Oklahoma City - Saba:
Tyrese Haliburton scored a game-winning basket with three-tenths of an hour remaining to turn the Indiana Pacers' lead over the Oklahoma City Thunder into a stunning 111-110 victory on Thursday in their first game of the NBA Finals.
The Pacers trailed throughout the game and trailed by as many as 15 points early in the fourth quarter, but Haliburton led them to an away win that gave them home-court advantage in a four-out-of-seven series.
Haliburton, 25, scored 14 points and 10 rebounds, and his mid-range basket gave the Pacers their only lead of the game.
After scoring 14 points to just two for his opponent at the end of the game, the Pacers took a 1-0 lead in the final series, with Oklahoma City hosting Game 2 on Sunday.
This is the fifth time in the playoffs of the current NBA season that Indiana has come from a deficit of 15 or more points, a record since the 1998 season.
Cameroon's Pascal Siakam led Indiana with 19 points and 10 rebounds, followed by substitute Obi Toppin with 17 points, Myles Turner with 15 points, Canadian Andrew Nemhard with 14 points, and Aaron Nesmith with 10 points and 12 rebounds.
The final shot was reminiscent of Haliburton's shot in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, when he forced overtime against the New York Knicks. The talented distributor has now scored four baskets in the playoffs.
The Pacers are seeking their first title in their 58-year history, while the Thunder have not won a title since moving to Oklahoma City in 2008. The previous franchise, the Seattle SuperSonics, won the title in 1979.
Indiana committed 24 turnovers, but Oklahoma City capitalized on them by scoring just 11 points.
Canadian League Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the game with 38 points.
After scoring 12 points to their opponent's two, the Pacers closed the gap to 94-98 with 6:16 remaining on three-pointers from Turner and Toppin.
Oklahoma City, the team with the best record in the regular season, held onto its lead, but Nesmith and Nemhard sank three-pointers to cut Indiana's lead to 108-105 with 1:59 left, then 110-109, before Tyrese's dramatic layup.
In addition to Shay, the losing team's other star, Jaylen Williams, scored 17 points, and Canadian Lugentes Dort added 15.
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