Doyel: Tyrese Haliburton's MVP candidacy, Pacers' return to relevance go national vs. Celtics
INDIANAPOLIS – The country now sees what we’ve been seeing with Tyrese Haliburton and these buoyant Indiana Pacers. The country knows what we’ve been knowing about one of the most skilled players in the NBA, and one of its most exciting teams. And courtesy of TNT beaming the Pacers’ 122-112 victory over Boston to its national television audience Monday night, the country now hears what we’ve been … well, hold on. We’ve not been hearing this.
MVP, MVP, MVP!
It was thunderous and persistent and absolutely correct, what the Gainbridge Fieldhouse crowd of 16,693 was chanting for Haliburton as he took over this game and made it his own – even as he was gasping for breath and going to the locker room at halftime and using an inhaler for the first time in his life, because anything would be better than what he’d been feeling in the first half.
“The first half I was dead,” Haliburton was saying after posting the first triple-double of his career – 26 points, 10 rebounds and 13 assists – in this quarterfinal game of the inaugural NBA in-season tournament.
And then came the third quarter, when Haliburton scored or assisted on 24 of the Pacers’ first 27 points. By the time Haliburton was finished driving and setting up teammates or hitting floaters or crossing over Jrue Holiday and swishing 3-pointers over him as the crowd exhaled – whooooo – a 55-48 deficit at halftime had become an 85-74 Pacers lead at the end of the third quarter.
“The third quarter really resurrected where we were,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said.
Carlisle was talking about the Pacers’ status in a game they’d led for most of the first half before needing Haliburton’s third-quarter flurry to get it back.
Unless he was talking about the Pacers’ status in the NBA. Because this franchise, dormant for a decade after its most recent spike of 2013-14, is back in the conversation.
“That’s our goal now,” Haliburton said, “changing how this organization is viewed and how we as players are viewed.”
Did you know Haliburton is averaging 27 points and 11.9 assists, and shooting 52% from the floor, 44.7% on 3-pointers and 88.1% at the line? Those are MVP-caliber numbers.
Did you know the Pacers are on pace to smash the NBA’s season scoring record set way back in 1982? The mark is 126.5 ppg. The Pacers are averaging 128.6 ppg.
This franchise has been resurrected by the player who was dead in the first half.
Pacers were playing angry
This game had some heat on it, and not just because Haliburton was on fire. Nor was the passion we saw Monday night solely a function of the In-Season Tournament or even the $100,000 at stake for every player on the team advancing to the semifinals.
This game was hot because of what happened last month in Boston, where the Celtics ran the Haliburton-less Pacers out of TD Garden. The final score was 155-104, and while Boston’s starters didn’t play the fourth quarter, Haliburton didn’t appreciate the way the Celtics poured it on.
“They were running action late, running up the score late,” Haliburton said. “I’m not the score police, but that left a bad taste in our mouth.”
The Pacers played angry Monday night. Rookie Bennedict Mathurin caught a pass near the Boston bench, where Celtics assistant Sam Cassell stood to form a wall on the sideline. Mathurin drilled a 3-pointer and then turned and gestured at Cassell, who gestured back as Mathurin ran to the defensive end.
After another Mathurin 3-pointer in the third quarter, at the other end of the court, he fired an imaginary arrow into the heart of a fan sitting in a Celtics shirt in the front row.
Later, when a loose ball made its way to the Celtics bench and Boston coach Joe Mazzulla grabbed it and threw it to the closest official, Pacers guard Aaron Nesmith flailed his arms in an effort to block Mazzulla’s pass. Nesmith was drafted 14th overall by the Celtics in 2020, when Mazzulla was an assistant coach, and played with most of the Celtics’ current players before the franchise sent him to the Pacers in the Malcolm Brogdon deal in July 2022.
Nesmith played this game with attitude, crowding Jaylen Brown or Jayson Tatum, whichever he was guarding at the time, and taunted Celtics guard Derrick White. That came with 2:21 left, after Nesmith scored on White at the rim for a 105-103 lead, then bent over to hold his hand at about ankle height. Nesmith, who stands 6-5, was giving the 6-4 White the “he’s too small” treatment.
White laughed. Nesmith did not. And about 90 seconds later when Nesmith dunked for a 114-105 lead with 44 seconds and Carlisle called timeout to let the crowd crush the Celtics with noise, Nesmith was jumping and shouting all the way to the bench.
Pacers score: Tyrese Haliburton posts triple-double to help Pacers stun Celtics, earn berth in IST semis
Tyrese Haliburton and Indianapolis: a love story
Myles Turner has been here longer than anyone. He was here for the last two years of the Paul George era and all of Victor Oladipo. He’s seen great players here, but he’s not seen anything like the love affair between Indianapolis and Tyrese Haliburton.
“I think the city’s starting to rally around this team,” Turner said. “They’ve got the MVP right before their very eyes. It’s dope to see this franchise from where it (was) to what it’s becoming. … Ty came here and took over.”
We know what we have, but Haliburton has been underappreciated nationally because the Pacers don’t play on national TV. The buzz is starting to grow, starting Nov. 21 when Haliburton outdueled the Hawks’ Trae Young with 37 points and 16 assists in the Pacers’ 157-152 win in Atlanta, after which NBA Hall of Famer Kevin Garnett tweeted: “Haliburton in that convo. What convo? Yeah… that convo.”
Meaning, the MVP conversation.
After the game Monday night, after Haliburton’s triple-double, Garnett went back into his timeline to retweet himself from Nov. 21, with these words above the original:
“Yeah, that convo…”
This is a conversation Carlisle’s ready to have.
“He’s really a one-of-a-kind player that I’ve coached,” said Carlisle, who coached Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd and Luka Doncic in Dallas. “His skill level, his connectiveness to his teammates, his leadership, his ability to both give teammates confidence and deliver the ball on time and on target as well as scoring in the 30s or 40s if needed to win a game – an exceedingly special player.
“It’s clear that Ty’s evolution is ongoing and it’s erupting before our every eyes. … He’s a spectacular player.”
Up to a point, we’ve seen this before. Indianapolis enjoyed Paul George and seemed to greatly esteem Victor Oladipo, but this feels different. George, trying too hard to play the role of superstar, kept everyone at arm’s length. Oladipo was more lovable, but a serious leg injury gutted his plans for a max contract and dulled his vibrant personality.
Haliburton is different – more humble, more joyful, more transparent. He understands his place in town, and unlike George and Oladipo, sees the relationship as a two-way street.
“From the minute I got here there’s been a lot of love from this organization and this fan base,” he said Monday night. “It really means the world to me to have the opportunity to represent Indiana and represent this storied organization. … I have to step into the moment. I’m in an amazing part of my life right now: 23 years old, in one of the best situations in life. It’s really exciting for me.”
And with TNT here for the quarterfinals of the NBA’s first in-season tournament, a national audience saw what we saw, and heard what we heard.
MVP, MVP…
Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Pacers vs. Celtics: Tyrese Haliburton triple-double sends Pacers to Vegas
