Tyrese Haliburton scored 26 points, including the go-ahead layup with 1.4 seconds remaining in overtime, and the Indiana Pacers rallied for a 119-118 win over the Milwaukee Bucks to clinch their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series on Tuesday in Indianapolis.
Haliburton jumped onto the scorers’ table and raised his arms toward the crowd to celebrate the wild comeback, which gave Indiana a 4-1 win in the best-of-seven series. The fourth-seeded Pacers advanced to the East’s semifinals, where they will face the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers.
Indiana trailed 118-111 with 40 seconds remaining in overtime. They closed the game on an 8-0 run behind a 3-pointer by Andrew Nembhard, a three-point play by Haliburton and finally a driving layup in which Haliburton blew past Giannis Antetokounmpo for the decisive basket.
“There’s a lot of talk about rivalry and those kinds of things,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “From my perspective and our perspective, nothing but respect for the Bucks. What they threw at us to begin the game and really throughout the game was the thing that champions do. They come out and they throw everything, their heart and soul, into it. We didn’t respond well early. We stayed with it, and we showed the kind of resilience that we’ve really shown all year.”
Antetokounmpo tallied a triple-double with 30 points, 20 rebounds and 13 assists for the Bucks, who played their first game without injured guard Damian Lillard (Achilles).
“I feel like we owed this game to Dame. That’s what I felt,” Antetokounmpo said. “I felt like he came back maybe earlier than what he was supposed to, went down, sacrificed his body for us. And I felt like as a team, win or lose, home or road, playoff game or no playoff game, the least we can do is show up and win a game for Dame. Obviously it hurts that we didn’t win the game, but it hurts more that we weren’t able to win the game for Dame and go back to Milwaukee.”
Gary Trent Jr. scored 33 points, including 12 points in overtime. Trent made eight 3-pointers, but his turnover with 10.8 seconds left in OT set up Haliburton’s winning hoop.
Myles Turner finished with 21 points and nine rebounds for the Pacers. Aaron Nesmith scored 19 points and pulled down 12 rebounds, and T.J. McConnell scored 18 points off the bench. Haliburton had nine assists.
The score was tied at 103 at the end of regulation. Antetokounmpo had a chance to win the game at the regulation buzzer, but his turnaround jump shot was too strong and clanked off the back rim.
Haliburton helped the Pacers force overtime by scoring Indiana’s final six points of regulation.
“When it comes to belief in himself, Tyrese has an iron will,” Carlisle said. “He works extremely hard on what he does. He works extremely hard on his craft, his skill. He’s unafraid. He reminds me a lot of Reggie. This game will go down as one of the all-time great Pacer wins because of the circumstances in overtime and what was on the line. Ty obviously authored a big part of this ending.”
Milwaukee led 103-99 with 53.1 seconds left after Antetokounmpo made a floating jump shot.
The Pacers closed the gap to 103-101 after Haliburton drew a shooting foul against Antetokounmpo and made a pair of free throws with 39.8 seconds remaining.
After Kevin Porter Jr. missed a shot on the other end, Haliburton again took control. He drove past Trent from the 3-point arc and elevated for a game-tying dunk with 10.8. seconds left.
The Bucks stormed to a 30-13 lead at the end of the first quarter and held onto a 47-41 advantage at the half.
–Field Level Media
