CLEVELAND -- The Indiana Pacers trusted guard Tyrese Haliburton with the ball in his hands and the game on the line again and were rewarded with another improbable win in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Haliburton hit a winning 3-pointer with 1.1 seconds left Tuesday night, rebounding his own missed free throw before stepping out beyond the arc and delivering a jumper that stunned the top-seeded and short-handed Cleveland Cavaliers.
"I'm at peace," Haliburton said after the Pacers' 120-119 victory. "I'm at peace with my game. Understanding that I'm trusted in these moments. I have all the confidence in the world to make these shots."
The Pacers return to Indiana with a 2-0 series lead after Haliburton's efforts, which helped complete a comeback in a game the Pacers trailed by 20 points in the first half and by seven points in the final 50 seconds.
Since 1997-98, playoff teams have won only three of 1,643 games when trailing by at least seven points in the final minute of the fourth quarter or overtime, according to ESPN research.
The Pacers have accounted for two of the wins in this postseason.
"We just have a resilient group, man," said Haliburton, who finished with 19 points and four assists. "We just figure out ways to win. We don't give up. We're battle-tested as a group. We've basically been together for about two years now and that continuity has been really good for us."
Tuesday's comeback mirrored another furious Pacers charge from last week. In a first-round series, the Pacers rallied from down seven in the last 40 seconds of overtime to beat the Milwaukee Bucks in a clinching Game 5. Haliburton sealed that victory with a winning layup in the final seconds. He's only the second player in the play-by-play era (since 1997-98) with multiple go-ahead field goals in the final two seconds in a single postseason, joining LeBron James in 2018, according to ESPN Research.
"You don't see this very often, let alone twice in one week," Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. "Tyrese, he came through again. We're very fortunate."
Indiana not only outscored Cleveland 8-0 in the final 50 seconds of Game 2, the Cavs did not attempt a field goal in that span, turning the ball over twice and giving up two offensive rebounds to the Pacers.
Haliburton collected his own missed free throw with 12.1 seconds left before dribbling the ball beyond the 3-point line and hitting a jumper over Cavs guard Ty Jerome. Haliburton scored 11 of his 19 points in the final period. After his winning shot, Haliburton skipped toward midcourt with his hands below his waistline, a celebration that paid homage to former former NBA guard Sam Cassell and the movie "Major League II." But it also has been deemed an obscene gesture by the NBA in the past; Haliburton said he was more than willing to accept a fine.
"He enjoys the moments," Pacers center Myles Turner said. "He wants the ball in his hands. There's a lot of guys I've seen, even guys I've played with, that doesn't necessarily want to take that shot or doesn't necessarily want to be in the mix right there, but he relishes in those moments.
"It's just a testament as to his work ethic, his mental toughness, his mentality. Quite frankly -- that boy cold, man."
The Pacers' comeback spoiled a brilliant performance by Cavs star Donovan Mitchell, who scored 48 points with nine assists, and nearly carried a depleted team to a win while it played without three of its key rotation players, including two starters.
Evan Mobley, who earned Defensive Player of the Year last month, sat out Tuesday because of an ankle injury sustained in the fourth quarter of Game 1. Mobley was walking with a limp in between Games 1 and 2. De'Andre Hunter, the Cavs' major trade deadline acquisition, also was injured in Game 1 when he dislocated his thumb on a dunk attempt in the fourth quarter. Guard Darius Garland sat out his fourth straight playoff game because of a toe injury.
After winning 64 games during the regular season, the Cavs are the first 60-win team to face a 2-0 deficit before the NBA Finals since the 2017 Spurs in the 2017 Western Conference finals.
"We can sit here and dwell on this and be home in about four or five days or we can move on," Mitchell said. "And take some things that we did really well and go from there. I have no doubt everybody in the locker room is ready for Friday. It sucks. It stings. But we got to go out there and take care of business, but I believe in everybody in that locker room. We believe in each other. We'll figure it out."
Haliburton had been taunted by the Cleveland crowd as he stepped to the free throw line earlier in the fourth quarter.
The arena roared with chants of "overrated," a reference to a recent anonymous player poll that named Haliburton as the league's most overrated star. The Pacers guard says he feeds off that energy and on Tuesday night he seemed to relish the opportunity to have the last laugh.
"I didn't know we had beef," Haliburton said with a laugh of the Cleveland crowd. "That came out of nowhere, but now that label is there, that's going to be, every time we play on the road. It'll probably follow me until the next poll comes out and then we'll see if I'm number one again."