Tyrese Haliburton still remembers the final possession of that Game 5 overtime the way players remember the kind of shot that changes everything: every detail, every read, every little opening.
And before he drove for the winner that ended Milwaukee’s season, he wanted Giannis Antetokounmpo right in front of him.
Haliburton said Giannis’ five fouls shaped his thinking in the closing moments of the Pacers’ 119-118 win on April 29, 2025, in the first round of the playoffs. Gary Trent Jr. had the assignment at first, but Haliburton told Reggie Miller in a 30-minute video released Thursday that he wanted Antetokounmpo switched onto him instead as Indiana worked toward the shot that sealed a 4-1 series win.
“He had five fouls,” Haliburton said. “In that moment, that's all I'm thinking.
And again, that's a situation of the game is just going the right way. Momentum is everything in basketball.
So I'm like, if I get him out, string him along, and they're giving me the opportunity to iso, just get to what I want to get to.”
He had the lane in mind before the ball even got to the spot he wanted.
“I was thinking he was going to cut me off. I was going to have to step back to my right hand,” Haliburton continued. “I just saw the lane open and just went from there.”
The sequence leading up to the winner was chaotic in the best playoff way. Milwaukee was up 118-111 with 34.6 seconds left in overtime when Andrew Nembhard buried a 3-pointer, then stole Trent’s inbounds pass near the sideline. Haliburton finished a three-point play to make it 118-117, and the NBA’s Last Two Minute Report said the next day that the foul called on AJ Green on that play was incorrect.
Then came another mistake that Indiana punished. Trent fumbled a long pass out of bounds with 10.8 seconds left, and Haliburton took over from the left wing. He set up the drive going left, then exploded right past Antetokounmpo for the layup with 1.3 seconds remaining.
Haliburton also said he saw the floor clearly because Brook Lopez was on the bench and there wasn’t any rim protection waiting behind Antetokounmpo.
“I think he just came here, but there was no rim protection,” Haliburton explained. “Brook wasn't in the game, no bigs. So I have the rim protector out, so he's gonna have to go block it at the rim, if anything, and I put it on the backboard with some time, so if he did block it, there'd be time for other guys to get it.”
He added, “I'm not thinking when I drive, 'Oh, he's about to whop this,' I'm just thinking score. But yeah, that whole run, definitely special. All those moments are something I think about pretty often.”
Indiana got big nights across the board in the win. Nembhard finished with 15 points, Myles Turner had 21 points and nine rebounds, and Aaron Nesmith added 19 points and 12 rebounds. Haliburton scored 26 and improved to 9-0 in home playoff games.
Antetokounmpo put up 30 points, 20 rebounds, and 13 assists. Trent scored 33 and hit eight 3-pointers, including four in overtime. Milwaukee was without Damian Lillard, who tore his left Achilles tendon in Game 4.
Bucks coach Doc Rivers said after the game that his team came out of a timeout with a foul to give and never used it.
The ending also carried a family-sized extra dose of drama. Haliburton celebrated on top of the scorer’s table while his father, John Haliburton, walked onto the court behind him waving a towel with his son’s face on it and confronted Antetokounmpo.
Antetokounmpo later called it disrespectful, and John Haliburton apologized on X within hours. Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said the next morning that John had been contrite and called him a man with a heart of gold.
Miller noted that someone pulled John back while the game was still going. Haliburton said he knows who it was.
“100% was my mom. I had to look.
Had to be my mom,” Haliburton said. “Because he just gets so caught up in the moment.
Which is OK.”
“It’s special. All that stuff was fun for us,” Haliburton noted. “It's just part of it.”
The win knocked Milwaukee out in the first round for the second straight year and gave the Bucks a third straight first-round exit. Haliburton’s own postseason was cut short the following year by a torn right Achilles in the last game of that postseason, which kept him off the floor for all of 2025-26.
He captained a team at the Pacers Foundation Charity Softball Classic in August and said then he could not wait to get back on the floor. Pacers training camp opens Sept. 29, and the regular season starts Oct. 21 at New Orleans.
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