Tyrese Haliburton delivered a one-of-a-kind performance Tuesday night, and it put the Indiana Pacers one victory away from reaching the NBA Finals for the first time since 2000.
Haliburton recorded 32 points, 15 assists and 12 rebounds without a turnover to lead the Pacers to a 130-121 victory over the New York Knicks in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals in Indianapolis.
He is the first player in NBA history to put up that stat line (30-15-10-0) in a post-season game.
In addition to notching his second career post-season triple-double, Haliburton made five 3-pointers and had four steals to help the Pacers take a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Haliburton viewed the superlative effort as something he owed to his teammates after the Pacers’ Game 3 loss on Sunday.
“I was just trying to be aggressive, trying to respond,” Haliburton said. “I felt like I let the team down in Game 3, so it was important for me to just come out here and make plays. Guys put me in position to make plays and play my game. It was a big win for us.”
There was no surprise which number Pacers coach Rick Carlisle liked most: the zero in the turnover column.
The Pacers will try to wrap up the series Thursday in New York.
Pascal Siakam scored 30 points, Bennedict Mathurin added 20 in 12-plus minutes off the bench and Aaron Nesmith contributed 16 points for fourth-seeded Indiana. It was Siakam’s second 30-point effort of the series.
Jalen Brunson scored 31 points, Karl-Anthony Towns had 24 points and 12 rebounds and OG Anunoby added 22 points for the third-seeded Knicks.
Mikal Bridges scored 17 points and Josh Hart added 12 points and 11 rebounds for New York.
“We scored 120 points, but our defense wasn’t good enough,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “Our rebounding was good enough. But our defense and our turnovers hurt us.”
Thibodeau attributed Haliburton’s historic outing to his team’s breakdown.
“Haliburton’s a great player,” Thibodeau said. “You don’t guard great players in this league individually. It’s your entire team. And if one guy is not doing their job, everyone is going to look bad.”
Reuters
