OKLAHOMA CITY — The statistics are mind-boggling:
• Indiana has five 15+-point comebacks in these playoffs.
• Indiana is 5-3 when trailing by 15 or more in these playoffs.
• Tyrese Haliburton has four game-winning or game-tying buckets in the final 5 seconds these playoffs (Game 5 vs. Milwaukee, Game 2 vs. Cleveland, Game 1 vs. New York, and now Game 1 vs. Oklahoma City).
How do the Pacers keep doing this?
Turning disrespect into fuel.
“That’s been our thing the whole year, even at the beginning of the playoffs. Everybody got the other team winning every single game,” Obi Toppin said. “We just go out there and always do what we do.”
That fuel wasn’t just everyone picking against Indiana in these playoffs, it dates back to last season and the Pacers’ run to the Eastern Conference Finals, Haliburton said.
“After you have a run like last year, and you get swept in the Eastern Conference Finals, and all the conversation is about is how you don’t belong there and how you lucked out to get there, and that it was a fluke. Guys are going to be pissed off,” Haliburton said. “We’re going to spend the summer pissed off. And then you come into the year with all the talk around how was a fluke, you have an unsuccessful first couple months, and now that’s easy for everybody to clown you, talk about you in a negative way.
“I think as a group, we take everything personal, like as a group, it’s not just me, it’s everybody. I feel like that’s the DNA of this group.”
“Ultimate Confidence”
The other thing the Pacers discussed was their unshakable confidence in themselves.
When did Indiana start to believe it could win this game?
“When I got off the bus, I put on my shoes, there was never a disbelief as a group,” Haliburton said.
Haliburton embodies that.
“Ultimate, ultimate confidence in himself…” Myles Turner said of his team’s star. “When it comes to the moments, he wants the ball. He wants to be the one to hit that shot. He doesn’t shy away from the moment and very important this time of the year to have a go-to guy. He just keeps finding a way and we keep putting the ball in the right positions and the rest is history.”
That confidence means the Pacers don’t panic when trailing, they just focus on small victories that add up to big ones.
“I thought we did a great job of just walking them down,” Haliburton said. “When it gets to 15, you can panic, or you can talk about, ‘How do we get it to 10? How do we get it to five from there?’ So, you know, I think all [playoffs], that’s what we preached as a group, is when we get down big, let’s just find a way to incrementally get it down.”
“We stay connected. We’re going to play until the whistle blows,” said Andrew Nembhard, who was critical in the Game 1 comeback by scoring or assisting on 16 fourth-quarter points and playing strong defense on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the fourth.
That leads to dramatic endings, even if it isn’t always pretty getting there. Not that the Pacers care.
“Come May and June, it doesn’t matter how you get them, just get them,” Haliburton said. “So we’ll take it.”
And they’ll take a 1-0 lead in the NBA Finals.
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