OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Welcome to the Comeback Playoffs, led by the Indiana Pacers.
Indiana's rally from 15 points down in Game 1 of the NBA Finals was the 10th such comeback — from 15 or more — in this season's playoffs. The Pacers and Tyrese Haliburton are responsible for five of those comebacks; the rest of the league, combined, have the other five.
Since the NBA began keeping track of such things in 1997, there has never been a postseason with more 15-point comebacks or more by a single team than the Pacers have pulled off this spring.
Dallas had four comebacks from 15 points or more in the 2003 playoffs, and as a whole, the league saw nine of these games in the 2021 playoffs.
But never five by one team, or 10 in one postseason since these things began getting charted — until now.
A breakdown of the moments:
Indiana — which looked doomed by turnovers all night — trailed by 15 points with just under 10 minutes to go in the fourth quarter and took its only lead of the game on a jumper by Tyrese Haliburton with 0.3 seconds remaining to steal Game 1 of the finals over the Thunder. Final score: Indiana 111, Oklahoma City 110.
This time, the Pacers had it happen to them. Indiana led by 20 points with 3:20 left in the second quarter, only to get outscored 71-45 the rest of the way. Jalen Brunson’s jumper with 1:17 left put New York up for good and the Knicks prevailed, 106-100.
This game felt very over, especially when Karl-Anthony Towns made a 3-pointer for a 17-point New York lead with 6:26 left. Ha. The Pacers were still down 14 with 2:40 remaining, went on an incredible 20-6 run to tie the game — Haliburton’s jumper hit the back of the rim, went about 17 feet in the air, and bounced in to force overtime — and the Pacers won 138-135.
Indiana closed out the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 5 of this series, rallying from a 19-point hole that had been dug early in the second quarter. The Pacers got within four by halftime, took the lead midway through the third and kept it the rest of the way in what became a 114-105 win.
This game on May 7 marked the third consecutive day that a road team in the East semifinals erased what was exactly a 20-point deficit. Boston led 73-53 late in the third quarter, and New York outscored the Celtics 38-17 in the final 14 minutes. Brunson gave the Knicks their last lead on two free throws with 12.7 seconds left and New York escaped, 91-90.
Max Strus’ dunk with 6:51 left in the third quarter put Cleveland up 81-61. and the Cavaliers kept their double-digit lead into the fourth quarter. Cleveland was up 119-112 with 48 seconds left; Indiana scored the final eight points and Haliburton’s 3-pointer with 1.1 seconds remaining sealed a 120-119 stunner of a win.
Again, Boston led by 20 midway through the third quarter. The Knicks were undeterred. Brunson’s 3-pointer with 4:07 left put New York on top, the start of what became a back-and-forth finish until OG Anunoby’s dunk with 3:25 left in overtime put the Knicks up for good. Final score: Knicks 108, Celtics 105.
Milwaukee, playing to keep its season alive and without injured guard Damian Lillard (torn Achilles), roared out to a 33-13 lead early in the second quarter. Indiana kept chipping away, and a great back-and-forth battle after halftime was sealed when Haliburton made a layup with 1.4 seconds left for a 119-118 series-clinching win.
The biggest comeback of these playoffs still belongs to Oklahoma City, which was down 69-40 in Memphis in Game 3 of those teams’ Western Conference first-round series. But Ja Morant got hurt and left the game, and without their guard the Grizzlies couldn’t hold the lead. Oklahoma City outscored Memphis by 35 in the game’s final 27 minutes to win 114-108.
Little did we know that this game on Day 1 of the playoffs, April 19, was a harbinger of what awaited the rest of the way. Denver trailed the Los Angeles Clippers 51-36 midway through the second quarter, but recovered for a 112-110 win behind 29 points from Nikola Jokic.
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba
Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton (0) and teammates celebrate as they leave the court after winning Game 1 of the NBA Finals basketball series against the Oklahoma City Thunder Thursday, June 5, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton celebrates with forward Aaron Nesmith (23) after making a 3-pointer during the second half of Game 1 of the NBA Finals basketball series against the Oklahoma City Thunder Thursday, June 5, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
JERUSALEM (AP) — Over two dozen families from one of the few remaining Palestinian Bedouin villages in the central West Bank have packed up and fled their homes in recent days, saying harassment by Jewish settlers living in unauthorized outposts nearby has grown unbearable.
The village, Ras Ein el-Auja, was originally home to some 700 people from more than 100 families that have lived there for decades.
Twenty-six families already left on Thursday, scattering across the territory in search of safer ground, say rights groups. Several other families were packing up and leaving on Sunday.
“We have been suffering greatly from the settlers. Every day, they come on foot, or on tractors, or on horseback with their sheep into our homes. They enter people’s homes daily,” said Nayef Zayed, a resident, as neighbors took down sheep pens and tin structures.
Israel's military and the local settler governing body in the area did not respond to requests for comment.
Other residents pledged to stay put for the time being. That makes them some of the last Palestinians left in the area, said Sarit Michaeli, international director at B’Tselem, an Israeli rights group helping the residents.
She said that mounting settler violence has already emptied neighboring Palestinian hamlets in the dusty corridor of land stretching from Ramallah in the West to Jericho, along the Jordanian border, in the east.
The area is part of the 60% of the West Bank that has remained under full Israeli control under interim peace accords signed in the 1990s. Since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted in October 2023, over 2,000 Palestinians — at least 44 entire communities — have been expelled by settler violence in the area, B'Tselem says.
The turning point for the village came in December, when settlers put up an outpost about 50 meters (yards) from Palestinian homes on the northwestern flank of the village, said Michaeli and Sam Stein, an activist who has been living in the village for a month.
Settlers strolled easily through the village at night. Sheep and laundry went missing. International activists had to begin escorting children to school to keep them safe.
“The settlers attack us day and night, they have displaced us, they harass us in every way” said Eyad Isaac, another resident. “They intimidate the children and women.”
Michaeli said she’s witnessed settlers walk around the village at night, going into homes to film women and children and tampering with the village’s electricity.
The residents said they call the police frequently to ask for help — but it seldom arrives. Settlement expansion has been promoted by successive Israeli governments over nearly six decades. But Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government, which has placed settler leaders in senior positions, has made it a top priority.
That growth has been accompanied by a spike in settler violence, much of it carried out by residents of unauthorized outposts. These outposts often begin with small farms or shepherding that are used to seize land, say Palestinians and anti-settlement activists. United Nations officials warn the trend is changing the map of the West Bank, entrenching Israeli presence in the area.
Some 500,000 Israelis have settled in the West Bank since Israel captured the territory, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. Their presence is viewed by most of the international community as illegal and a major obstacle to peace. The Palestinians seek all three areas for a future state.
For now, displaced families of the village have dispersed between other villages near the city of Jericho and near Hebron further south, said residents. Some sold their sheep and are trying to move into the cities.
Others are just dismantling their structures without knowing where to go.
"Where will we go? There’s nowhere. We’re scattered,” said Zayed, the resident, “People’s situation is bad. Very bad.”
An Israeli settler herds his flock near his outpost beside the Palestinian village of Ras Ein al-Auja in the West Bank, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
A Palestinian resident of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank burns trash, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Palestinian children play in the West Bank village of Ras Ein al-Auja, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Palestinian residents of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank pack up their belongings and prepare to leave their homes after deciding to flee mounting settler violence, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Palestinian residents of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank pack up their belongings and prepare to leave their homes after deciding to flee mounting settler violence, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
