OKLAHOMA CITY — Bringing the ball up, Tyrese Haliburton returned to his comfort spot. As the final seconds ticked away, Indiana’s franchise player had the chance to deliver more late-game heroics on the road. He bumped Cason Wallace off him and drained a deep jumper.

Just like that, the home crowd was stunned. Only 0.3 seconds remained. The Oklahoma City Thunder suffered a shocking 111-110 Game 1 loss to the Indiana Pacers. They’re now at a disadvantage with an early 0-1 series deficit in the 2025 NBA Finals.

“That’s a really good team. Credit them for not only tonight but their run. They’ve had so many games like that that have seemed improbable,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said. “They just play with a great spirit, they keep coming, they made plays, made shots. They deserved to win by a point.”

To start, everything went the Thunder’s way. They scored the first seven points. The OKC crowd provided them with a jolt of energy. It looked eerily similar to what they usually do to run up the scoreboard on their opponent. Then the Pacers fought through it.

The Thunder held a 29-20 lead after the first quarter. They scored 28 points in the second frame to push their halftime advantage to 57-45. Not bad, but it felt like they left meat on the bone. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 19 points at the break, but the rest of his squad struggled to show up. Perhaps from a case of the jitters.

The Thunder flirted with a near plus-20 shot-attempt advantage over the Pacers. That alone should’ve been enough to get them up by a larger amount. But Indiana hung around. That’s what it’s done all playoffs. After the break, it was much of the same. Gilgeous-Alexander sliced through Indiana’s defense, but the Pacers hit timely outside buckets to keep it within striking distance. Indiana scored 31 points in the third quarter as the Thunder’s lead was trimmed to 85-76 to enter the fourth frame.

Uneasiness settled into Paycom Center. Everybody’s anxiety grew with each missed shot. Jalen Williams had a bit of a burst to start the fourth quarter. After TJ McConnell’s bad inbound pass resulted in a Williams’ breakaway dunk, the Thunder had a 94-79 lead with a little over nine minutes left.

The Thunder finally had some space on the scoreboard. The Pacers wouldn’t give up. It didn’t take long for them to cut it within a single-digit deficit. Big-time outside buckets by Myles Turner and Obi Toppin made things interesting.

After Gilgeous-Alexander made it a 108-99 lead with a little under three minutes left, an uneventful final moments should’ve been enough to secure a Game 1 win. Instead, the Pacers chipped away. Aaron Nesmith made a clutch 3-pointer. Andrew Nembhard soon followed with a nasty step-back 3-pointer after he shook Gilgeous-Alexander.

Suddenly, the Thunder only had a 108-105 lead with two minutes left. You could hear everybody mutter under their breath about what they witnessed. After all, it wasn’t even a month ago when the Denver Nuggets committed highway robbery with a Game 1 stunner.

After Nembhard missed an outside attempt, Pascal Siakam’s second-chance layup cut the Thunder’s lead to 110-109 with 48 seconds left. The Thunder had a few cracks to seal the deal, but a couple of misses left the door wide open for Haliburton to have another signature Game 1 moment. The All-Star took advantage with the drilled game-winner. In the end, Indiana finished the final two minutes on a 12-2 run. It scored 35 points in the final frame.

The Thunder shot 40% from the field and went 11-of-30 (36.7%) from 3. They shot 21-of-24 on free throws. They had 13 assists on 39 baskets. Four Thunder players scored double-digit points. Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 38 points on 14-of-30 shooting. Williams had 17 points on 6-of-19 shooting. Lu Dort scored 15 points on five outside makes. Alex Caruso had 11 points and six rebounds.

Meanwhile, the Pacers shot 48% from the field and went 18-of-39 (46.2%) from 3. They shot 15-of-21 on free throws. They had 24 assists on 39 baskets. Six Pacers players scored double-digit points.

Haliburton finished with 14 points, 10 rebounds and six assists. Siakam had 19 points and 10 rebounds. Toppin scored 17 points. Turner finished with 15 points and nine rebounds. Nembhard tallied 14 points and six assists. Nesmith had 10 points and 12 rebounds.

The Thunder led for over 47 of the 48 minutes. The only time the Pacers held a lead was for 0.3 seconds. That was at the final moments of the game. A brutal way for OKC to lose in a game where you could slowly see it lose its grip in real time. You’d just hope they had a big enough cushion to survive as the final buzzer sounded. Nope. Now you must sit on this loss for three days.

Fans filed out of the arena in shock. Nobody said a word. The only chants you could hear came from the Pacers’ traveling party that the franchise brought along. After being considered the heavy favorite, the Thunder have dug themselves into quite a hole.

“The biggest experience we’ve had is understanding that every game’s a new game. The most important game of the series is always the next one, regardless of the outcome. We would have liked to win tonight, but tonight was a starting point, not an end point,” Daigneault said. “There are a lot of things we can improve on. There are a lot of things I’m sure Indiana thinks they can improve on. Now the series starts to evolve. Would’ve liked to get the game, but need to be a better game in Game 2.”

Game 2 will be played Sunday at the Paycom Center at 7 p.m. ESPN will be televising the event.