You are more likely to be hit by lightning than the Pacers were to win their playoff comebacks
When the Indiana Pacers trailed the Oklahoma City Thunder by 9 points with 2 minutes and 52 seconds left in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, ESPN's win probability model gave the Pacers only a 3.6% chance to win.
Not only did the Pacers overcome that deficit to win 111-110 and take a 1-0 lead in the series, that wasn't even Indiana's most improbable comeback this postseason.
The Pacers have become the masters of the come-from-behind victory in the 2025 playoffs, pulling off at least one miracle in each round.
In Game 5 of the conference quarterfinals, Indiana overcame a 7-point deficit against the Milwaukee Bucks in the final 39 seconds of overtime — when the Pacers' odds of winning were only 2.1% — and won 119-118.
In Game 2 of the conference semifinals, Indiana had only a 4.1% chance of winning when it trailed the Cleveland Cavaliers by 7 with 57.1 seconds to go, but the Pacers ultimately won 120-119.
And in Game 1 of the conference finals, Indiana pulled off a never-before-seen comeback against the New York Knicks, rallying from 14 points down with 2 minutes and 51 seconds to go in the fourth quarter before winning 138-135 in overtime — the odds of which were 0.3%.
While winning even one of these games was a highly improbable task for the Pacers, winning all four was extremely unlikely.
How unlikely, exactly? Well, you'd have a better chance of being struck by lightning, for starters.
Here's how the Pacers' four biggest comebacks stack up against some other rare events.
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NBC News
2 hours ago
- NBC News
The smallest player on the floor had one of the biggest impacts in Game 3 of the NBA Finals
INDIANAPOLIS — Early in the second quarter of Game 3 of the NBA Finals, the Indiana Pacers' home crowd was in a bit of a lull. After leading nearly the entire first quarter, the Oklahoma City Thunder began the second period with an eight-point advantage, a sobering continuation from Game 2, which the Thunder led for the last 38 minutes of play. Despite it being the first finals game in Indiana in 25 years, the energy in the arena was fading. But then T.J. McConnell went to work. In the first three and minutes and 52 seconds of the second, Indiana went on a 15-4 run, taking its first lead of the finals since the first quarter of Game 2. In that time, McConnell recorded four assists, three steals, two points and one offensive rebound — a scintillating stretch of play that brought a tense home crowd back to life. 'He's a guy that inspires a lot of people,' Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said postgame. 'He inspires our team a lot.' 'His energy is unbelievable,' guard Tyrese Haliburton said. 'You guys know he's definitely a crowd favorite. I joke with him, I call him the 'Great White Hope.' He does a great job of bringing energy in this building.' 'He's just so dynamic in terms of running the floor for us,' forward Pascal Siakam added. 'And when you add those steals and just bringing the crowd into the game the way he does, he was special tonight.' McConnell's energy boost and clutch play played a critical role in Indiana's 116-107 win, which also gave the team a 2-1 lead in a series that very few expected the Pacers to win. McConnell finished the game with 10 points, five assists and five steals, the first player in NBA history to post those numbers off the bench in a finals game. He was also a plus-12 in only 15 minutes. Three of McConnell's five steals came via what's become his signature play — lurking in the backcourt and taking advantage of unsuspecting and/or lazy inbounds passes for turnovers. Two of those steals led to points for Indiana, including a game-tying bucket in the fourth quarter, and all of them drew huge reactions from the crowd. McConnell, who is listed at 6'1', is the shortest player on either team in the finals. But despite taking up little space on the court, and playing the second-fewest bench minutes on the team, his impact was outsized. 'In a series like this what's so important is the margins,' Haliburton said. 'You have to win in the margins. It's not necessarily who can make the most shots or anything. It's taking care of the ball, rebounding, little things like that...[McConnell] did a great job of consistently getting there and making hustle play after hustle play, and sticking with it, and I thought we did a great job of just feeding off of what he was doing.' The entire Indiana bench, in particular, seemed to feed off McConnell. The Pacers' backups made a massive difference in Game 3, outscoring the Thunder reserves 49-18. Pacers guard Bennedict Mathurin was the game's leading scorer, racking up 27 points in only 22 minutes. A 10-year veteran in his sixth season with Indiana, McConnell has always been the type of player to make the most of his opportunity. He hasn't started more than eight games in a season since 2017, and he's never averaged more than 26.3 minutes a night in his career. On Wednesday, though, he changed the course of the game, and perhaps even the series. 'He's been like a big brother to me since I've gotten here,' Haliburton said. 'You look at T.J. McConnell and his story is unbelievable. So I just enjoy being able to play alongside him and the energy he gives his teammates in this building is — he's a lot of fun.'
Daily Mail
6 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Pacers ride deafening Indiana crowd as Tyrese Haliburton inspires crucial NBA Finals Game 3 win over Oklahoma City
Just before Game 3 of the NBA Finals tipped off on Wednesday night, the Pacers' Tyrese Haliburton and his teammates could be seen singing a perfectly befitting soundtrack for their high-wire postseason act. 50 Cent's 'Many Men' - a song inspired by the rapper surviving a harrowing near-death experience - blared from the Gainbridge Fieldhouse's speakers, as Indiana and their fans hoped this improbable run could take a gargantuan step forward towards a 2-1 series lead. And ultimately, these Pacers proved they were not out of lives just yet as they overcame an early deficit en route to a rapturous 116-107 win. The Pacers didn't wind up needing Haliburton's now-typical late heroics, though he produced a 'combination of spatial awareness and aggression' in the words of coach Rick Carlisle, as he produced a mature 22-point double-double. Newly-minted MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, meanwhile, scored 24 points, but coughed up six turnovers and went missing down the stretch. Still, despite the hostile conditions in Indianapolis - who were hosting their first Finals game since 2000 - it was Oklahoma City who raced out to a 15-6 lead, which led to a quick timeout from coach Rick Carlisle. 'The conversation was 'we gotta wake up', you know, I think that was the biggest thing,' Haliburton recalled of the message during that stoppage. 'We had a couple bad turnovers there, we played a little - antsy probably is the right word. I thought we just did a great job responding.' The retort that followed was emblematic of Indiana's postseason run to this point. Carlisle spoke before the game of the 'pride' in the state's basketball reputation, and that was evident during a game which drew Caitlin Clark to a courtside seat, and saw Pat McAfee deliver a fourth quarter pep talk to fans, telling them to get louder than OKC's home base had been in Games 1 and 2. Indiana, in front of their adulating fans, did not wilt after its rough start, which included 13 first-quarter points from Chet Holmgren as the young big man torched them inside. A Haliburton three-pointer towards the end of the first quarter cut the OKC lead to just two points and brought the noise to deafening levels, while a TJ McConnell steal (far from his first of the night) and possession-win after throwing the ball off of Cason Wallace briefly looked like it could be the turning point for the night early into the next period. McConnell would finally give the Pacers a 37-36 lead not long after with two makes at the free throw line, and what had been a competitive but confident start from the Thunder soon turned skittish. Indiana's defensive wall firmed up inside, with Gilgeous-Alexander and Co. forcing up some difficult looks, and the stats soon showed that the visitors - previously huge favorites to take this series - had been outscored 15-4 in a four-and-a-half minute span to open the second quarter. The first half (and beyond) was defined by several supporting-cast performances, as Bennedict Mathurin led the team into halftime with 14 points off the bench (he finished with 27), while Lu Dort's nine points in the first quarter helped his team build an early advantage. Obi Toppin's energy off of the bench also helped turn the tide for the hosts. 'This is the kind of team that we are,' Carlisle said afterwards. 'We need everybody to be ready. It's not always going to be exactly the same guys that are stepping up with scoring and stuff like that. But this is how we got to do it, and we got to do it as a team. And we've got to make it as hard as possible on them.' But it wouldn't be too long before the stars on both sides woke up, too, and before OKC settled down - even if their offense was clunky and sloppy at times. Haliburton - who came into the game reportedly battling a minor ankle injury - increasingly probed as the half went on, setting up looks for both himself and his teammates as he darted into the paint, while Gilgeous-Alexander was able to labor his way to his spots, even if the MVP looked uncomfortable with Indiana's defensive pressure at times. All told, OKC ended the first half with 11 turnovers, which gifted the Pacers 13 points and perhaps more crucially, the belief that they could really stun the NBA universe again. 'Those plays hurt, especially because they're very controllable,' Gilgeous-Alexander said of the Pacers scoring off of turnovers. 'You can take your time. You make mistakes in basketball, no matter the stage. We definitely had opportunities to cover those things up. But you also don't let plays like that happen.' Indiana's stubborn spirit from the first 24 minutes persisted in the third quarter, as the hosts withstood another Thunder flurry. OKC quickly flipped the Pacers' lead to begin the period, turning a four-point deficit to a lead of the same amount, which instilled a noticeably nervy energy in the area for a few moments. It actually could've been seven had Holmgren made an open three from the top of the arc. Gilgeous-Alexander and his teammates were frustrated for long periods of the second quarter But as these Pacers so often do - as they did against the Bucks, Cavs, Knicks and now against the league-best Thunder - they fought back despite Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams' (team-high 26 points) increasing presence in the contest, with the pair combining for seven field goals in the quarter. A Haliburton steal and wide open layup (a 'pick-six' if you will), soon pushed the hosts' lead back to four, and the rest of the quarter was back and forth as neither team was able to create much distance. A three-pointer from Williams to end the quarter then gave the Thunder a five-point cushion and a bit of daylight heading into the fourth. But that speck of comfort proved fleeting. 'I was proud of the way we bounced back from a rough ending to the third quarter,' Carlisle said after the game. 'That was something that could have shaken us up a lot, but the guys that went back in there to start the fourth, they kept their head down and kept competing.' The pesky McConnell, who nabbed five steals on the night, earned his final one early in the period off an inbounds pass from Caruso, to tie the game at 95 with a subsequent layup. At this point, Indiana smelled blood in the water and re-gained the lead less than a minute later as Mathurin drilled a three, while OKC's offense clammed up down the stretch. Haliburton later forced a timeout with 6:42 remaining as his deep-range bomb gave the Pacers a three-point lead. A couple of minutes after, the Pacers and their fans could exhale slightly more as Toppin - not for the first time this postseason - brought the house down with a dunk, which in this case gave the hosts a seven-point lead.
Reuters
7 hours ago
- Reuters
Pacers backups star, stake Indiana to 2-1 Finals lead
June 12 - INDIANAPOLIS -- NBA Finals marquees aren't for backups. However, as the 20,000 golden T-shirts in the arena said on Thursday, "But this is Indiana." Reserve guards Bennedict Mathurin and T.J. McConnell helped Indiana's bench break out with 49 points as the Pacers topped the Oklahoma City Thunder 116-107 on Wednesday to claim a 2-1 lead in the NBA Finals. Indiana star Tyrese Halliburton finished one rebound shy of a triple-double and didn't entirely shed his playoff cape. He provided ample heroics with 22 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds and Pascal Siakam added 21 points for the Pacers, who haven't lost consecutive games since March. Still, the game swung in a serious way on the fearless energy and competitive teeth of the Indiana bench. "Those guys were tremendous," Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said of his reserves. "T.J. just brought a competitive will to the game. This is the kind of the team we are. This is how we have to do it. We have to make it as difficult on them as we can." Thanks to 27 points from Mathurin and the kind of pyrotechnics the Pacers have grown to adore from reserve point guard McConnell, Indiana has the advantage in the best-of-seven series entering Game 4 on Friday. "His energy was unbelievable. I joke with him, I call him the Great White Hope," Haliburton said of McConnell, a fan favorite. "He does a great job of just giving us energy plays consistently, getting downhill, making hustle play after hustle play." Mathurin, who was injured and didn't play in the postseason last year, checked into the game for the first time in the second quarter. "It's a group of guys that play extremely hard," Mathurin said of the Pacers' second unit. "That's our job. ... You just have to get in the game with the right mindset, give it all you've got to win the game." Carlisle said McConnell inspires "a lot of people" with his style of play, and Mathurin echoed the sentiment. Jalen Williams led the Thunder with 26 points. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 24 points but went to the free-throw line just six times after going 18 of 20 on foul shots in the first two games of the series. Chet Holmgren scored 20 points and pulled down 10 rebounds, but shot 0-for-6 from 3-point range. Gilgeous-Alexander was 1-for-3 from the field in the fourth quarter. "I thought we had some really good stretches, but we just made one too many mistakes," Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. "And had one too many possessions on both ends of the floor where they were more tied to their identity than we were. But obviously those are costly plays." The Thunder trailed 110-102 with three minutes to go, but Alex Caruso tried to keep the Pacers from a premature celebration with a steal and breakaway into the open court. Two steps into the paint, Aaron Nesmith closed and forcefully brought both arms down on Caruso to prevent the shot attempt and take him to the floor. Following a review, no flagrant foul was called. Caruso made both free throws, and Indiana's Myles Turner subsequently lost the ball out of bounds. However, Turner, who missed eight of his first 10 shots, came up with two blocks of Holmgren on the same possession to keep the lead at six. Carlisle said postgame Turner is "under the weather and might not be with us tomorrow," when asked to assess the center's up-and-down night. Indiana got another stop, and Siakam lit up the arena for good with an easy basket that gave the Pacers a 112-104 lead with 69 seconds left. McConnell was seemingly everywhere, coming up with massive defensive plays all game. "We preach depth. We've talked about it all year," Haliburton said. Haliburton added another comment about Mathurin: "He was unbelievable. He just made big play after big play. When you have a team with this much depth, it can be anybody's night. ... He was a huge reason for our win tonight." McConnell made a pair of free throws and pullup runner from the elbow on the final two Indiana possessions before halftime for a 64-60 Pacers lead at the break. He acknowledged feeding off the energy in Gainbridge Fieldhouse. "I mean, did you hear it in here?" McConnell said. --Jeff Reynolds, Field Level Media
