Tyrese Haliburton has not looked like himself as of late.
The spotlight was on the star guard after the Pacers’ 121-117 Game 1 loss to the Knicks. He was supposed to contend with Jalen Brunson as the best player in this series. Brunson did his part, scoring 43 points. Haliburton was nowhere to be found, going through a rough 2-of-6 shooting night and scoring just six points.
If the Pacers are going to win this second-round series, then Haliburton needs to be the best player in it. Instead, he’s looked like a glorified role player.
Here’s what’s been causing the two-time All-Star’s struggles.
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These struggles have been a months-long issue for Haliburton. He started the year looking like he had a chance to make First Team All-NBA, leading the Pacers to the In-Season Tournament Finals.
A hamstring injury on Jan. 8 sidelined him for 10 of the next 11 games, and his play dropped off considerably.
Haliburton acknowledged the slump in March, telling reporters, “Never went through a slump like this in my life. S— sucks.”
The most noteworthy change in Haliburton post-injury was the giant dip in his 3-point percentage. He had been one of the best pull-up shooters in the league, hitting 39.1 percent of those shots before getting hurt. Since then, he’s connected on just 29.1 percent of those shots. He hasn’t been able to load up the same on that left leg, and it’s clearly affecting his rhythm.
The loss of Buddy Hield has also hampered Haliburton’s effectiveness. The Pacers traded Hield away at the deadline, hoping that they could replace some of his prodigious 3-point shooting with Doug McDermott. That hasn’t happened — McDermott has played just 17 total minutes in the postseason.
Without that plus spacing around him, Haliburton has not been as effective as a driver.
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If Haliburton’s calf issues weren’t bad enough, he’s also been going through back spasms that have clearly hampered his mobility. He was listed as questionable for Game 1 with the injury, which started in the Pacers’ first-round series with the Bucks.
Haliburton doesn’t have the same quickness on his drives. He couldn’t even manage to get by center Isaiah Hartenstein on switches in the first quarter.
Haliburton took a leap at the beginning of the year because he became a bigger threat to score. When teams had to respect his shot, it opened up his brilliant passing even more. He is no longer that threat, both because of that dip in pull-up 3-point percentage and his lack of burst.
The Knicks have also done a great job of denying Haliburton the ball. Donte DiVincenzo has been in his shirt, preventing him from using screens and blowing up the plays that the Pacers have tried to run. Josh Hart has done a similarly admirable job.
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While Haliburton’s scoring has been hampered by all of the factors listed above, his court vision is still very much a factor. He had eight assists in Game 1 and jump-started the Pacers’ offense with good outlet passes on a couple of occasions. He threw the pass of the night in the second quarter.
Even as a shell of himself, Haliburton is still having a positive impact on the game, but this Knicks team is far too good to beat unless he can look like his old self. Many of his struggles seem health-related, so that may be too high of a hill to climb.
