In the aftermath of the Pacers’ collapse in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals, Tyrese Haliburton told his team: This one is on me. For weeks Haliburton had been Indiana’s savior, engineering comeback after comeback, making one improbable shot after the next. His tentativeness in Game 3, however, allowed the Knicks to claw back into the series. Said Haliburton, “I got to do a better job.”
Haliburton did, and the result is Indiana is one win from the NBA Finals. Final score in Game 4: 130–121, Pacers over Knicks. Final stat line for Haliburton: 32 points, 15 assists, 12 rebounds and zero turnovers—never-before-seen numbers in an NBA playoff game. Four steals, too. He scored 20 in the first half, when Indiana needed a scorer. He handed out four assists in the third quarter, when the Pacers needed a playmaker. Late in the fourth, with New York surging, Haliburton flipped a bounce pass to former Knick, Obi Toppin, who knocked down a game-sealing three.
