Tyrese Haliburton shows promising signs for Pacers in bounce-back game vs. Mavericks

Hey, it’s finally a good sign!

After two demoralizing road losses, one to the Pelicans by 27 points and the other to the Spurs by 12 points, Tuesday’s game against the Dallas Mavericks seemed like a must-win for Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers. To Haliburton, it seemed more like a statement play than anything else.

Since his return from hamstring strain in February, Haliburton hasn’t been the same player, in the sense that he’s more reluctant to shoot, less aggressive, and his confidence seems to have been shaken. Although he was physically close to the back, the mental strain seemed to have taken its toll.

Although Haliburton has struggled recently, its last four games before Tuesday were by far its worst stretch to date, averaging 9.5 points and 7.8 assists on putrid shooting splits of 26, 5/15.4/80%. On top of that, in the previous week’s game against the Pelicans, Haliburton was held scoreless for the second time in his NBA career and the first time in a Pacers uniform.

He followed that up with a slightly better performance against San Antonio, scoring 12 points and dishing out eight assists but going 4/16 from the field and 0/6 from beyond the arc. This crisis caused many people to come out of the woodshed and claim that Haliburton was still injured and needed time to rehab, which was very obvious, as Rick Carlisle even confirmed before the Mavericks game.

Fortunately, Tuesday would be a good night for Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers. Continuing their series dominance from the game a few weeks ago, the Pacers essentially went wire-to-wire on Dallas, leading by as many as 20 points and outscoring the Mavs 32-18 in the third quarter to take control.

You heard right, the Indiana Pacers held a team with Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving to 18 points in one quarter. Indiana ultimately held off a mini-run by Dallas in the fourth quarter to win the game 137-120, capping an embarrassing two-game losing streak with a resounding victory over a playoff-contending team.

This game was special for several reasons. On the one hand, the Pacers set a new record as nine players scored in double figures. Yes, new. To show what a balanced offensive attack this was, Myles Turner, the Pacers’ leading scorer that night, scored just 20 points.

His efforts were aided by Bennedict Mathurin’s 19, Obi Toppin’s 14, including a corner three with a hand in the face in the fourth quarter to give the Pacers even more momentum, TJ McConnell’s 13 and Pascal Siakam each, Ben Sheppard’s 12, all three. -pointers, 11 from Jalen Smith and 10 points from Andrew Nembhard on a perfect 4/4 shot.

Of course, I’m missing someone, or rather I’m saving the best for last. Indeed, Tyrese Haliburton finally came out of his brutal slump, finishing second on the team with 19 points on 8/15 shooting and dishing out 11 assists en route to perhaps his best game since the first game after the break. All-Star, which was against the Detroit Pistons.

Although Haliburton didn’t shoot the best by far, shooting only 3/10, confidence was slowly returning to him. Fortunately, he regained most of his good faith by the end of the game, as his final shot was a three-pointer that Pacers fans were relieved to see go in. Although the shooting still has a way to go, Haliburton shot 5/5. two-pointer was also promising. For the first time in what seemed like weeks, Haliburton finally felt comfortable driving to the rim and finishing among the trees.

It may only be one game, and the Pacers may still have a complete game against the eighth seed, but this win certainly did wonders for Haliburton and the team’s confidence. As Haliburton said in his postgame interview, “It can’t rain forever.” Hopefully this resounding victory will help the Pacers prepare for one of their biggest challenges yet, the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday.