Stephen A. says ‘Haliburton is one of the most CLUTCH players of the postseason era’ 👀 | First Take

Stephen A. says ‘Haliburton is one of the most CLUTCH players of the postseason era’ 👀 | First Take

after what we witnessed last night how do you view Hallebertton a closer um I think one of the most clutch players we’ve seen in the postseason era i mean it’s been spectacular to watch i’m not going to lie he c he was getting thoroughly outplayed for more than three and a half quarters he appeared to be a no-show we were looking at him wondering what the hell was going on and then this brother showed up when it really really counted that game went shot with.3 seconds left you can’t say enough about the clutch jeans that he has the ice in his veins the ability to perform under pressure he deserves all the credit in the world for that there’s a lot more to get into as it pertains to this outcome of this game but I’m not taking anything away from the brother we’ve had a conversation i can’t stand the fact that we had a conversation about superstar not superstar because one of the things that I emphasized repeatedly regardless of the fact that I disagree with the superstar status he is a young rising star in this game this is not a scrub this is not somebody that’s overrated this is not somebody that’s discrediting the game with his talent and his gifts this brother can play he can play and you certainly want the ball in his hands with money on the line because he has shown you time and time again that he can deliver guys we’re looking at a situation in the postseason in the last 15 minutes okay his last 15 seconds I’m sorry with their game on the line to tie the score or take a lead in regulation or overtime in a postseason hallebertton is five for five okay four for four these players over the last four games four for five for five overall yo y’all the rest of the league is four of 26 in this postseason he’s five for five he is the number one clutch player this postseason nobody on earth thought that we’d be able to say that about him but we’ve had we’ve had to say about him can’t do anything but stand down and give love to the brother because that was a special moment right there and it was a special performance by Indiana in the last nine minutes of the game which we’ll get into later we certainly have a series Marcus definitely was and I say what’s going on man i I was looking forward to your intro what’s up boys you know you get us going i was looking forward to the intro i’m kind of mad that you wasn’t on there earlier two things I got a little technical difficulty but I’m here for you baby i’m here for you i’m here for you and by the way I like your wardrobe it looks smooth it looks cool but I don’t know about the I don’t know about the the the the the sneakers we going to talk about that later but go ahead i saw the sneakers on Get Up early this morning but we’ll talk about that later yeah we’re going to talk about wardrobe later cuz I got a few things to say to you too go ahead two things why I just don’t understand is you still haven’t used that word superstar when we talking about Holly Burton like I I I’m still confused at why you’re not giving him that nudge secondly yes this team is not predicated on him scoring 30 points like he doesn’t have to score 30 points to have a good game he had 10 rebounds he was controlling the game he made sure in the second half that they didn’t turn the ball over uh the first half it was 20 turnovers to the second half he he calmed the team down he got them poised he even took a step back and let other guys be able to take part in that game and that’s why I take my hat off to him because he understands the game it’s not all about scoring was about controls about paces about giving your teammates confidence and that’s what I love about him and at the end of the game we knew who the who the ball was going to be in what player hands right he came right to the ball paceful got to his spot and was able to raise mr make win or lose the Pacers did a really good job of exploiting certain opportunities that we haven’t seen other teams exploit in this playoffs if we go back to the last series when we talked about Minnesota Minnesota had two players on that court that were kind of Achilles Hill right mike Connley is a really good player but they was forcing people to to go at him right so he played him off the court then you talk about Rudy Goar rudy Goar doesn’t score the ball he doesn’t shoot the ball he bar he barely posts up now you go to a team like Indiana where every player on the team can do something every big on the team can shoot the ball it pose problems they move they cut they screen right like it it it it gets players a little bit thrown off because we’re so used to seeing OKC load to the ball and be in the passing lane so my thing was I wanted to see how that Indiana will be able to exploit that defense and quite frankly I still think that they have they going to win the series keith yeah like you said it isn’t it is extremely hard to guard a team that every single player that played the minute scored a point every single player that played in that game except for Ben Ben Matan hit a three-pointer it is it is it is it is impossible to guard a team like that and Holler let’s check his stats he was a plus 13 yesterday and he’s not your typical superstar because Marcus said you know Stephen A you you called him a clutch player he wasn’t getting played off the court he just was filling the game out let’s let’s take it back this is a game one same way they did against the Knicks down 15 in the fourth quarter he did the exact same thing a superstar player normally what you want to see is a guy shooting 30 shots scoring 30 points the the SGA type of guy but this guy’s a superstar player that does everything he had 10 rebounds six assists plus 13 on the court so every time he was when he was in the in the game they were winning those games other than being in the first in the first half when they had 20 20 turnovers he brung the team together and they was able to do the exact same thing they did the Knicks in that series was win a win a game being down 15 late in the game that’s Well well listen here’s the deal y’all let me try to explain i’m going try to explain this one more time because I mean the twins and you ain’t listening to me enough okay here’s the deal fellas all right Hallebert you got five for five in the last 15 seconds i’m This is what they say here four for four I’m sorry five for five on shots within the final 15 seconds of regulation or overtime this postseason with the chance to tie the game or take the lead while the rest of the NBA is four of 26 on such shots this postseason all right shots this postseason within the last five seconds of regulation or overtime with the chance to tie the game or take the lead hallebertton is four for four the rest of the league is three for 16 we know what he is doing we know what he’s doing in clutch moments i’m saying to y’all I watched the entire 48 minutes i’m certainly not implying that y’all don’t but I’m just saying that when I when I judge and I think about a superstar I’m thinking about the number one option on a night in night out basis is having to carry a certain load that others are not norm don’t normally carry when you think about a KD when you think about a LeBron when you think about a Steph Curry the obligations that fall on their shoulders and the night in night out level of production that they they that they exhibit comes into play hey take me through it as a player as a team when you’re down in that kind of moment with the stakes this high to still believe and still get the job done i mean I mean in the playoffs on the road is nearly impossible so they’re defeating the odds anyway but they’ve done it in the garden in the Mecca they’ve done it on a bigger stage i mean OKC don’t get me wrong they have a lot of fans they have a hard place to play at home but in the garden they’ve done this already over and over and over in the homes they’ve done this thing nothing new to them i I’ll do y’all a favor i’ll do y’all a favor i’ll give Hallebertton some love on this on this level just to remind everybody why this conversation is valid when it comes to him this postseason alone he sent home Giannis and the Takmpo he sent home Donovan Mitchell he sent home Jaylen Brunson and Carl Anthony Towns and last night even though Shea Butter was that dude he closed against Shea Butter and they up 1 in this series and all of us are incredibly thankful for from a television perspective covering the NBA Finals the the odds stacked so heavily against Indiana that you were praying that OKC didn’t win game one by convincing fasting because you knew the audience would just lose all hope that this was going to be a series and because of what Hallebertton did because of what Indiana did we now have ourselves a series we look at Indiana and we think beyond Marcus and we know they can win this series so is that your answer to the question that Hallebertton’s the the biggest reason for the Pacers comeback no that wasn’t my biggest reason for their comeback last night well that was the question that’s what Well they was asking me about the superstars so I was just giving them some love that’s all that’s all mine no no no okay you want to answer that question though what would you say is the biggest reason for their comeback well listen listen the the biggest reason the biggest reason for their comeback first of all they stopped turning the damn ball over how about that let’s start there 19 turnovers in the first half they looked like an AA squad i couldn’t believe it i was like I mean it was scary how bad they looked in the first half where they weren’t getting any shots indiana ended up shooting the basketball 16 times less than Oklahoma City but when you look at what transpired it was a collective effort i brought up Turner i brought up N Smith i brought Nemhard especially i thought he was a key in their comeback he made some big shots and he was doing it off the dribble creating on his own it wasn’t just being set up by Hallebertton and I got to give OB Toppin some love because this brother dropped five threes i mean he was keeping them in the game every time that OKC was making a run and looking like they were about to blow him out of the building Obie Toppin would answer with a three mentioned when DJ McConnell came into the game in the first half he hit a couple of threes you talk about a total team effort the biggest reason for me if I had to pick one person it would be Rick Carlile because Rick Carile the coaching as they were as they were as OKC was running away they were like “Calm down just protect the basketball be poor.” He had a timeout where he’s reminding them “Yo you can’t throw bounce passes to a sevenfooter at his feet you can’t throw passes in traffic against these cats you got to go about the business of protecting the basketball.” when we played them earlier this year we only had 11 turnovers in one game this is what y’all got to remember so he was reminding them of that right but then we also got to give Rick Carlau credit because again as I pointed out 15 different players I’m sorry 11 different players playing 15 minutes or more per game this regular season for the Indiana Pacers we got to look at that because that’s why you had the confidence to throw them out there in game one of the NBA finals the way that you did you got Cats coming off the bench matan didn’t do much offensively last night but this is the same Matin that had 20 points on 12 shots against the New York Knicks if I remember correctly whether it was a game five or seven I’m say I’m sorry game five or six i’m That’s what happens you got these guys that you wouldn’t expect much from but you can expect them from Indiana because they were prepared for this moment by a champion that is coach Rick Cara marcus where are you on this reason for the comeback i gotta agree with it but I’m going just point out one player that I felt as though like was the catalyst for the comeback and that’s Aaron Nimhard like Nimhard like like he just got so much confidence towards the end of the game and he did the step back three-pointer where he like we don’t normally see that from him right and the the part about I keep going back to the Hallebert is Hallebert gave him the floor go ahead young fella if you if you got it and you feel like you can do it go ahead he got an and one layup against Caruso that was big to kind of start it right and his defense against Shay down the stretch me and you both pointed out this when we was watching the game nimhar bumped Shay shay bumped him back right and he took it like upon himself to walk around the entire floor but make sure he got his lick back and mentally it might not seem like much but we’ve been talking about how we haven’t seen that yet against the Thunder no one’s pushing him no one’s going at him and them Har is from Canada so this is his brother they played on the Canadian team together and he might know a little bit couple things that that can get under his skin he took 30 shots he took he took the last possession where he was like “No I’m going to guard him straight up took him to a tough pull up and they gave him an opportunity to get Holland break that shot.” But I think Nimhard was the catalyst in that fourth quarter to get that lead to go where it got to hell yeah hell yeah we did our job come on let’s get Come on man you know we get greedy man yeah man come on we got so much to work on we We ain’t even play well so much to work on come on i love that Pascal said we didn’t even play well like you just see how confident they are stephen A with that being said do you feel like the Pacers are in control of this series now that they took game one i wouldn’t say in control i wouldn’t say in control you still got game two we’ve seen Oklahoma City respond after a loss against Denver against Minnesota we know what they’re capable of but the bottom line is they made this a series they put the world on notice that they can beat the Oklahoma City Thunder that in order for the Oklahoma City Thunder to win this series and capture a championship for the first time in Sam Prey’s career since he’s been here as the executive since 2007 and still hasn’t had a damn championship yet if they’re going to win their first championship with this man guess what they’re going to have to take it from the Indiana bases because Indiana’s not going to give it to you they may have made mistakes but to commit 24 turnovers of the game to commit 19 in the first half you know what you show you you show something about your character when you commit 19 turnovers in the first game you look like you’re scared to handle the ball you look Allen Burton admitted he was jittery they looked like deer in headlights some of them and yet the last 18 minutes of the game they committed a grand total of three turnovers that’s impressive especially against this defense i’m not going to tell you that the Pacers are in control of this series i’m going to say that they put Oklahoma City on high alert and oh by the way one of my colleagues just pointed this out to me my man Vince and he was absolutely right you know when you think about Dagno what the hell are you doing changing your lineup before the finals even begins why would you let Rick Carl of them coax you into changing your formula you won 68 games this year you’ve been in the playoffs you like 80 and 18 this year and before a game is played in the NBA finals you going to go out there and change your starting lineup because the Indiana Pacers and Rick Carlile are coming into the time i mean that’s getting mind screwed right there and I think that that was a worthy point that my man not you know reminded me to bring up because that’s a problem with OKC they should not have done that i I actually spoke on that earlier like that that really doesn’t make like a lot of sense to me like you you you don’t even see how the game is being played you know that’s a game two adjustment game three adjustment if you need to take the change of lineup to match how they playing but like we said in the NBA world Indiana did their job they won a game in OKC that we didn’t think they were going to win now they control homecourt advantage i mean obviously for them home court advantage hasn’t been the big thing for them in the play because they’ve been good on the road but now they’ve done their job they got one in OKC now they can control an advantage now they might be able to pull a number two if they could pull a second one off man we we man we be looking at it’s going to be tough for OKC to come back and win this one i got two points that you know why I say they are in control 20 turnovers in the first half and you only up 11 like that’s unprecedented from from OKC when when they turn people over they blow them out like like blow them out to where it’s not a game stay in this game they stayed in this game right that’s number one and number two small ball will not work in this series is you actually going to play in Indiana’s hand because you went small ball and P and Seakum was able to get an offensive rebound down the stretch because these dudes are playing physical so small ball is out if I if I’m looking at OKC and now it’s going to be interesting to see how they actually be able to adjust on that like now can can Harkinstein play on the stay on the court can Ch stay on the court he’s your third best player can he play in this series because they will put him through the trenches they will screen him every play and it’s going to be difficult for him to actually catch up so it’d be interesting to see but if you had to ask me I would say the Pacers are definitely in control of this right now final word well the reason why I say no because let’s say for example OKC wins game two right Marcus they win game two then you’re the Indiana Pacers the priority shifts to you having to protect your home court and it’s a question mark coming into there because you lost game two that’s all I mean by that it’s almost at times I feel like if you’re the road team you’re almost better of course you get one any way you can get it but you’re almost better off winning game two as opposed to game one because you lose game one you win game two and then you go back to your house with a win instead of an L there’s some there’s a little extra momentum that you have in your favor because you won that game two if OKC comes back and handles their business in game two and they make sure they secure that victory particularly in convincing fashion then all of a sudden we get back here and we say “All right Indiana it’s not just game three but it’s game four can you handle your business on your home court or these brothers going to take from you a reclaim home field and home court advantage?” That’s the only reason why I say they’re not in control yet the word the operative word there is control i wouldn’t say control they’ve got momentum they’ve made this a series they’ve got all of us recognizing they can win this series but control nah not if you lose game two you don’t have control feel like they’re in control you heard them you heard them we didn’t even

On First Take, Stephen A. Smith, Marcus Morris Sr. and Markieff Morris join Molly Qerim to react to the Indiana Pacers Game 1 win vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2025 NBA Finals.

0:00 How do you view Haliburton after another game-winner?
6:41 What was the biggest reason for the Pacers comeback?
12:27 Are the Pacers in control of the series now?

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