Tyrese Haliburton has steered the Indiana Pacers to the doorstep of their first NBA Finals appearance since 2000.
After a historic individual performance in Game 4, Haliburton is focused on ending the Eastern Conference finals in style on Thursday night when the Pacers visit the New York Knicks at famed Madison Square Garden.
“I’m excited about it,” Haliburton said. “It will be a lot of fun. It’s a tough environment to play in. We’ve got to be ready. It’s one more game.”
Haliburton’s outing for the ages included 32 points, 15 assists and 12 rebounds without a turnover, the first time a player achieved a 30-15-10-0 statistics line in NBA postseason history. He also made five 3-pointers and had four steals in the 130-121 home triumph.
Haliburton’s propensity for running the floor is proving to be a huge advantage for fourth-seeded Indiana, which has a whopping 65-23 edge in fast-break points in the series.
“He’s a great player. It’s as simple as that,” Knicks star Jalen Brunson said. “It’s on us to try to limit him as best as we can. It’s now time to get back to the drawing board and get ready for Game 5.”
Third-seeded New York’s lone win in the series occurred when it rallied from 20 points down to win Game 3. Karl-Anthony Towns was the captain of the comeback with 20 of his 24 points coming in the fourth quarter.
The Knicks will be watching Towns closely in Game 5 after listing him as questionable due to a left knee injury.
Towns has injured the knee in each of the past two games. In Game 4, Indiana’s Aaron Nesmith collided with him late in the game and the big man was in intense pain. He exited for a short time and was hobbling at the finish.
While there is doubt regarding Towns’ health, he’s pretty certain when asked about the team’s 3-1 series deficit.
“As a team, we all have to do better,” Towns said. “It’s all of us. We have to do a better job to make it difficult for each one of them to score.”
The Knicks also have had a problem with turnovers leading to easy transition points; they’ve committed 60 turnovers in the series, an average of 15 per game.
“As a team, we just need to tighten the screws when it comes to that,” Brunson said. “If they were aggressive turnovers, they’d be different. But passive turnovers is not us.”
Brunson is averaging 33.3 points in the series and has topped 30 three times.
As for Indiana, Pascal Siakam has been a stellar sidekick to Haliburton with two 30-point efforts, including 30 in Tuesday’s win.
But a surprise standout was Bennedict Mathurin, who scored 20 points in just 12-plus minutes off the bench Tuesday.
Mathurin averaged just 3.7 points over the first three games of the series. He said he has been keeping his eye on the task at hand, not his stats.
“I think the goal is pretty clear for us,” Mathurin said. “Everyone wants to win a championship, but you have to be willing to do the right things. I think (Tuesday night) was a step in the right direction.”
Nesmith sprained his right ankle in Game 3 and is once again listed as questionable. He was cleared a little more than an hour before tipoff of Game 4 and contributed 16 points.
Indiana also has won six consecutive road playoffs as they look to close out the series in the rabid New York atmosphere.
Haliburton isn’t worrying about following up an epic one-of-a-kind outing with something similarly special.
“I’m just trying to play the right way,” Haliburton said. “I just want to impact winning.”
–Field Level Media
