Caitlin Clark, Indiana Pacers
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Indiana Fever's Caitlin Clark embraces the Indiana Pacers' Tyrese Haliburton after a game.
The Indiana Pacers have been the biggest surprise team of the 2025 NBA playoffs. They improved to 9-2 in the postseason with their win over the Knicks in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals on May 21.
Along the way, the Pacers have remarkably overcome four 17-point deficits and three seven-point leads, establishing themselves as the NBA’s new comeback kids.
Indiana Fever Caitlin Clark — who routinely attends Pacers games — had high praise for Tyrese Haliburton and Co. after they pulled off another miraculous comeback.
“PACERS ARE THE GREATEST COMEBACK TEAM IVE EVER SEEN,” wrote the WNBA superstar immediately after the Knicks completed a 138-135 OT victory.
PACERS ARE THE GREATEST COMEBACK TEAM IVE EVER SEEN
— Caitlin Clark (@CaitlinClark22) May 22, 2025
Indiana Pacers On A Cinderella Run
It’s hard to argue with Clark’s assessment.
The Pacers trailed by 14 points with 2:39 left in Game 1 against the Knicks. According to the NBA, teams were 994-0 in that exact scenario until the Pacers pulled off the improbable. Furthermore, they also became the first team in the play-by-play era to erase a nine-point deficit (regulation or OT) in the final minute of a playoff game.
THE INDIANA PACERS, COMEBACK KINGS 👑
🔥 FOUR 17-pt comebacks this playoffs, the MOST by any team in a single postseason since 1998
🔥 THREE 7-pt comebacks in the final minute this playoffs (only 4 such games since 1998)
CAN'T COUNT OUT INDY 😤 https://t.co/IFPhG1EdKu pic.twitter.com/OWExzpBNFH
— NBA (@NBA) May 22, 2025
They similarly erased large deficits in the final minute against the Bucks and Cavaliers in the earlier rounds.
since 1996-97, teams that have trailed by 7+ in the final 50 seconds of the fourth quarter or OT in the playoffs are 4-1,702.
we have 3 of those wins, and they're all this year. pic.twitter.com/AShNS6FAWw
— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) May 22, 2025
Clark has been a staunch supporter of the Pacers since the Fever drafted her No. 1 overall in 2024. She and Haliburton, the faces of the two franchises, have routinely visited each other’s games over the past year or so.
“I’ve grown to be pretty close with Caitlin and (Connor),” Haliburton said in September 2024, via Sports Illustrated.
“Me, her, him and my girlfriend Jade all have a group chat that we talk in pretty often about everything. So it’s been cool to just grow my friendship with her. Everybody just wants to get more from her, take more from her, get more answers to things, and I don’t want to be that. We’re friends… If she wants to talk basketball, we’ll talk basketball, and if not, I’m totally fine with that as well. But I think we’ve built a pretty cool friendship, and it’s been really cool to see her grow this last year.”
No Longer Underdogs?
The Indiana Pacers started the series as the underdogs, but their resounding Game 1 victory has flipped the odds. According to ESPNBet, the Pacers (+500) are the favorites to represent the East in the 2025 NBA Finals, surpassing the Knicks (+750). The Thunder (-230) remain the favorites to win it all.
NBA.com’s John Schuhmann believes if the Pacers reach the NBA Finals, it’ll be more so due to their grit and resiliency than pure talent.
“If the Pacers reach the NBA Finals, it will be because they’ve shot ridiculously well on a small number of possessions,” he wrote. “They’re now 6-0 in playoff games that were within five points in the last five minutes, having scored an amazing 69 points on 43 clutch offensive possessions, a rate of 1.6 points per possession.
“That certainly isn’t sustainable over a heavier sample size, and the Pacers certainly don’t want to be facing any more 17-point deficits in the fourth quarter. But this was the one miracle they needed in this series.”