Pacers never say die

OKLAHOMA CITY – Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton sank the game-winning basket with 0.3 of a second remaining to give the Pacers a stunning 111-110 fightback victory over Oklahoma City in Thursday’s opening game of the NBA Finals.

Haliburton, who had 14 points and 10 rebounds, gave the Pacers their only lead of the game on a dramatic 21-foot jump shot to deliver a shocker after Indiana had trailed by 15 points with 9:42 remaining.

“I’m confident in my ability and feel like if I can get to my spot I’m really comfortable from there. I really had confidence in my shot,” Haliburton said of the game winner.

“We’re just a really resilient group. We did a great job of just walking them down. When it gets to 15, you can panic or you can talk about how you get it to 10, to five and from there. We just stuck with it.

With a game-closing 14-2 run, the Pacers seized a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series with Game 2 on Sunday at Oklahoma City.

“We’ve got to learn from it. There are obviously a lot of things we can clean up. Credit them. They went and got that game,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said.

Indiana overcame 24 turnovers, allowing the Thunder only 11 points off them, and a 38-point performance by NBA Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

“It’s not rocket science. We have to be better,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.

It was the fifth 15-point-or-greater winning comeback by Indiana in this year’s playoffs, the most by any team since 1998.

“They went up 15 and we just said let’s just keep chipping away at the rock,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “We had a lot of experience in these kinds of games and our guys have a real good feel for what it’s all about, giving ourselves a chance.

Pascal Siakam led the Pacers with 19 points while reserve Obi Toppin added 17, Myles Turner had 15 and Haliburton and Andrew Nembhard each added 14.

“It was a total team effort,” said Haliburton.