How Tyrese Haliburton stopped himself from stopping himself

And how he was there, both in being present and with his presence 

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

Less than a week ago, when the Pacers fell by a score of 120-114 to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Tyrese Haliburton scored four points on six shots -- none of which were hoisted in the final three minutes of the game, as a two-point lead for the Pacers turned into a six-point loss. After the game, Rick Carlisle said the following with regard to the star guard's level of involvement or, more accurately, lack thereof:

"A lot of it had to do with match-ups," he explained. "We knew that the best chance for us was to keep the game as random as possible, keep pace and movement in the game. When you do that, it's hard to gauge exactly where the ball goes."

Later, he added, "They committed Lu Dort to him, and Dort's as good a defender as there is in the league right now. That had a lot to do with it as well."

Those are both perfectly fine and legitimate answers, but another factor as to why Haliburton was limited was most certainly Haliburton. After all, he played nine minutes when Dort wasn't on the floor, and he only attempted two shots during that span. He also never attempted a shot against OKC's zone, and it wasn't as if Dort was face-guarding him the entire game in man coverage, either. Here, for example, all it takes is a simply slot-to-slot pitch for Dort to switch off onto Andrew Nembhard.

Granted, Oklahoma City's defense prefers to pack the paint, and the reason why he chose to pass there can be passed off on account of the size advantage Turner had inside, but the point remains: it wasn't as if Dort was stuck to him like glue. Likewise, if the game-plan was to play keep away from Dort, then why exactly was Haliburton directing traffic from the weak-side on this possession, motioning for Turner to set the first screen, knowing that Dort would pre-switch on the approach, so that Siakam could then follow with Hartenstein.

In essence, they deliberately manufactured a defensive combo of Dort-Hartenstein for Nembhard to attack, with Haliburton on the periphery. Hmm, very hmm.

Plus, when Haliburton was at the controls, there were possessions like this -- even when Dort was nowhere in his vicinity.

Much like Carlisle's aforementioned response, that's a perfectly fine shot for Nembhard, but who exactly was stopping Haliburton, except for Haliburton?

A few nights later, that's a question he was bold enough to answer in Boston, as the Pacers responded from a 142-105 loss to the Celtics with a 123-114 win over the Celtics. Just take a look at his persistence on this possession, when the Pacers were likewise clinging to a two-point lead with less than 7:30 to play in the game.

Not only is he bringing the ball up against Brown's pressure, he maintains a live-dribble even as he runs into help from Jayson Tatum after rejecting the screen from Turner. Then, with Brown doubling back, he circled into another screen from Turner, only advancing the ball once Horford surged out to switch. With Horford in hard denial, he stepped-out to space, as he so often does when his defender only has eyes for him, but he didn't deactivate. When Nembhard aborted his dribble without being able to find a passing angle to Turner, Haliburton sprang back into action, not only sprinting to "get" the ball from Nembhard, but also getting past Tatum with an inside-out dribble that led him directly inside without even a thought at passing out.

That's random offense, just like the Pacers purposed to play against the Thunder, the only difference is, Haliburton didn't leave to chance whether the ball would find his energy, his energy found the ball -- even as he was defended and, at times, momentarily confronted by Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Al Horford, and Jayson Tatum again within the same possession. From that point forward, the Pacers never trailed, as they proceeded to go on an 11-0 run. On the next possession, when Haliburton started to attack against Horford in isolation, Sam Hauser attempted to plug the gap, allowing Turner to set a corner pin-in screen that freed up Ben Sheppard for three. Less than a minute later, when Turner pulled down a rebound that Haliburton had tapped in his direction, a hit-ahead pass from Haliburton turned into yet another bucket, this time at the rim, for Sheppard.

Don't get it twisted. Haliburton wasn't the only hero in this game. Mathurin was there when they needed him, Walker played with the effort that made him standout during garbage time in the prior game, and Nembhard continues to be a game-changer, whether subbing in for McConnell to play with the bench when the Celtics were "guarding" the back-up guard with a center or on the next trip down the floor in the fourth quarter, when he pulled the chair on Jaylen Brown at one end of the floor and then looked off Sheppard in the corner to feed Turner for a running dunk at the other. Still, Haliburton came to his own rescue, capping off his night of production with free throws that were later followed by a drive against Horford in isolation again, as the two starting point guards for the Pacers demonstrated how they can balance each other out when they're both, actively, keeping the defense off balance.

For the game, Haliburton recorded 14 drives and finished 10 of them with a shot, marking his highest shot volume on drives since December of last season. In what was his fifth 30-point game of the season, he only made one three, as he tied his career-high of 18 points in the paint, while also going 8-of-9 at the free throw line.

Some of that can probably be attributed to the fact that neither Jrue Holiday, who is the player most likely to face-guard him on Boston's roster, wasn't available, nor was Kristaps Porzingis as a potential secondary rim protector with considerably more size than the guards and wings who were forced to commit once Horford was beat on the perimeter. Even so, Oklahoma City was without Alex Caruso and Chet Holmgren and, as previously stated, Lu Dort wasn't always even the obstacle standing in his way -- at least not to the extent that Jalen Suggs, Andre Jackson, Jaylen Wells, and others have been this season.

In that regard, there have been a handful of games when Haliburton's level of attack, even more so than his involvement, has almost seemed predetermined, whether based on what he can give on any given night or what they expect to get from the defense rather than always as a response to the defense. On one night against a contender, he was basically just there, in that he was present, when the Pacers were clinging to a two-point lead in the fourth quarter. A few nights later, against a different contender, he was there with his presence, both taking and sharing in the lead, as he pushed the Pacers further ahead by repeatedly turning the ball downhill and/or reinserting himself into the action. Every game is different, and the Celtics are certainly different from the Thunder in how they wall off the three-point line as opposed to loading up at the blocks and the elbows, but Haliburton was different too in that he didn't stop short of finding out whether the defense would and/or could stop him.

To understand the impact he provides can, at times, be like understanding the importance of negative space in art, as there are still avenues for him to enhance the harmony and composition of the team even when opponents scheme to keep him in the background and away from the ball; however, what the win over Boston goes to show, is that when the avenues for driving are there for the taking, he's also more than capable of adding depth, without taking anything away, by driving deeper in addition to simply being there.