DURING A REPLAY review with 22.8 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter of Game 1 of the NBA Finals, the path to Tyrese Haliburton’s game-winning shot was set.
The Pacers were awaiting the outcome of a challenge from coach Rick Carlisle, who wanted officials to double-check whether Pascal Siakam was fouled or had touched the ball last before falling out of bounds.
It was a pivotal swing with Indiana trailing by one point, and Carlisle wanted to make sure his team was prepared for either outcome. If the review was successful, the Pacers would have possession of the ball. If not, he instructed his crew to play defense and get a stop without fouling. And with about an eight-second difference between the shot and game clock, the message was clear. There would not be another timeout. Get the rebound and go.
“Get the ball in Tyrese’s hands,” Carlisle said after the game that evening. “And look to make a play.”
First, the Pacers got the stop — easier said than done against the league’s reigning Most Valuable Player, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, but he missed a 15-foot fadeaway with Andrew Nembhard glued to his hip on defense. Aaron Nesmith corralled a tough rebound over Lu Dort before a crowd of players swarmed to the paint. Nesmith quickly shuffled the ball to Siakam, who found Obi Toppin, who swung the ball to Haliburton, giving him possession just before half court with six seconds remaining on the clock.
What followed was one of the most clutch shots in NBA Finals history. Haliburton dribbled and jab-stepped along the Pacers’ sideline before curling back inside the arc and rising up to score the game-winning basket, a 21-foot jumper with 0.3 seconds remainingas the Pacers stole Game 1 of the series in Oklahoma City.
It may have seemed easy for Carlisle to trust Haliburton in that moment, especially given the budding Pacers star’s propensity for hitting big shots in the biggest moments — Game 1 was his fourth game-winning or game-tying shot in the final seconds of these playoffs — but such faith is years in the making.
The freedom the Pacers play with on offense is born out of the relationship between Carlisle and Haliburton, a bond that began the night after Indiana traded for Haliburton in February 2022. But the groundwork also dates back to Carlisle’s tenure with the Dallas Mavericks, starting in his first season with the team in 2008-09 when he butted heads with Hall of Fame point guard Jason Kidd and continuing when Carlisle was tasked with the handling of another emerging superstar: Luka Doncic.
“What I learned my first year in Dallas was to give J-Kidd the ball and get out of the way, let him run the show, let him run the team,” Carlisle said before the start of the NBA Finals. “Tyrese, very similar situation, but didn’t take half a season to figure it out. The situation in Dallas with Luka was the same.
“It’s pretty clear, when you have a player of that kind of magnitude, that kind of presence, that kind of knowledge, vision and depth, you got to let them do what they do.”
The philosophy has paid off for the Pacers, who took a 2-1 NBA Finals lead over the Oklahoma City Thunderon Wednesday night with a 116-107 victory at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Haliburton and Carlisle have been the masterminds behind this Pacers’ offense, which is scoring 116.7 points per 100 possessions in the postseason while featuring a fast-paced style and comeback ethos that has fueled an improbable playoff run through the Eastern Conference.
At the center of it all sits a coach who has learned to adapt through the years with a point guard he happily turned over the reins to.
“When he gave me that nod, that was like the ultimate respect,” Haliburton said after practice Tuesday. “That was the ultimate trust that I could get from anybody, because he is such a brilliant basketball mind. He’s been around such great guards, great players. For him to give me that confidence, I think has really taken my career to another level.”
