Haliburton wills Pacers to moment despite strain


GRACE HOLLARS/INDYSTAR - Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton, left, 
is defended by Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on June 19 
during Game 6 of the NBA Finals at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

21 Jun 2025
The Indianapolis Star

INDIANAPOLIS – The moment Thursday night when Tyrese Haliburton looked the most like himself – when it seemed the least obvious that he was dealing with a calf strain that had required nearly three days of around-the-clock treatment – was also the moment when it became undeniably evident that the Pacers were going to force a Game 7 and get to play one ultimate game for the first NBA championship in franchise history.

The two-time All-NBA point guard made a play with less than 50 seconds to go in the first half that captured the essence of his game on both ends of the floor, showcasing his length, athleticism, vision and flair. Haliburton – an opportunistic if not always sturdy defender – was a little late getting down the floor on defense after missing a fadeaway jumper and falling down in the attempt. However, he used that to his advantage by sneaking up on Thunder All-Star wing Jalen Williams at the top of the key to create a risky doubleteam with Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard already guarding him.

Williams saw Haliburton out of the corner of his eye and tried to pass the ball to Thunder guard Luguentz Dort – who Haliburton was supposed to be guarding but was standing wide open at the right elbow – but Haliburton stuck out his long left arm and got his hand on the ball, deflecting it toward the sideline. With his momentum carrying him that way, Haliburton beat Dort to the ball at about halfcourt just barely in bounds. He took two left-handed dribbles, saw All-Star forward Pascal Siakam streaking down the right side of the floor and whipped a no-look left-handed pass just behind the back of Williams’ head to hit Siakam perfectly in stride. Williams tried to meet him at the rim, but Siakam threw down a powerful right-handed jam over top of him.

With that dunk and Haliburton’s contributions to it, the Pacers went up by 20 points en route to a 108-91 blowout win in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, tying the series 3-3 and bringing Indiana within one game of an NBA title for the first time in franchise history. The Thunder were never closer to the lead than 17 points after that play and the Gainbridge Fieldhouse crowd spent most of the second half of Thursday’s game bathing in the glow of a dominant performance in the Pacers’ last home game this season with Game 7 coming at 8 p.m. on Sunday at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City.

“Me and Pascal have not spoken about this play yet,” Haliburton said in his post-game press conference. “I don’t know if we will until this over. But definitely a lot of fun, and if we are fortunate enough to go on and win this thing, I think that play will be remembered for a long time.”

Haliburton’s performance in Thursday’s Game 6 will be remembered for a long time regardless of Sunday’s outcome because of everything it took for him to simply take part in the game and what he knew he was risking in the attempt. He clearly didn’t have the same capacity to drive off his right leg that he usually does and that made him less explosive and more hesitant on certain moves. Still, he posted 14 points, five assists and two steals and the Pacers were +25 in his 23 minutes on the floor. The

Pacers entered the fourth quarter with a 30-point lead so Haliburton appeared in just 6:35 in the second half and didn’t play in the fourth quarter.

Just by giving it a go, the Pacers franchise player who kickstarted the rebuild that took Indiana from a 25-win lottery team in 2021-22 to an Eastern Conference champion three years later provided more inspiration for a team that already had plenty.

“There was never a doubt with me with whether he’d play or not,” veteran center Myles Turner, the longest-tenured member of the Pacers, said. “I just know how he’s wired and how he’s built. We’re all battling something, but a calf strain is no joke. It’s an injury I think a lot of us have dealt with before. There’s no way around it. You either put up or shut up and I think he did a great job of responding to the call.”

Haliburton has been battling several somethings throughout the course of this season, missing time during the regular season for a groin strain a hip flexor strain and lower back soreness – which is sort of a constant condition for him going back to his childhood. He’s also been dealing with a right ankle injury since at least Game 2 and has played in each game since despite fairly constant treatment for that injury.

The calf injury, however, required more. He acknowledged suffering it in the first quarter of Monday’s Game 5 when he tried to drive past Thunder big man Chet Holmgren but instead tripped and fell and lost the ball. He spent much of the rest of the game hobbled and Pacers public relations announced that he had “right lower leg tightness” but that he intended to return. Pacers coach Rick Carlisle later said Haliburton “insisted” on playing, but he clearly struggled, scoring just four points on 0 of 6 shooting.

Haliburton said after the game that “if I can walk, I want to play,” but he and the Pacers spent the next three days trying to make sure that was a sane thing for him to do. On Tuesday, he had an MRI that showed a strain and the next 48 hours were nearly filled with treatment and consultations. He said he spent time in a hyperbaric chamber in each of the last three days -- trying to speed the healing process by breathing in pure oxygen in high air pressure -and hooked up his leg to an H-Wave machine that increases blood circulation. The Pacers’ athletic trainers came to his house to work with him and he met with his everyone from team doctors to front office personnel to his agents to make sure everyone was on the same page.

Throughout all of it, Haliburton’s desire was clear – he wanted to play and he was willing to take a risk to do so. He was not told, he said, that he wouldn’t be risking further injury by playing and he’s well aware that other players have suffered calf injuries that led to something worse when they tried to return to play early. Kevin Durant infamously missed the first four games of the 2019 NBA Finals with Golden State with a calf strain, returned and hit three 3-pointers to start Game 5, but then tore his Achilles tendon and missed not only Game 6 but all of the following season.

Haliburton, however, felt like he and his teammates had invested too much into this season – turning around from a 10-15 start to win 50 games and authoring four of the most thrilling comebacks in NBA Playoff history – for him to sit out what could be the two most important games in the history of the franchise.

“I just look at it as I want to be out there to compete with my brothers,” Haliburton said. “These are guys that I’m willing to go to war with and we’ve had such a special year, and we have a special bond as a group, and you know, I think I’d beat myself up if I didn’t give it a chance.”

But he also wanted to make sure he didn’t put his own desire to take part and to avoid regret over the team’s best interest so he placed part of his fate in coach Rick Carlisle’s hands.

“I just want to be out there and fight and just had to have an honest conversation with Coach that, you know, if I didn’t look like myself and was hurting the team, like sit me down,” Haliburton said. “Obviously, I want to be on the floor, but I want to win more than anything.”

Carlisle never seemed tempted to make that move. However, in the first quarter in particular, there were moments when the effects of Haliburton’s injury were obvious and it was clear he couldn’t move as fluidly as he usually does. He had Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein defending him on the perimeter in isolation at one point off a switch, and usually he’d try to blow by Hartenstein for a layup but he never seemed to have enough juice to get by him. There was another occasion when a long rebound got out to the 3-point arc that he couldn’t turn around fast enough to chase down. It took him a while to find any kind of offensive rhythm and he missed his first four shots, extending his stretch of missed 3-pointers to 12 straight.

However, once Haliburton knocked in a 27-foot 3-pointer off an offensive rebound with 4:17 to go in the first quarter, other parts of his game seemed to come together. He hit his next two 3-pointers including a 28-foot step-back 3. He got downhill for a 10-foot left-handed floater off the dribble and scored a layup off a give-and-go with forward Aaron Nesmith.

His passing, meanwhile was sharp as usual. He teed up both Nembhard and Nesmith for 3-pointers, found Siakam for a layup underneath the baseline out of bounds and the aforementioned dunk and hit wing Ben Sheppard in stride for a layup with a pass that carried nearly three-quarters of the court. He was careful on defense not to put himself in bad positions but got two steals with excellent reads on passing lanes.

“Just trying to come out and impact the game in any way I could,” Haliburton said. “Still trying to be who I am at the same time but obviously I’m dealing with something.”

On Sunday, it will still be obvious he’s dealing with something even after another 72 hours of treatment and rest, but it’s Game 7 so even if he’s listed as questionable again, there will be no real question if he’ll be available.

“As a basketball fan, there’s nothing like a Game 7,” Haliburton said. “There’s nothing like a Game 7 in the NBA Finals. Dreamed of being in this situation my whole life. So, to be here is really exciting. Really exciting for our group. Like I said, what happened in the past doesn’t matter. What happened today doesn’t matter. It’s all about one game and approaching that the right way.”

What happened Thursday does matter, though, because Haliburton’s teammates won’t forget what he had to do to help get them to Game 7.

“He’s a tough kid,” Siakam said. “I had no doubt that he was going to be out there with us. It just shows he’s one of our leaders on the team and he’s doing everything he can to be out there for us, and we appreciate that.”

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