One man's ceiling is another man's floor, just like one team's comeback is another team's collapse. Generally, it is a matter of perspective.
Yet when it happens time and time again in favor of one particular team, it begins to feel like something worthy of praise rather than divvying up multiple shares of blame. The Bucks, the Cavaliers and the Knicks all suffered late defeats to the Indiana Pacers through three rounds of the 2025 playoffs.
For Milwaukee and Cleveland, the setbacks proved to be debilitating. For New York, the impact of its 138-135 overtime loss -- in which the Pacers crawled out of a 14-point hole with less than four minutes left in the fourth quarter Wednesday at Madison Square Garden -- won't be known for a few more days. But folks should get a glimpse Friday night (8 ET, TNT).
The Pacers, the "cardiac crew" of this postseason, have a history of these game switcheroos dating back more than 30 years. Here are their most notable:
Box score | Play-by-play
The scene: In the series opener at Madison Square Garden on May 7, the Knicks led 105-99 with 18.7 seconds remaining.
It started innocently enough: Indiana sharpshooter Reggie Miller hit a 3-pointer from the left wing. Then he wound up with the ball an instant later, intercepting a frantic New York inbounds pass (the home team was out of timeouts and feared the five-second count). Miller retreated to the arc and, from nearly the identical spot, hit another three to tie at 105-105.
New York's John Starks missed two free throws with 13.2 seconds left, and Patrick Ewing, getting his hands on the second, missed from 10 feet. Miller got the rebound, got fouled and hit two free throws to put the Pacers up 107-105. The Knicks never got off a shot in their final possession, guard Greg Anthony stumbling with the ball.
Miller's feat became known in hoops shorthand as "Eight Points, Nine Seconds." Indiana took a 3-1 lead in the series but needed all seven games to advance, only to fall to Orlando in seven in the East Finals.
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The scene: After dropping the first two games, the Pacers fired back at home to win Game 3 and were desperate to even the series. They trailed by eight early in the fourth quarter, then 94-93 with 33 seconds left.
The clock got chewed up by some less-than-artful maneuvers from both sides: A Bulls turnover, a Pacers miss and turnover, then two bricked free throws by Scottie Pippen with four seconds to go.
Out of a timeout, Miller cut past a screen from the baseline to the 3-point line, gave Michael Jordan a solid shove (no whistle) to open space, curled to the right wing and took Derrick McKey's inbounds pass. His shot sparked pandemonium at Market Square Arena, but Chicago had 0.4 seconds left. Jordan's 3-point attempt banged from the glass to the rim, then circled out.
Indiana would push the "Last Dance" edition of the Bulls to seven games before getting ousted. Jordan outgunned Miller 28-22 in the finale, but here was a real quirk: the Pacers missed 14 of their 37 free throws while the Bulls missed 17 of 41.
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The scene: Back when the first round was best-of-five, the Bucks and the Pacers were tied at 2-2 and tied 89-89 with 3:35 left in the clincher.
Less memorable for any lopsided finish or massive hole from which the Pacers dug, this was more about the chaotic end. The game featured 19 ties, but the 13th lead change got etched into folks' heads.
Milwaukee had edged ahead 94-93 when the Pacers used three missed shots, three offensive rebounds and a timeout to gobble up 34 of the final 50 seconds. Finally, guard Travis Best sank a 3-pointer with 16 seconds left. More scramble from there: Ray Allen missed from three feet, Ervin Johnson made only one of two foul shots, Indiana's Jalen Rose clanged two free throws at 2 seconds, and Allen -- so famous 13 years later for a desperation 3-pointer in Miami -- couldn't hit from 31 feet at the horn.
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The scene: Indiana led the East Finals 3-2, playing at Madison Square Garden in search of its first NBA Finals experience.
Only technically a "comeback," if you rewind to the opening seconds of the fourth quarter (Knicks 65-62). From there, Miller scored 17 of his game-high 34 points to eliminate New York in what would be Hall of Famer Ewing's final game with the Knicks.
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The scene: The Pacers had won three of the first four in what looked like a series heading for six games. The Bucks, after all, were up 118-111 with less than 40 seconds left in overtime.
Andrew Nembhard bombed a 3-pointer from out front at 34 seconds, then stole the ball out of a trap from Gary Trent Jr. That set up Haliburton's and-1 layup at 17 seconds that made it 118-117. Unraveling against the Pacers' defensive pressure, the desperate Bucks heaved the ball to an open Trent, only to see it go through his hands and legs out of bounds. Then the inevitable: Haliburton drives around Giannis Antetokounmpo for the game-winning bucket with one second left.
Aaron Nesmith, tuning up for his heroics against the Knicks 15 days later, burst in (early?) to slam back Pascal Siakam's second missed free throw. Donovan Mitchell was called for an offensive foul, setting up a driving layup by Siakam at 27 seconds. After a timeout, Max Strus' side inbounds pass got picked off, but the Cavs seemed fine with a three-point lead when Haliburton went to the line, 12 seconds to go.
Only the Pacers guard missed the second, grabbed the batted-around rebound, retreated to the logo, danced out front vs. Ty Jerome, then launched. His 3-pointer with 1 second left lifted Indiana to its 120-119 victory, a body blow from which Cleveland never recovered, falling in five games.
Box score | Play-by-play
The scene: The Pacers outdid themselves this time. Those two previous comebacks were from seven points down. This time, they trailed by twice that, 116-102, with 3:25 remaining.
Indiana used up 153 of the 205 seconds left, cutting the deficit to nine at 121-112 with 52 seconds to play. The Knicks kept scoring as they got hunted down, just not enough. Nesmith, who hit six 3-pointers in the last five minutes of regulation, sank two free throws to make it 124-123, then OG Anunoby missed one of two for New York.
The final seven seconds of that fourth quarter required Haliburton to make multiple instantaneous decisions. He penetrated the Knicks' defense, only to be confronted by shot blocker Mitchell Robinson. He didn't like his available passing lanes for Myles Turner or Nesmith. So the Pacers guard backed out to 3-point range and fired, one foot touching the line. The back rim, the high bounce and the drop straight down counted for two, not three, sending them all into OT.
The Knicks' last lead came at 135-134 with 35 seconds in the extra session. Nembhard's layup and the second of two dunks by Obi Toppin, a former Knicks first-round pick, were enough when Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns misfired 3s in the final 15 seconds.
Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
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