Game-winners, scuffles, brawls, and intense battles. We’re still in the second round of the 2025 playoffs, and yet we’re already seeing an insane series of matchups. The Indiana Pacers came in hot inside the Rocket Arena in Cleveland to face the No.1 seed Cavaliers in hopes of stealing another game on the road—and stealing game 2 was what the Pacers really did on Wednesday, behind an electrifying game-winning three from Tyrese Haliburton.
The final moments of game 2 of the Pacers-Cavaliers semi-finals matchup saw Haliburton intentionally miss his second free-throw while being down by one (119-118) in order to make one final play. With the clock winding down, Haliburton attempted a highly contested step-back three, nailing a hail mary shot to put them ahead, 121-119, with just 1.1 seconds left to play. Fans inside the Rocket Arena couldn’t believe what they saw as the Pacers now take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Cleveland’s Defense Didn’t Matter
The Cavs put their best defenders on Haliburton and held him to only 16 points by the final minute of the fourth quarter. However, the Pacers just had one too many weapons. Aaron Nesmith and Myles Turner both ignited for 23 points apiece without 2025 Defensive Player of the Year Evan Mobley on the floor in game 2. Andrew Nembhard and Bennedict Mathurin—who were both drafted by Indiana back in 2022—also helped pick up the offensive load with Haliburton being locked down by Cavaliers’ pesky wing defenders. Nembhard had himself a 13-point, 13-assist game, while Mathurin scored 19 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field.
Everyone saw the game-winner coming—except for the Cavaliers, who were missing the presence of two of their key contributors, Evan Mobley and Darius Garland. They weren’t even letting the Pacers go off easily as Donovan Mitchell took off and scored 48 points on 50% shooting (15-30) and added nine assists, five rebounds, four steals, and one block. Spida was also having a field day in the free-throw line as he made 17 of his 21 attempts from the charity stripes.
Haliburton Isn’t Overrated Anymore
Tyrese Haliburton has been receiving hate in the past couple of years. After recently signing a max contract with the Pacers for a 5-year $240 million deal, people are suddenly labeling him as “NBA’s Most Overrated Player”. His underwhelming performance in the first half of their 2024-2025 campaign also added fuel to the hate he was constantly getting. After the 2024 Olympics, the 2-time All-Star felt a bit lost in translation. He was inconsistent and wasn’t performing like a franchise player, which made fans think if he truly deserves the amount of money he was given, which is almost equal to the type of contracts the likes of Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Anthony Edwards are getting. Haliburton is getting even more money than Luka Doncic and Giannis Antetokounmpo!
Last year, Indiana had a deep playoff run, reaching the Conference Finals, but mainly because teams in the East had injured stars. They weren’t even that kind of a threat back then.
However, this year, when everyone’s healthy and ready to compete, Tyrese Haliburton is leading this team to another impressive run, slowly eliminating the best of the best in the Eastern Conference. In the latter part of the 2024-2025 season, Hali has shown he has the guts to take the biggest shots in the game and wants to completely shut down the idea that he is one overrated athlete.
