Pacers' Clutch Victory: 8 Unforgettable Quotes

The Indiana Pacers are moving on in the playoffs, beating the Milwaukee Bucks in overtime, 119-118, to win the series 4-1. They were down by seven points with 40 seconds remaining in overtime but came all the way back to win on Tyrese Haliburton’s game-winning layup with just 1.1 seconds remaining.

Rick Carlisle had this to say about Haliburton's game-winner: “When it comes to belief in himself, Tyrese has an iron will. He works extremely hard on what he does. He works extremely hard on his craft, his skill. He’s unafraid. He reminds me a lot of Reggie (Miller). This game will go down as one of the all-time great Pacer wins because of the circumstances in overtime and what was on the line, and Ty obviously authored a big part of this ending.”

Tyrese Haliburton said after the win: “After we won, I kind of blacked out a little bit. I don’t really remember a ton. Then all the guys grabbed me on my head.”

Haliburton also talked about Reggie Miller comparisons: “Anything that I do, especially in the clutch, here consistently is going to get brought in the same conversation as Reggie. When I hit the shot against the Bucks in the regular season, he’s had a lot of moments here and I’m trying to write my own story. I think Reggie made a lot of plays for a lot of you guys when you were younger and a lot of people when they were younger to see, and a reason why he’s such a legend here, the greatest player in our franchise history. I think he’s laid the groundwork and I’m just trying to get to that level and think that I’m relied on to make plays down the stretch and I’m just trying to do that to the best of my ability. Just trying to create moments of my own that we can talk about one day. Any time I’m mentioned in the same breath as that guy it’s an honor, because I have a lot of love and respect, and a great relationship with Reggie.”

Carlisle also shared his message to the team when they went down 13-0: ““(Expletive) hit somebody. I mean really, I mean, that’s what it was. Apologies to the league, and I take that back. This is one of those things where when a team is completely desperate, this is what happens…. To regain leverage, we had to do a reset. We had to do a mental reset. We had to do a physical reset, and we had to sit down and figure out a way to stop them.”

Myles Turner talked about his mentality when the Pacers were down seven with 40 seconds left: “I won’t say who, but a couple of their (Bucks) players were talking a little crazy, ‘We’re a championship team. We’ve been here before. Y’all thought you were going to beat us, this and that.’ That’s verbatim what was said. And we just ignored it. We kept our heads down and we kept working.”

Turner also reflected on the comeback win: “I’m still trying to process it. That was one of the craziest games I’ve personally been a part of. We never stopped believing. I think this group, you’ve seen what we’ve pulled off the past two, three weeks of the season. I think that was perfect, because that was a perfect precursor to what the playoffs are.”

Carlisle also discussed the Pacers-Bucks rivalry: “There’s a lot of talk about rivalry and those kinds of things. From my perspective and our perspective, nothing but respect for the Bucks. What they threw at us to begin the game, and really throughout the game, was the thing that champions do. They come out and they throw everything, their heart and soul into it.”

Aaron Nesmith praised the Pacers’ depth: “We’ve been preaching that for as long as I’ve been here. We are 15 deep. We are so talented from 1-15. Everyone contributes differently, everybody kind of knows their role and what we need to do in order to win, and I think there’s no other team in the league that plays how we play.”

The Pacers will play the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Game 1 of the series will be on Sunday, May 4. The tipoff time has not been announced yet.