Thunder collapse late as Haliburton's buzzer-beater lifts Pacers to Game 1 win

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Things were going as expected for the heavily favored Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

They forced the normally efficient Indiana Pacers into 19 turnovers in the first half to lead by 12 at the break. The advantage swelled to 15 early in the fourth quarter, and it looked like the Thunder were off to one of their usual blowout victories.

They fell apart late, then Tyrese Haliburton hit a mid-range dagger in the final second that gave Indiana a 111-110 victory on Thursday night.

“I thought we were pretty good,” Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We had control of the game for the most part of it. It is a 48-minute game. They (Pacers) teach you that lesson more than anyone else in the league, the hard way.”

The homecourt advantage Oklahoma City fought all season to gain vanished in a game it dominated for three quarters. The collapse wasted a 38-point effort by Gilgeous-Alexander, the league MVP. Now, the Thunder will be under pressure heading into Game 2 on Sunday.

“We’ve just got to focus on being better,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “The series isn’t first to one, it’s first to four. We have four more games to get, they have three. That’s just where we are. We've got to understand that and we've got to get to four before they get to three (more) if we want to win the NBA championship.”

After Oklahoma City had Indiana's offense out of sorts in the first half, the Pacers committed just five turnovers in the second.

“I thought they loosened us up a little bit,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “They took better care of the ball. Obviously, I’m sure that was a huge theme for them coming in and at the half.”

This isn't the first time this has happened to the Thunder this postseason. The Thunder lost a game they largely controlled in Game 1 of the second-round series against the Denver Nuggets. Aaron Gordon's 3-pointer gave Denver a 121-119 win.

Oklahoma City responded and won the series 4-3. The Thunder believe they can use that experience to their advantage.

“We lost at the end of the day,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We lost Game 1. We’ve lost Game 1 before. On the other side of that, we came out a better team. That’s our goal. That’s our mentality, to try to learn a lesson from the loss, like we always do, and move forward and be better.”

This wasn't new for Indiana, either. The Pacers have made a habit of rallying late to win games this postseason, most notably in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals against the New York Knicks.

“The common denominator is them,” Daigneault said. “That’s a really good team. Credit them for not only tonight but their run. They’ve had so many games like that that have seemed improbable. They just play with a great spirit, they keep coming, they made plays, made shots. They deserved to win by a point.”

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

CORRECTS TO GAME WINNING BASKET, NOT 3-PT BASKET - Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton (0) shoots the game winning basket over Oklahoma City Thunder guard Cason Wallace (22) in the closing second of the second half of Game 1 of the NBA Finals basketball series Thursday, June 5, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

CORRECTS TO GAME WINNING BASKET, NOT 3-PT BASKET - Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton (0) shoots the game winning basket over Oklahoma City Thunder guard Cason Wallace (22) in the closing second of the second half of Game 1 of the NBA Finals basketball series Thursday, June 5, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)

Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton (0) shoots a 3-pointer against Oklahoma City Thunder guard Cason Wallace (22) during the second half of Game 1 of the NBA Finals basketball series Thursday, June 5, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)

Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton (0) shoots a 3-pointer against Oklahoma City Thunder guard Cason Wallace (22) during the second half of Game 1 of the NBA Finals basketball series Thursday, June 5, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

VATICAN CITY (AP) — In his most substantial critique of U.S., Russian and other military incursions in sovereign countries, Pope Leo XIV on Friday denounced how nations were using force to assert their dominion worldwide, “completely undermining” peace and the post-World War II international legal order.

“War is back in vogue and a zeal for war is spreading,” Leo told ambassadors from around the world who represent their countries’ interests at the Holy See.

Leo didn’t name individual countries that have resorted to force in his lengthy speech, the bulk of which he delivered in English in a break from the Vatican’s traditional diplomatic protocol of Italian and French. But his speech came amid the backdrop of the recent U.S. military operation in Venezuela to remove Nicolás Maduro from power, Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine and other conflicts.

The occasion was the pope’s annual audience with the Vatican diplomatic corps, which traditionally amounts to his yearly foreign policy address.

In his first such encounter, history’s first U.S.-born pope delivered much more than the traditional roundup of global hotspots. In a speech that touched on threats to religious freedom and the Catholic Church’s opposition to abortion and surrogacy, Leo lamented how the United Nations and multilateralism as a whole were increasingly under threat.

“A diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force, by either individuals or groups of allies,” he said. “The principle established after the Second World War, which prohibited nations from using force to violate the borders of others, has been completely undermined.”

“Instead, peace is sought through weapons as a condition for asserting one’s own dominion. This gravely threatens the rule of law, which is the foundation of all peaceful civil coexistence,” he said.

Leo did refer explicitly to tensions in Venezuela, calling for a peaceful political solution that keeps in mind the “common good of the peoples and not the defense of partisan interests.”

The U.S. military seized Maduro, the Venezuelan leader, in a surprise nighttime raid. The Trump administration is now seeking to control Venezuela’s oil resources and its government. The U.S. government has insisted Maduro's capture was legal, saying drug cartels operating from Venezuela amounted to unlawful combatants and that the U.S. is now in an “armed conflict” with them.

Analysts and some world leaders have condemned the Venezuela mission, warning that Maduro’s ouster could pave the way for more military interventions and a further erosion of the global legal order.

On Ukraine, Leo repeated his appeal for an immediate ceasefire and urgently called for the international community “not to waver in its commitment to pursuing just and lasting solutions that will protect the most vulnerable and restore hope to the afflicted peoples.”

On Gaza, Leo repeated the Holy See’s call for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and insisted on the Palestinians’ right to live in Gaza and the West Bank “in their own land.”

In other comments, Leo said the persecution of Christians around the world was “one of the most widespread human rights crises today,” affecting one in seven Christians globally. He cited religiously motivated violence in Bangladesh, Nigeria, the Sahel, Mozambique and Syria but said religious discrimination was also present in Europe and the Americas.

There, Christians “are sometimes restricted in their ability to proclaim the truths of the Gospel for political or ideological reasons, especially when they defend the dignity of the weakest, the unborn, refugees and migrants, or promote the family.”

Leo repeated the church’s opposition to abortion and euthanasia and expressed “deep concern” about projects to provide cross-border access to mothers seeking abortion.

He also described surrogacy as a threat to life and dignity. “By transforming gestation into a negotiable service, this violates the dignity both of the child, who is reduced to a product, and of the mother, exploiting her body and the generative process, and distorting the original relational calling of the family,” he said.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Pope Leo XIV holds his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Leo XIV holds his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Leo XIV holds his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)