The challenge was daunting but Tyrese Haliburton was up to it. Faced with the defending champion led by a Stephen Curry inspired until his injury, the Indiana point guard was expected after his unfortunate exit at 0/9 in the previous match, in the narrow 97-92 defeat against Miami.
The player quickly caught up as he allowed his team to dominate the Warriors by scoring 14 points in a second quarter won 47 to 28! The meeting was finally tense until the end, but with his 29 points, 9/17 shooting and 6 assists, Tyrese Haliburton did the job until the end to secure the victory, 125-119.
“The last two days have sucked from a personal point of view. I was angry after my performance, because I felt that if I had played a bit better, we probably would have won. I felt like I let my team down. I’ve been doing a lot of soul-searching over the past two days and I was really looking forward to this day.”, did he declare after the meeting.
A valuable part of Rick Carlisle’s device
The fact of having quickly found the target in this reference match with a second victory in ten days against Golden State in the key will prevent him from gambling too much and entering a negative spiral.
“We just want to see the shot come in. It’s hard when you don’t put a shot. You start thinking too much. I think for the majority of shooters, the moments when they miss are often just due to a little too much hesitation, extra thinking time. I’m surrounded by great guys off the court, in the locker room, with great veterans and coaches who have stuck with me just to play basketball and do it freely. That’s what pushed me.”
The Indiana number 0 had confided before the match that he was hopeful of being able to quickly move on and switch to a better performance after his non-match against the Heat. In the long term, Rick Carlisle wasn’t really worried either. He cared more about how to better protect his leader who also remains the first creator for his teammates.
“Shooting is really not something that worries me. He’s going to shoot, he’s a great shooter. But we have to protect him.”, underlined the coach of the Pacers. “The opponents will send their most physical guys on him every night and we must have something to answer (…). Tyrese can score, but his gift is being able to average 11 assists per game, that’s where he’s elite.”.
He is even the number 1 in the NBA in this area!
| Tyrese Haliburton | Percentage | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Crew | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | party | Int | bp | CT | Points |
| 2020-21 | BAG | 58 | 30 | 47.2 | 40.9 | 85.7 | 0.7 | 2.3 | 3.0 | 5.3 | 1.4 | 1.3 | 1.6 | 0.5 | 13.0 |
| 2021-22 * | All Teams | 77 | 35 | 47.3 | 41.4 | 84.2 | 0.8 | 3.3 | 4.0 | 8.2 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 2.6 | 0.6 | 15.3 |
| 2021-22 * | BAG | 51 | 34 | 45.7 | 41.3 | 83.7 | 0.8 | 3.1 | 3.9 | 7.4 | 1.4 | 1.7 | 2.3 | 0.7 | 14.3 |
| 2021-22 * | IND | 26 | 36 | 50.2 | 41.6 | 84.9 | 0.9 | 3.5 | 4.3 | 9.6 | 1.9 | 1.9 | 3.2 | 0.6 | 17.5 |
| 2022-23 | IND | 26 | 33 | 47.7 | 39.7 | 86.1 | 0.7 | 3.6 | 4.3 | 10.8 | 1.1 | 1.8 | 2.7 | 0.4 | 19.4 |
| Total | 161 | 33 | 47.3 | 40.9 | 84.9 | 0.7 | 3.0 | 3.7 | 7.6 | 1.4 | 1.6 | 2.2 | 0.5 | 15.2 | |
