'I was going to play tonight': Tyrese Haliburton [lays through illness for triple-double

INDIANAPOLIS -- Less than 72 hours before what was arguably the most important game of his NBA career to date, Tyrese Haliburton woke up in the morning expecting to play another game, but couldn't get out of bed.

The Pacers All-Star point guard had just scored 44 points Thursday in a loss to the Heat in Miami and was hopeful he'd get them back on Saturday and create some momentum for Monday's In-Season Tournament quarterfinal at home against the mighty Boston Celtics and his first game on TNT. When he woke up it became clear pretty quickly that playing Saturday night was a long shot at best because of a nasty upper respiratory infection, but he was determined to play Monday because it was an opportunity unlike anything he'd had since he entered the league in 2020.

"I knew I was going to play tonight," Haliburton said. "There was no doubt about that. I didn't care what was going on."

Haliburton not only played, he met the moment, showing off to a national audience the dazzling passing, blistering tempo and limitless 3-point shooting range that only Sacramento and Indiana fans and NBA League Pass subscribers have been able to see with any degree of regularity in his first four seasons.

In front of a Gainbridge Fieldhouse crowd of 16,693 that gleefully created a playoff atmosphere for the first-year event and no other NBA games on to take the national attention away from one of its brightest but least-exposed young stars, the 23-year-old Haliburton posted his first career triple double with 26 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds and converted a tie-breaking four-point play with 1:33 to go to give the Pacers a 122-112 win over a Boston team still favored to win this year's NBA title. The 17-time NBA champion Celtics will not win the first NBA Cup, however, and the Pacers advance to the semifinals in Las Vegas where they will meet either the Bucks or Knicks on Thursday.

In the game's final minutes, Pacers fans rained down chants of "M-V-P" in Haliburton's direction He's obviously a long-shot to win the award this season -- recent MVPs Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid are still in the league, to say nothing of less recent MVPs including LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant. But there's a case to be made that no one in the league this year has been more important to his team than Haliburton has. He's averaging 26.9 points per game and an NBA-leading 11.9 assists while shooting 52.1% from the field, 44.7% from 3-point range and 88.1% from the free throw line and has the Pacers in sixth in the Eastern Conference at 11-8 as well as in the final four of the In-Season Tournament. If that's not enough for an MVP case, he's at least making a good argument to be named to his first All-NBA team and to a second straight All-Star Game.

Perhaps more to the point, Haliburton is making a very strong case to become the first-ever In-Season Tournament MVP. After Monday's performance, he might be the favorite even if the Pacers don't advance to the finals. In five games in the event, he's averaging 28.0 points and 13.4 assists per game with 5.2 rebounds and 1.6 steals while shooting 50.5% from the floor, 46.4% from 3-point range and 88.0% from the free throw line. At the moment he has more total points (140), more 3-pointers (26) and far more assists (67) than any other player in the event.

"He's a special player," backup point guard T.J. McConnell said. "Anyone who says otherwise doesn't know a thing about basketball."

Producing that kind of performance on a national stage against a team that might still be the best in basketball required Haliburton to push through almost three whole days of misery. He was already dealing with a bone bruise in his right knee when he went to bed Friday night, but he expected to be able to play through that. But Saturday morning brought an entirely new set of problems.

"I just woke up on the morning of gameday against Miami," Haliburton said. "I couldn't move, couldn't breathe. I didn't go downstairs or nothing. Doc came to my room and he just put me on meds right away. I was trying to fight to play, but my body was not allowing that and honestly (doctors) weren't either."

He didn't make it to shootaround on Saturday and wasn't in the building when the Pacers upset the Heat without him. He spent Saturday, Sunday and much of Monday resting up and taking medicine so that he could have a chance to play Monday night.

"I've been sleeping, it feels like forever," Haliburton said.

Still, he showed up at the arena on Monday determined to go. He was never listed as any worse than questionable on the injury report and coach Rick Carlisle declared him available as soon as he walked in for his pre-game press conference.

"There was never a doubt from the minute I got sick," Haliburton said. "There was more of a doubt if I was going to play against Miami, but this was no question. It didn't matter. I was going to play tonight."

But in the first half, he wasn't exactly playing well. He seemed timid on offense, unwilling to attack off the bounce especially when guarded by Celtics defensive aces Jrue Holiday and Derrick White. He was 3 of 8 from the floor for seven points. He grabbed six rebounds in a first half but just two assists. He played a team-high 19 minutes, 45 seconds, but he was feeling the illness and needed more medical assistance.

"First half, I was dead," Haliburton said. "Again, medical staff did a great job. They got me an inhaler at halftime. And I was able to breathe in the second half. That felt better."

Once he was able to breathe, he was deeply critical of his first-half performance -- as was his trainer Drew Hanlen.

"I just felt like there was an opportunity for me to be better," Haliburton said. "I went in at halftime and I was like 'Damn, I'm not really being aggressive enough for us to win games and I was awful defensively. Just trying to figure it out. I think we had a good conversation in the locker room amongst ourselves as players and coach came in with some good stuff. To be honest, Drew texted me at halftime and yelled at me. That's usually how every game goes."

Haliburton applied the lessons immediately. On the Pacers' first second-half possession, he whipped a no-look pass to center Myles Turner who was trailing in transition for a layup. About a minute later he got Holiday to spin around on a crossover dribble and hit a 30-foot 3-pointer in his face. That started a stretch when Haliburton scored or recorded an assist on each of the Pacers' first 20 points of the third quarter and 24 of their first 27. He posted 12 points on 5 of 7 shooting including 2 of 4 3-pointers and five assists in that period alone, leading the Pacers to a 37-23 quarter that put them up seven points going into the fourth.

"When his confidence is up, we feed off of that," Turner said. "So when he started to make shots, he's jumping around, he's getting the crowd involved, the energy just starts. It's infectious. Everybody starts to feel it. Now we're a little more amped up and what not. I see this all the time, man. This is nothing special to me. I've seen this guy do this countless times since we've been here."

Turner has seen Haliburton knock down big shots late in games too, including game-winners last season against the Heat and Bulls, but the two 3s he hit in the fourth will hold a unique place for Haliburton.

The first came with 3:58 to go in the game, when he once again got Holiday -- one of the best on-ball defenders in the world if not the best -- to stumble on a crossover dribble and hit a 26-foot step-back 3-pointer to give the Pacers a 101-99 lead.

The two teams traded buckets after that until the 1:33 mark with the game tied at 105 when Haliburton hit one of the biggest shots of his life. He was being defended by Celtics big man Al Horford at the top of the key when Pacers guard Buddy Hield brushed Horford with a screen causing the Celtics to switch wing Jaylen Brown on to him. Brown initially gave Haliburton a cushion, and Haliburton took advantage of the space and time, drilling a 27-footer as Brown leaped into him for a foul.

Haliburton hit the ensuing free throw to put the Pacers up 109-105, staggering the Celtics enough for his teammates to follow with knockout blows. Hield hit a 3 from the top of the key off a baseline out-of-bounds pass from Haliburton to give the Pacers a seven-point lead, then after a steal, Haliburton found forward Aaron Nesmith for a fastbreak dunk to make it a nine-point advantage with 44.4 seconds to go.

"They have some elite shot-makers, but I'm an elite shot maker too," Haliburton said, referring to Boston's Brown and Celtics All-NBA wing Jayson Tatum. "... I just saw some daylight, saw some space, put it up. He fouled me and it went in."

And thanks to a combination of sheer will and medical science, Haliburton went from bed-ridden on Saturday to the toast of Indianapolis and the breakout star of the In-Season Tournament on Monday. For Haliburton, who has yet to reach the playoffs in his young career and is treating this tournament like his first postseason, it was worth everything it took to make it happen.

"I gotta step up to the moment," Haliburton said. "I'm in an amazing part of my life right now, 23 years old and pressed into one of the best positions you can possibly be in in life. It's really exciting for me, but at the end of the day I just want to win. Whatever it takes to do that, I'm gonna do."

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Pacers vs. Celtics: Tyrese Haliburton has signature moment