The Indiana Pacers made quite the comeback against the Milwaukee Bucks to advance to the second round of the NBA Playoffs. But how many times has something like that happened?
None.
On a recent episode of The Hoops Collective, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst shared a playoffs statistic that shows just how special this Pacers team really was in overtime of Game 5 against the Bucks.
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“Since 1997, teams were 0-1,609 in the playoffs when trailing by at least 7 points in the last 40 seconds of the 4th quarter or overtime,” Windhorst said. “You got a three-possession lead with 40 seconds left, you are generally home-free.”
The Pacers’ spectacular comeback was made even more sweet by the fact that star point guard Tyrese Haliburton hit the game-sealing shot against Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is considered one of the best defenders of this generation, if not of all time.
Andrew Nembhard hit a three to cut the lead to four, then a Haliburton and-one layup after a Gary Trent Jr. bad pass cuts it to one. Another turnover from Trent puts the ball back in the Pacers’ hands, and the rest will be history.
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The Pacers will have their hands fill with Donovan Mitchell and the Cleveland Cavaliers, who finished the regular season with a very impressive 64-18 record. But if they can close out games like they did against the Bucks, they could have a fighting chance.
Game 1 of the conference semifinal series will be played in Rocket Arena in Cleveland on Sunday, May 4.
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