The Indiana Pacers dropped Game 5 of the 2025 NBA Finals 120-109 to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Coming into the game, the series was tied 2-2, with the winner laying claim to the series advantage.
Games of this magnitude are normally dominated by stars. The game featured a few standout performances, such as 40 points from Thunder forward Jalen Williams, a 31-point double-double from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and a 28-point, six-rebound, five-assist, three-steal, and two-block stat-stuffing game from Pascal Siakam.
Unfortunately for the Pacers, they were unable to rely on their star guard Tyrese Haliburton. Haliburton has been on a generational run in this year's playoffs in terms of clutch and big game performances, but put up, to put it bluntly, a stinker in Game 5.
Haliburton dealt with a lower-body injury he sustained early in the contest, but still played 34 minutes. In those 34 minutes, Haliburton failed to record a field goal, missing all six of his shots from the floor and all four from behind the three-point arc. Haliburton finished the game with four points, seven rebounds, six assists, three turnovers, and three fouls.
While Haliburton had good assist and rebound numbers, it's nearly impossible to win games in the playoffs if your star can't score. Haliburton's Game 5 was just the seventh instance in NBA Finals history, and the second of the 21st century, in which a guard missed all of his shots from the field (with a minimum of six attempts) while playing 30 or more minutes.
The last time a guard posted an O-fer in a finals game meeting the above criteria was Ray Allen in 2010 in Game 3 against the Los Angeles Lakers. Allen went 0-for-13 from the field, scoring all two of his points from the free throw line. The Boston Celtics lost that game 91-84.
The last time a point guard hit those marks in an NBA Finals game was in 1978, when Dennis Johnson's 0-for-14 performance sunk the Seattle Supersonics in a decisive Game 7 loss to the Washington Bullets. Johnson finished with four points, four rebounds, two assists, one steal, three blocks, three turnovers, and four fouls.
Simply put: Haliburton's Game 5 disaster class was a historically bad performance for a lead guard. Coming into Game 5, Haliburton was averaging 17.8 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 7.5 assists per game in the Finals. Overall in the playoffs, Haliburton has averaged 18.6 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 9.3 assists per game.
The Pacers need Haliburton to return to the form we've seen him play throughout the entire playoffs. Another performance of this caliber will likely sink the Pacers' chances at their first NBA Championship in franchise history. The Pacers won three titles in four years in the 1970s as members of the ABA, but this is as close as the Pacers have come since the merger.