Tyrese Haliburton showed a performance that gave the Indiana Pacers its first NBA Final victory since 2000.
Halliburton scored 32 points, 15 points and 12 rebounds Tuesday night without turnovers, allowing the Pacers to beat the New York Knicks 130-121 in Game 4 of the Indianapolis Eastern Conference Finals. He is the first player in NBA history to propose the statistical series (30-15-10-0) in the playoffs.
Haliburton scored five three-pointers and four steals in addition to his second career triple-double in the playoffs to help the Pacers lead 3-1 in the seventh.
Haliburton views the most advanced efforts as he owe teammates after Sunday's Pacers' third game.
“I just wanted to be aggressive and try to respond,” Halliburton said. “I felt like I was disappointing the team in Game 3, so it was important for me to come out and do the game here. The guys put me in the spot and play my game. It was a huge win for us.”
It’s no surprise that Pacers coach Rick Carlisle’s favorite Pacers: Zero in the turnover column.
"He was really throwing the ball forward tonight, which was really important to us," Carlisle said. "No mistakes were excellent in any kind of situation. But it's been his thing. I know he's very proud of it, and it's a motivation."
“He happened to do some impressive statistics, but he knew it was clear that all of this went beyond statistics.”
The Pacers will try to end the series in New York on Thursday.
Pascal Siakam scored 30 points, Bennedict Mathurin added 20 points in 12 minutes on the bench, while Aaron Nesmith contributed 16 points to Indiana's fourth seed. This is the second 30-point score in the Siakam series.
Jalen Brunson scored 31 points, Karl-Anthony Towns had 24 points and 12 rebounds, while OG Anunoby contributed 22 points for the third seed Knicks. Mikal Bridges scored 17 points and Josh Hart added 12 points and 11 rebounds to New York.
"We scored 120 points, but our defense wasn't good enough," said Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau. "We had good rebounds. But our defense and turnovers hurt us."
Halliburton Game 4 Difference Maker
Thibodeau attributes Haliburton's historic outing to the collapse of his team.
"Halliburton is a great player," Thibodd said. "You don't protect the great players in this league alone. It's your entire team. If one person doesn't do his job, everyone will look bad."
Town hurt his left knee for the second straight game and was in trouble at the end. Thibodor said the towns would be inspected.
"I'm just thinking about the loss. I'm not thinking about that right now," Towns said of his knees. "It's disappointing when you don't win. We don't do enough to get the job done."
Meanwhile, Nesmith was announced as good as Carlisle over an hour before Carlisle. The 25-year-old striker sprained his right ankle midway through the third quarter of the third game on Sunday.
Myles Turner added 13 points before a foul for Indiana, where Indiana shot 51.1% from the field and 13 points from 32 (40.6%). The Pacers once again excelled in FastBreak points with a 22-9 advantage to increase their advantage to 65-23 in the series.
The Knicks shot 46.3% from the field and 12 out of 28 (42.9%) behind the arc. New York has a 44-33 rebounding edge.
The Pacers scored the first seven points in the second half, ending with a 13-0 outbreak and earned 76-64.
Brunson cut the deficit to 89-84 after two free throws left with 3:59 left in the third quarter. However, Haliburton's three-pointer had 55.6 seconds left during this period, and the Pacers led 102-91 to enter the final quarter.
Siakam scored five points early in the quarter, giving Indiana a 111-96 lead. But New York won seven straight consecutive victories in 115-109 after being knocked back with 4:24 remaining.
Indiana's pace kept pace, with a 126-116 lead after Obi Toppin drilling out three points with 45 seconds left.
“We haven’t done anything yet,” said Siakam, who excelled in his 2019 championship-winning team. "You can't be too satisfied with the highs, you can't be too low for the lows. This is my speech throughout the season."
With the Pacers leading 69-64 at the break, Halliburton held electricity in the first half with 20 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds. Indiana state scored the last six points in the half. Before the break, Brunson scored 16 points in New York.
