Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton, who spoke earlier in the NBA Finals about coping with a “decrease leg” concern, was hampered by an harm affecting the identical leg in the course of the group’s Sport 5 loss on Monday, writes Jamal Collier of ESPN.
Haliburton’s preliminary decrease leg concern was later revealed to be a proper ankle ailment. On Monday, he went to the locker room within the first quarter as a consequence of proper calf tightness, then returned to the court docket and completed the sport. He instructed reporters after the loss that Monday’s harm was within the “similar space,” however that he by no means thought-about shutting it down for the evening.
“It’s the Finals,” Haliburton stated. “I’ve labored my complete life to be right here and I need to be on the market to compete, assist my teammates any manner I can. I used to be not nice tonight by any means, however it’s probably not a considered mine to not play right here. If I can stroll, then I need to play.”
Monday’s efficiency was simply Haliburton’s worst of the Finals. His 4 factors matched a private profession playoff low, and he didn’t make a single discipline objective try, going 0-for-6 from the ground because the Pacers fell behind 3-2 within the collection. He did handle to seize seven rebounds and hand out six assists, however Indiana was outscored by 13 factors when he was on the ground in a sport the group misplaced by 11 factors.
“Simply making an attempt to maintain tempo within the sport, influence no matter manner I can,” Haliburton stated, per Shakeia Taylor of The Athletic. “Simply making an attempt to get (Pascal Siakam) the ball in the appropriate spots. Attempt to get the ball to guys in the appropriate spots if I can. So far as what occurred there, now we have to look at movie to see it.”
Having their All-NBA level guard battling well being points isn’t ideally suited for the Pacers as they put together for a win-or-go-home Sport 6 in Indiana. Nonetheless, head coach Rick Carlisle expressed confidence that Haliburton will probably be accessible on Thursday.
“He’s not one hundred pc. It’s fairly clear,” Carlisle stated. “However I don’t assume he’s going to overlook the following sport. We had been involved at halftime, and he insisted on taking part in. I believed he made lots of actually good issues occur within the second half. However he’s not one hundred pc. There’s lots of guys within the collection that aren’t. We’ll consider all the things with Tyrese and see how he wakes up tomorrow.”
As Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star writes, backup level guard T.J. McConnell gave the group some large minutes on Monday with Haliburton struggling. McConnell scored 18 factors on 8-of-14 taking pictures in 22 minutes off the bench.
If Haliburton doesn’t seem like his traditional self on Thursday, the Pacers might should lean extra on McConnell, Siakam, and Andrew Nembhard for play-making.
