INDIANAPOLIS — After two games of wrestling with Oklahoma City’s defense, of battling waves of defenders that just kept coming, Tyrese Haliburton cracked open his laptop to study someone familiar with it. Few players in NBA history are as adept at shedding a physical defense as Stephen Curry, the Warriors superstar who has powered Golden State to four championships … and counting. Early in the week, Haliburton’s trainer, Drew Hanlen, fired off a file of a decade’s worth of Curry’s postseason field goals, a highlight reel of Curry torching defenders from San Antonio to Houston, Cleveland to Boston. A generation of shooters have been inspired by Curry. In his first NBA Finals, perhaps Haliburton could be, too.
Curry has had so many signature moments in the Finals. In Game 3, Haliburton got his. Final stat line: 22 points, 11 assists, nine rebounds. For days, everyone with a microphone or social media account screamed for Haliburton to be more aggressive, to not wait until the fourth quarter to flip the switch. Haliburton had 12 points in the first half on Wednesday. He added seven in the third quarter. He had three assists in the fourth, when Bennedict Mathurin took over, sealing the Pacers’ 116–107 Game 3 win over the Thunder to take a 2–1 series lead.
“There [were] adjustments that had to be made coming into today for me,” Haliburton said. “I thought I did a better job at that.”
Said coach Rick Carlisle, “I thought his approach tonight was exactly what it needed to be.”
Deeper into June we go and these Pacers, they just keep coming. Indiana came away with a split in Oklahoma City but needed a furious comeback to steal Game 1 and were blown out in Game 2. Surely, this would be where the Pacers’ unlikely run ended. Surely, an opponent as formidable as the Thunder would be too much to overcome.
It didn’t, it wasn’t and suddenly Indiana is two wins away from its first NBA championship. The Pacers fell into a hole early, trailing 15–6 four minutes into the game. In the timeout, Carlisle’s message was simple: Wake up. Said Haliburton, “We were probably playing a little antsy.”
For all the noise surrounding Haliburton, Indiana knew it had to get him some help. The Thunder bench blitzed them in Game 2, with Alex Caruso and Aaron Wiggins outscoring the entirety of the Pacers’ second unit. Mathurin had 27 points in Game 3. T.J. McConnell chipped in 10, while collecting five steals. Obi Toppin added eight points. Carlisle tightened his rotation in Game 3. Everyone in it delivered.
“This is the kind of team that we are,” Carlisle said. “We need everybody to be ready. It’s not always going to be exactly the same guys that are stepping up with scoring and stuff like that. But this is how we got to do it, and we got to do it as a team. And we’ve got to make it as hard as possible on them.”
Mathurin watched Indiana’s run to the conference finals last spring, a shoulder injury ending his season a month before the playoffs. In the Pacers’ training room, Mathurin had a tearaway calendar. Each day he ripped off a page, a physical reminder of moving one day closer to being cleared to play.
“A lot of people enjoy playing basketball, but I really love playing basketball,” Mathurin said. “I think it’s family and basketball for me. Me not being able to play, I wish I could do anything to be on the court. But I couldn’t.”
He can now, leading a bench unit that turned the game around for Indiana. Ten years into an improbable NBA career and McConnell continues to impact winning. He energized the Pacers in the second quarter, swiping three passes and scoring six points. He chipped in physical defense that held Cason Wallace to seven points and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to 24. Whenever Indiana needed a big play, McConnell seemed to be the one making it.
“I think in a series like this, what’s so important is the margins,” Haliburton said. “You have to win in the margins. It’s not necessarily who can make the most shots or anything. It’s taking care of the ball, rebounding, little things like that. I thought he does a great job of giving us energy plays consistently and getting downhill and operating. I mean, nobody operates on the baseline like that guy. I thought he did a great job of consistently getting there and making hustle play after hustle play, and sticking with it, and I thought we did a great job of just feeding off of what he was doing.”
Doubt never creeps in with these Pacers. Just adjust and move on. To spring Haliburton, Indiana ran more pitches and handoffs, allowing him to make catches in motion. Outmuscled in the first two games, the Pacers ratcheted up the physicality. Andrew Nembhard blanketed Gilgeous-Alexander. Myles Turner overpowered Chet Holmgren in the paint. They forced Oklahoma City into 19 turnovers, collecting 21 points. The Thunder dominated the points in the paint battle in the first two games. In Game 3, Indiana won 50–48.
“They were physical,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “They pressured. They sustained it for much of the 48 [minutes] … their physicality was stronger than our force in a lot of those possessions.”
And they had Haliburton. He admitted he heard some of the criticism. “ESPN might be on in my house,” said Haliburton, “and there it is.” The focus, though, remained unchanged. He talked to Carlisle. To Hanlen. “Seeing where I can be better is the most important thing,” he said. Indiana is 20–1 this season when Haliburton has at least 20 points and 10 assists. He knew there was another gear he could go to. On Wednesday, he found it.
“I think there’s going to be ebbs and flows,” Haliburton said. “I’m never going to be, you know, super great and shoot so many shots every game consistently. There’s going to be games where I don’t and I’ve got to be able to find the right balance between the two. But I mean, I think experience is the best way I can learn from it.”
Two wins from history, from one of the more improbable titles in recent memory, and Haliburton isn’t interested in what the outside is saying about it. “The commentary is what it is at this point,” Haliburton said. “It doesn’t matter. We’re here in the NBA Finals two wins away from an NBA championship. You know, just got to stay with it, put my head down, keep working.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Tyrese Haliburton Flips Switch As Pacers Grab NBA Finals Game 3 Victory.