After letting Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals slip away, Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers responded forcefully. The Pacers started Game 4 -- a contest they would go on to win 130-121 -- on Tuesday with a first quarter that felt like a statement: They knew they'd gotten stagnant down the stretch on Sunday, and they were not going to do that again.
Indiana put up 43 points in the opening frame, which is more than it managed in the entire second half two days earlier. (Knicks coach Tom Thibdeau described the quarter as "problematic" and told reporters that it "set the tone for the game.") Haliburton finished that quarter with 15 points, five rebounds and six assists, and then he kept his foot on the gas. His Game 4 stat line is unprecedented: 32 points, 12 rebounds, 15 assists, four steals and zero turnovers in 38 minutes. It gave Indy a 3-1 series lead and put the team one win away from its first NBA Finals in 25 years.
"He was the leader tonight," Pacers coach Rick Carlisle told reporters after the 130-121 win. "And we had some difficult film stuff yesterday. Not fun. But our guys, they're authentic guys and they want authenticity and the truth, and sometimes the truth is pretty painful. We allowed things to go a different direction than they needed to go in Game 3, and tonight we were determined to turn it back our direction."
Haliburton told reporters that he didn't know his numbers were historic.
"I feel like we're making up stats at some point to make me look better," Haliburton said. "I'm just trying to play the right way, man. I just want to impact winning."
Haliburton is an anomaly because he hardly ever turns the ball over, but he doesn't play a conservative style. He's always pushing the pace, he loves jump passes -- he hit Myles Turner with a beautiful, no-look jump pass in the third quarter -- and he is not afraid to try to thread the needle through multiple defenders. He just processes the game extremely quickly and rarely makes mistakes.
Throughout Tuesday's game, Haliburton attacked the basket aggressively, but it never felt like he was forcing or predetermining anything. When there was an opportunity to get all the way to the rim, he did. Otherwise, he pulled up or moved the ball to somebody else, as usual.
"Just trying to make the right play man," Haliburton said. "I think my game is a little unorthodox. I jump to pass probably more than anybody in the NBA, but, I mean, I work on that stuff. That's how I've worked my whole life to play the game. So I take pride in taking care of the ball."
Carlisle noted that Haliburton's hit-ahead passes in transition were "really important" in Game 4.
"To not have any turnovers in any of those situations, too, is pretty remarkable," Carlisle said. "But this has become his thing. And there will be a new statistical category perhaps named after him somewhere down the line."
He also credited Haliburton for getting his steals without compressing Indiana's team defense.
"There isn't a lot of freelance stuff where they're just kind of outside-the-box gambles," Carlisle said. "He's doing it within the system, and that's real growth."
In Game 3, Haliburton said, the Pacers were "more reactive than proactive" down the stretch. Instead of sighing and walking the ball up after the Knicks made tough shots, their attitude in Game 4 was, "Who cares? Let's get it in and let's run, go right back at 'em." New York's OG Anunoby made a tough stepback 2 on the first possession of the night and made a ridiculous, late-clock 3 in the fourth quarter. The only time that Indiana struggled to find its flow, though, was when it repeatedly sent the Knicks to the free-throw line.
"I thought we did a great job of just playing our way the whole game, keeping pace in the game and just playing Pacer basketball," Haliburton said. "I thought we responded really well, which we've proven that we do after tough losses really all year and especially in these playoffs."
Haliburton "felt like I let the team down in Game 3," he said. He wanted to be less "jittery," take what the defense gave him and step up on the defensive glass, and he did exactly that. Up 3-1 in the series, Indiana could punch its ticket to the NBA Finals if Haliburton plays this way in New York on Thursday.
"We need him to continue to lead us," Carlisle said.
