Tyrese Haliburton put on his cape and was the hero for his Pacers on Tuesday night.
The Indiana Pacers guard led his team’s unbelievable comeback to send their rival, the Milwaukee Bucks home in five games in the first round for the second consecutive season. He scored five straight points in the last 17 seconds of overtime, including two on the game-winning layup, as the home team closed on an 8-0 run to win by the skin of their teeth, 119-118 and clinch the series 4-1.
“This one will go down as one of the all-time great Pacers wins because of the circumstances, because of what was on the line,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “Ty, obviously, authored a big part of this ending. So, congratulations to him.”
Haliburton did not only save his heroics for the end of overtime, but he also drained two free throws and then drove into the lane for a dunk on Indiana’s last two possessions of regulation to force the extra session after it seemed like Giannis Antetokounmpo had done enough damage to secure the victory for the road team.
Haliburton put the team on his back, filling up the stat sheet with 26 points, nine assists, five rebounds, three steals and three blocks, while Antetokounmpo posted a triple-double of 30 points, 20 rebounds, 13 assists, two steals and two blocks in a duel of the stars.
While many likely expected the Pacers to set the tone right away on their home court with Damian Lillard sidelined with a torn Achilles, it was the Bucks who came out inspired and jumped out to a 13-0 lead and expanded the advantage to 30-13 by the end of the first quarter.
Still, Indiana fought back and closed the gap to just six by halftime and started to feel inevitable when they took the lead in the third quarter with back-to-back triples by Andrew Nembhard. Myles Turner and Aaron Nesmith also provided a spark, which was key since Pascal Siakam was quiet on the offensive end on his way to only 10 points.
Yet the Bucks refused to roll over and die.
Embed from Getty ImagesAntetokounmpo continued to make trips to the free-throw line, getting heckled by the crowd along the way and overpower Indiana’s small interior defense, while Gary Trent Jr. was on a heater beyond belief (33 points and eight three-pointers) and AJ Green (19 points and six three-pointers) caught fire from the perimeter.
“I’m not going to do this,” Antetokounmpo said when asked if he thought he could win a second NBA title in Milwaukee. “Whatever I say, I know how it’s going to translate. I wish I was still playing. I wish I was still like competing and going back out there.”
Even backup point guard T.J. McConnell’s energy off the bench in the fourth quarter was not enough for the Pacers to put Milwaukee away for good, as Antetokounmpo had a response for every run in what could have been his final game in a Bucks’ uniform where he has played for 12 years. And the massive amount of attention he drew also opened up Trent for multiple threes down the stretch of regulation as well.
Trent remained on fire with a shocking four three-pointers in overtime alone, which appeared to be enough to keep the Bucks alive and force a Game 6 which would have taken place on Friday.
However, Nembhard hit a deep three, Haliburton converted an and-1, the Bucks inexplicably turned it over and Haliburton scored the game-winner to set up a second-round showdown with Donovan Mitchell and the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers.
“I got a little down about it,” Haliburton said, referring to his misses late in regulation. “But my teammates encouraged me to stay with it. They said we would get a chance to win at the end, they would rely on me to do that.”
This chippy playoff series ended fittingly with a shoving match between the teams at midcourt. Haliburton’s father, John, ignited the fracas when he ran onto the court and started talking to Antetokounmpo.
Haliburton did not even realize what happened because he was celebrating on top of the scorer’s table, his arms raised, exciting the sellout crowd donning yellow T-shirts to scream even louder, just like former Pacers great and Hall of Famer Reggie Miller.
“I thought the turnovers obviously were huge,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said. “Two of the three were really unforced. But I thought we had two huge defensive mistakes that we made. We came out of the timeout with a foul to give. We were supposed to use it. Didn’t use it. Those are the things that just kill you.”
