Tyrese Haliburton has a calf strain that has recently prevented him from being anywhere close to the player he's been throughout the NBA playoffs. The Indiana Pacers star underwent an MRI and his status for Thursday night's Game 6 in Indianapolis is still very much up in the air. And it sounds like it should remain a mystery for another 24 hours or so, per Pacers coach Rick Carlisle.

Addressing the media on Wednesday, Carlisle laid out the timeline for a decision on Haliburton.

"We will not really know for sure until late tomorrow afternoon or evening," he said.

This gives pundits more time to volley around their recommendations for Haliburton to play or watch from the bench. Considering that he was only able to muster four points on zero field goals in Game 5, his mere involvement in an elimination game is in itself not going to do much for Pacers fans' optimism. But it's sports and there's been countless examples of those at far less than 100% rising to the moment.

With the Thunder up 3-2 in the NBA Finals and appearing to be an all-time great team based on their accomplishments, it's going to be an extremely tough mountain for them to climb with our without their starting point guard.

We'll know the situation going into Game 6 but it sounds like not much before that.

More NBA Finals on Sports Illustrated


This article was originally published on www.si.com as Pacers' Rick Carlisle Lays Out Timeline for Tyrese Haliburton Decision Ahead of Game 6.

Test hyperlink for boilerplate