Pacers star is on most clutch playoff run of all time

Haliburton's game-winning jumper went in with 0.3 seconds on the clock as the Indiana Pacers beat the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night, 111-110. It was Indiana's fifth comeback of 15 points or more in the 2025 playoffs and Haliburton's third game-winner. He forced overtime with a shot at the buzzer in one playoff game and sent another to OT with a dunk with 10.1 seconds left.

He joined rare company with his fifth career basket to tie or win a game in the final five seconds of a playoff game. LeBron James has done it eight times since play-by-play data became available in the 1997 playoffs, while Reggie Miller had five such shots. Including a game-winning three-point play to beat the Milwaukee Bucks in 2024, Haliburton tied Miller in only his second trip to the playoffs.

Haliburton hasn't been putting up huge scoring numbers in the playoffs overall, averaging 18.5 points per game. In the final seconds, though, he's unstoppable. 

His hot streak began in Game 5 against the Bucks, when he tied the game in regulation with a dunk, then drove for the game-winning layup in OT with 1.3 seconds left.

Against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Haliburton rebounded his own missed free throw while trailing by two, dribbled out behind the arc and sank a stepback three-pointer with 1.1 seconds left.

His only misstep came when he sent Game 1 against the New York Knicks to OT with a buzzer-beater and gave the choke sign because he mistakenly thought he'd hit a three.

Thursday's game was the first time since the start of the 1997 playoffs that a team won an NBA Finals game after trailing by 7-plus points in the final three minutes of regulation or OT. Now, those teams are 1-121, even though the Pacers were down as many as nine points late.

The only comparable playoff run to Haliburton's was James back in 2018, when he hit buzzer-beaters to beat the Pacers in the first round and the Toronto Raptors in the second.

James did it twice in one postseason, in two games that were tied. Haliburton has done it four times in these playoffs, with his team trailing in all four of those games.

The stakes and the pressure couldn't be higher, yet Haliburton continues to deliver. It's the greatest playoff run of clutch shots we've ever seen — and there's still a lot of NBA Finals left to play.