Recently, the Indiana Pacers took a 1-0 lead in the NBA Finals thanks to yet another incredible fourth quarter comeback capped off by a Tyrese Haliburton game winner to shock the Oklahoma City Thunder. It’s hard to be too surprised considering this is the fourth time this postseason that the Pacers have won in epic come-from-behind fashion, but that still didn’t make the mood in Paycom Center Thursday night any less stunned.
Haliburton has been on argubaly the greatest stretch of clutch play in the history of the NBA in these playoffs, and recently, he revealed how he and his Pacers teammates take their lack of respect from around the league and turn it into fuel.
“You come into the year with all the talk around how (going to the Eastern Conference finals) was a fluke,” Haliburton said, per Fred Katz of The Athletic. “You have an unsuccessful first couple months, and now it’s easy for everyone to clown you and talk about you in a negative way. And I think as a group we take everything personal as a group. It’s not just me. It’s everybody.”
The “take everything personal” line may or may not be a nod to the famous “And I took that personally” meme featuring NBA legend Michael Jordan that became famous in the wake of 2020’s The Last Dance documentary.
A huge opportunity for the Pacers
The Pacers now have a chance to take a 2-0 lead on the road for the third (!) time this postseason with Game 2 against the Thunder looming on Sunday night.
Indiana led for just .3 seconds during Game 1’s victory, but that was all they needed to hold on and take a 1-0 lead in the series.
Perhaps the most encouraging thing for Indiana is that they didn’t even play well for the majority of the night in Game 1, turning the ball over 20 times in the first half alone and also seeing rough shooting games from multiple key players, including Haliburton himself.
If they can fix some of those mistakes and come out with the right energy in Game 2, they could be heading back to Indiana two wins away from an NBA championship.
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