The word “unbelievable” is overused in sports.
But what the Indiana Pacers are doing is truly unbelievable.
They’ve staged four of the most epic playoff comebacks ever, all in one postseason. The latest, from 15 down in the fourth quarter to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night, was epic just by itself.
The Pacers never led the NBA Finals Game 1 until there were 0.3 seconds remaining following what turned out to be the game-winning shot from Tyrese Haliburton.
MORE: Tyrese Haliburton stuns NBA with epic game-winning shot
Before this, Indiana had already overcome opponent win probabilities of 99.3% (Game 5 vs. Bucks), 97.9% (Game 2 vs. Cavs) and 99.7% (Game 1 vs. Knicks). OKC’s peak win probability, per ESPN, was 97.0% in Game 1 of the Finals.
When you do the math, it works out to about a 1-in-75-million chance of completing all those comebacks. Somehow, Indiana has done it all in the span of about a month.
The odds of getting struck by lightning twice in a lifetime are 1-in-9-million.
They actually staged a fifth 15-point comeback, but that didn’t happen in the fourth quarter. Still, that’d make the odds even slimmer.
Pacers have their 5th comeback win from 15+ points down this postseason, passing the 2004 Mavericks for most comebacks from down 15+ in play by play era (since start of 1997 playoffs)
— Josh Dubow (@JoshDubowAP) June 6, 2025
The Pacers are somehow 5-3 this postseason when they fall behind by 15 points in a game.
Their magic prompted Haliburton to quote Yogi Berra in his walk-off interview with ABC on Thursday: “It ain’t over ’till it’s over.”
That’s never been more true than with this Indiana Pacers team.
