Tyrese Haliburton certainly knows his basketball heritage.
The Indiana Pacers star Haliburton was the hero in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the New York Knicks on Wednesday. During the contest at Madison Square Garden in New York, N.Y., Indiana erased a 113-98 lead by New York with under five minutes left, closing the quarter on an improbable 27-12 run to force overtime.
It was Haliburton who hit the biggest shot of the night, splashing an absurd stepback two-pointer to tie the game as time expired in regulation. Haliburton’s shot came out of a scramble situation after Knicks forward Mikal Bridges poked the ball away, and the ball ended up taking a dramatic bounce off the rim and before finally falling down through the net.
After hitting the shot, Haliburton did the iconic Reggie Miller choke sign to celebrate (with Miller in the building calling the game for TNT to boot). Here is the video.
you cannot make this up.
— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) May 22, 2025
the basket to tie it from Tyrese Haliburton and force OT. pic.twitter.com/xqT7gKwmuO
Haliburton and the Pacers both thought that the shot was a three-pointer and thus began to celebrate as if they had won the game. But replay review showed that Haliburton had a foot on the line, so the game went into OT instead.
Fortunately, the Pacers were able to take care of business in the extra period, earning the 138-135 win. Haliburton ultimately finished with a team-high 31 points to go along with four rebounds and 11 assists as Indiana stole the Game 1 victory from New York on the road.
After the game, Haliburton explained his decision to hit the choke sign, popularized by the Pacers icon Miller during the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals (also against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden).
“Everyone’s been wanting me to do it,” Haliburton told TNT’s Allie LaForce. “I was gonna hold it for the right time that felt appropriate. And then it went into overtime. So we’re gonna have to save it for later.”
The two-time All-Star Haliburton luckily did not have to eat crow with the early celebration as the Pacers still pulled out the victory in the end. Indiana teammate Aaron Nesmith also deserved a whole lot of credit for helping the team even get to Haliburton’s shot in the first place — Nesmith unbelievably hit six straight three-pointers in the final five minutes to claw the Pacers from 15 down to within just one possession of the Knicks.
Ultimately, that epic Game 1 victory by Indiana will go down as just the latest exhilarating miracle win that they have managed to produce just this postseason alone.
