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?<\/p>\n
None.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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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.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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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.<\/p>\n
Game 1 of the conference semifinal series will be played in Rocket Arena in Cleveland on Sunday, May 4.<\/p>\n