When the Indiana Pacers won the Eastern Conference Finals, coach Rick Carlisle uttered a phrase familiar to those who live in the state of Indiana.
“In 49 states, it’s just basketball. But this is Indiana.”
The game is inseparable from the Hoosier State. It’s God, basketball, cornfields, and the Indianapolis 500 here—and the priority varies by circumstance.
We have a few patron saints of basketball. You’ve got Bob Knight, John Wooden, Gene Keady, and Brad Stevens, all generational talents who performed some extraordinary miracles on the hardwood.
There’s Norman Dale, a fictional coach who’s just as real as anyone who has ever drawn up a play or riled up officials enough to get tossed from a game.
The Indiana Pacers have a few patron saints of their own—Slick and Nancy Leonard, George McGinnis, Mel Daniels, Reggie Miller, Rik Smits, Jermaine O’Neal. Heck, throw Lance Stephenson in there, too. Few players were as borderline insane and beloved as “Born Ready.”
Slick, Nancy, and Reggie were the miracle workers of the bunch, with Slick and Nancy willing the Pacers to stay in Indianapolis with a telethon and Reggie providing unforgettable moments that would somehow repeat 25 years later against the same New York Knicks franchise he delighted in tormenting.
Yet, as charmed as the Pacers’ run in the early 1990s through mid-2000s was, something else always stood in the way. The Patrick Ewing-led New York Knicks. The Michael Jordan-era Chicago Bulls, a historically dominant franchise that won back-to-back-back titles twice, leaving little room for anyone else to represent the Eastern Conference in the Finals.
Even when the Pacers made their sole NBA Finals appearance during the 1999-2000 season, they ran into another historic team of destiny in Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, and the Los Angeles Lakers. They managed a couple wins in the series before losing in six games.
The next best shot for the Pacers came during the 2004-2005 season, when Indiana had what appeared to be both the best team in the Eastern Conference and the whole NBA. This team, with Reggie taking on a reduced role as he tried to win that elusive ring, appeared ready to take the next step.
It all unraveled with The Brawl (aka “The Malice at the Palace”). The resulting fight and media circus, which I will not deign to relive or relitigate here, led to severe punishment for the Pacers and ruined Reggie’s last, best chance at a championship.
The Pacers made the playoffs as a sixth seed and advanced to the second round before losing to Detroit. Reggie retired at the end of the season.
The Pacers remained competitive for the better part of the next two decades. They made it to the Eastern Conference Finals a couple times under ascending star Paul George, although the Blue and Gold ran into continued roadblocks in the form of LeBron James, a dominant player whose specter would haunt the franchise in the 2010s in the form of soul-crushing playoff exits and all-world clutch performances with both the Big Three Miami Heat and the Home Again Cleveland Cavaliers.
From 2010 through 2020, the Pacers qualified for the playoffs in nine out of ten seasons. And while they were above average and consistently competitive, they exceeded 50 wins only once, when the Paul George-led 2013-2014 team won 56 games and advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals.
King James, of course, made sure the top-seeded Pacers never reached the Finals.
Trades moved star players in and out. George. Victor Oladipo. Malcolm Brogdon. Caris LeVert. Good players, some of whom even had great moments.
But true success proved elusive.
In the 2020-2021 season, the Pacers made the play-in round of the NBA postseason and lost to the Miami Heat.
This marked a key turning point, as the franchise got rid of Nate Bjorkgren (a head-scratching hire in the first place) and hired Rick Carlisle, the NBA championship-winning coach who parted ways with the Dallas Mavericks.
Carlisle had previously coached the Pacers before his unceremonious firing, when he had more hair and looked even more like Jim Carrey. He was at the helm during The Brawl and oversaw some excellent Pacers teams.
A tough, demanding coach by reputation, Carlisle wore out his welcome in Indianapolis, which showed him the door following the 2006-2007 season. The team had missed the playoffs after making nine consecutive postseason appearances.
Fast forward more than a decade and the Pacers, facing an imminent rebuild and a team stacked with young talent, wanted a veteran coach at the helm to pull it all together.
During Carlisle’s return season, the Pacers acquired Tyrese Haliburton in a trade with the Sacramento Kings, a savvy personnel move that changed the trajectory of the franchise.
The team gave up Domantas Sabonis, a talented and tough-nosed forward who could serve as a franchise cornerstone with any other team. The immediate returns weren’t evident. The Pacers missed the playoffs in Haliburton’s first two seasons. Too often, flashes of brilliance were offset by injuries or inconsistency.
It all came together during the surprising 2023-2024 season, when the Pacers made it into the postseason as a sixth seed and beat Milwaukee and New York to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. They ran into a juggernaut in the Boston Celtics, who calmly swept the upstart Pacers en route to an NBA championship.
That run seemed miraculous.
But Pacers fans had no idea what the team had planned for the encore.
These are the Four Miracles of Indiana.
Miracle One: The Blow By (April 29, 2025)
The Pacers held a 3-1 series lead and had the chance to close out the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 5 of their first-round series. A desperate Milwaukee team stormed out to a 17-point lead in the first quarter as the Pacers steadily worked their way back into the game.
Haliburton tied the game at 103 with about ten seconds left. All-world scorer Giannis Antetokounmpo missed a 15-footer that would’ve won the game in regulation, sending it into overtime.
Milwaukee took a commanding seven-point lead with 40 seconds left in the extra frame. Andrew Nembhard’s three cut the lead to four.
Timeout, Milwaukee.
Nembhard then stole the inbounds pass and got the ball to Haliburton, who sprinted in for a layup and drew a foul. He sank the free throw to make it a one-point game.
Timeout, Milwaukee.
Facing intense pressure from the Pacers, the Bucks finally inbounded the ball to Kevin Porter Jr. He swung it to AJ Green, who tried to get it to Gary Trent Jr. on the sideline. Trent, who’d made Indiana’s life miserable all night with a barrage of threes, couldn’t handle the pass, which went through his hands and darted out of bounds for the turnover.
Timeout, Pacers?
Absolutely not.
The team used the dead ball to sub Pascal Siakam in for Jarace Walker. With 10.1 seconds left, Haliburton took the inbounds pass and dribbled past midcourt.
A high screen from Siakam had Antetokounmpo, an All-NBA defender, switch to Haliburton. But the Pacers guard hit him with a crossover dribble, got to his right, and blew by Antetokounmpo to hit the game-winning field goal with 1.3 seconds left.
Indiana advances. Milwaukee goes home. Final score: 119-118.
Miracle Two: The Heart-Taker (May 6, 2025)
After winning Game 1 against the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Pacers stared down another huge deficit in Game 2. It ballooned to 20 points in the second quarter, as the top seed in the Eastern Conference dominated Indiana.
The Pacers trailed by 14 points going into the fourth quarter. The Cavs finished the regular season with 64 wins and appeared to be well on their way to evening the series at one game apiece.
Cleveland led 119-112 with under a minute left. Yes, the Pacers had come back, but the Cavs answered each time, including a Max Strus three and free throws from star Donovan Mitchell to keep Indiana at a distance.
When Pascal Siakam drew a foul with 48 seconds left, it looked like the perfect opportunity for the Pacers to score points with the clock stopped.
Siakam proceeded to miss the first free throw.
And the second.
But do-it-all forward Aaron Nesmith crashed in from the top of the key, skied for the rebound, and threw down a vicious dunk. The play stunned the Cavs and their fans. Nesmith’s athletic putback erased Siakam’s free throw misses and made it 119-114.
On the ensuing inbound play, Mitchell caught the ball on the sideline and tried to go through Nesmith, elbows flying. The resulting collision knocked both players to the floor, and the officials whistled Mitchell for an offensive foul.
The call held up on review (Nesmith’s putback dunk had also been reviewed and upheld earlier).
Siakam’s driving layup cut the Cavs’ lead to three, 119-116.
Timeout, Cleveland.
Nembhard stole the next inbounds pass with 27 seconds left. He got the ball to Haliburton, who drove toward the basket and drew a foul with 12.1 remaining.
He sank the first free throw to make it a two-point game at 119-117.
The second one went off the front of the rim; Myles Turner tipped the ball to Haliburton.
Timeout, Pacers?
Absolutely not.
Haliburton backed out toward the top of the key. With Cleveland’s Ty Jerome in front of him, he calmly stepped back and drilled a three with 1.1 seconds left to give the Pacers a one-point lead.
The Pacers take a 2-0 series lead. The Cavs have their hearts ripped out. Final score: 120-119.
Indiana would win the series in five games.
Miracle Three: The Three-Smith Choke (May 21, 2025)
Facing a rowdy crowd at Madison Square Garden, the Pacers dug themselves a hole in the fourth quarter, and it looked like they wouldn’t be able to dig out of it this time. The Knicks led by 14 with 3:44 left and took another 14-point lead with 2:51 left off a Jalen Brunson three.
Haliburton hit a three, the Pacers got a stop, and Nesmith hit from long distance to make it an eight-point game at 119-111. The Knicks kept answering, but the Pacers kept getting the ball to Nesmith, who got on one of the all-time heaters in NBA playoff history.
During the memorable close to the game, Nesmith buried six threes and hit a couple free throws to bring the Pacers back to life. That’s 20 points in the span of about five minutes, and while it’s not 8 points in 8.9 seconds, it sure as heck is just as impressive.
These weren’t wide open looks, either.
The Knicks consistently got a hand in his face and often knocked him down as each unlikely shot hit the bottom of the net.
Nesmith closed out his scoring run with a pair of free throws to make it 124-123 New York.
Siakam fouled OG Anunoby with 7.1 seconds left; Anunoby missed the first but hit the second to make it a two-point lead at 125-123.
Timeout, Pacers?
Absolutely not.
Haliburton raced down the floor, drove into the lane, and then, just as he had against Cleveland, took a step back shot.
This time, the ball hit the back of the rim, bounced straight up, and hung in the air for an eternity until it hit the bottom of the net.
Hali gave the Knicks fans his version of Reggie Miller’s iconic “Choke.”
A review showed Haliburton’s toe was on the line, so the clutch shot “merely” tied the game at 125 instead of winning it. The Pacers captured the overtime period (Nembhard scored seven points and had a key assist) to win Game 1.
The Pacers take a 1-0 series lead. The Knicks cope with “Choke 2.0.” Final score: 138-135.
Indiana would go on to win the series in six and advance to the NBA Finals.
Miracle Four: The Point-Three Killer (June 5, 2025)
In Game 1 of the NBA Finals, the Pacers looked completely overmatched.
The Oklahoma City Thunder, the top seed in the playoffs with an NBA-best 68 wins in the regular season, played at a speed unlike anything the Pacers had faced the entire season.
Watching a team on film doesn’t prepare you for the reality of seeing them on the court. With the raucous crowd at the Paycom Center firmly behind them, the Thunder stormed out to a 12-point halftime lead.
The Pacers kept turning the ball over. In the first half alone, they gave the ball away 19 times against OKC’s smothering defense. They cleaned it up considerably in the second half, finishing with 25 total turnovers on the night.
The Thunder, collected and calm, had just seven turnovers in Game 1.
Oklahoma City extended the lead to 15 points with less than ten minutes left in the fourth quarter. They had a 97.9% chance of winning the game.
The Pacers chipped away. With 2:52 left, the Thunder led by nine after a pair of free throws from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Indiana responded with back-to-back threes from Nesmith and Nembhard to pull within three.
A jumper from Gilgeous-Alexander made it 110-105 with 1:27 left. Nembhard sank a pair of free throws, and the Pacers stopped OKC on the next possession after Siakam blocked SGA.
Nembhard launched a game-tying shot attempt but missed; Siakam stormed into the lane to get the rebound and a putback to make it 110-109 OKC.
On the ensuing possession, Jalen Williams missed a layup, but the Pacers couldn’t corral the rebound and Carlisle called a timeout to challenge the play, arguing Siakam had gotten shoved out of bounds.
It was an unsuccessful challenge, and OKC retained possession of the ball. Gilgeous-Alexander, facing intense defensive pressure from Nembhard, missed a jumper off the back of the rim with 11 seconds left.
Nesmith came through with a spectacular rebound.
Timeout, Pacers?
Absolutely not.
Nesmith got the ball to Siakam, who passed it to Obi Toppin. Toppin handed the ball to Haliburton near midcourt.
Hali drove to his right, found a little space just inside the three-point line, and pulled up for another cold-blooded clutch shot.
Indiana takes a 1-0 series lead. Oklahoma City wonders what happened. Final score: 111-110.
Epilogue
Miracles can only get you so far.
You can't rely on them--they just happen. Sometimes, they desert you.
The Pacers pushed the Thunder to seven games in a series they weren't supposed to be in. And with Haliburton dealing with a calf strain, the miracles ran out.
There would be no fifth miracle. Just heartbreak.
Still, we were believers.
On behalf of the fans, thank you, Pacers.
