After the Indiana Pacers dropped Game 2 of the NBA Finals, there was one obvious fix in the eyes of much of the NBA world: Tyrese Haliburton had to be more aggressive. The point guard had struggled to find his footing against an excellent Oklahoma City Thunder defense in the opening games of the series; it didn't stop him from hitting a game-winning jumper in Game 1 but in total Haliburton had only 31 points in the first two games of the Finals.
Haliburton answered the call in Game 3 and played a tremendous contest, scoring 22 points while dishing out 11 assists as Indy took a 2-1 series lead by way of a 116–107 win. His approach was markedly different as he regularly forced the issue against OKC rather than letting the defense come to him. Afterwards the Pacers star took a moment to fire back at all the criticism he'd heard the last two days, especially from "talking heads" who he doesn't believe know what they are talking about.
