TYRESE HALIBURTON: His 32-point, 15-assist, 12-rebound mastery was historic – Nikola Jokic and Oscar Robertson are the one different gamers to publish 30, 15 and 10 in a playoff recreation. His group can advance to the Finals with a victory tonight in New York. PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIA
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Tyrese Haliburton completed with 32 factors, 15 assists and 12 rebounds with out a turnover in a historic postseason efficiency to guide the Indiana Pacers previous the New York Knicks 130-121 on Tuesday night time for a 3-1 lead within the Jap Convention finals.
Along with his father, John, again in Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Haliburton turned the primary participant with such a stat line within the postseason since turnovers had been first tracked in 1977-78 and he carried the Pacers inside a victory of their second journey to the NBA Finals. Nikola Jokic and Oscar Robertson are the one different gamers to publish 30 factors, 15 assists and 10 rebounds in a playoff recreation.
Sport 5 is Thursday in New York.
“I’ll take a look at that later and mirror on that at a special time. For me, it’s nearly successful,” Haliburton mentioned. “I needed to show I might reply when my again is towards the wall, my group’s again is towards the wall. I really feel like we responded the fitting method.”
Pascal Siakam added 30 factors whereas Haliburton had 4 steals in his second profession postseason triple-double. Obi Toppin’s 3-pointer with 46 seconds left sealed it.
Jalen Brunson scored 31 factors. KarlAnthony Cities had 24 factors and 12 rebounds, and OG Anunoby completed with 22 factors. However the Knicks couldn’t rally from one other double-digit deficit.
It marked the primary time within the sequence the house group gained and leaves the Knicks one loss away from getting eradicated for the second straight yr by Indiana
“We’ve all bought to be higher. We’ve bought to be higher as a group,” Cities mentioned after shaking off a left leg damage with 2:11 to play to finish the sport. “It’s unlucky we couldn’t find a method tonight after we discovered a method in all the opposite sequence to do it.”
Practically a dozen former Pacers gamers, together with Jermaine O’Neal and Lance Stephenson, joined Haliburton’s father within the closely gold-clad crowd.
So did WWE Corridor of Famer Triple H, rappers Rob 49 and 50 Cent and singers John Mellencamp and Jelly Roll. Haliburton additionally introduced New York firefighter Hans Perez, a Pacers fan, to the sport and gave him a signed No. 0 jersey.
John Haliburton had been pressured to look at Indiana’s earlier eight postseason video games from afar after he ran onto the courtroom and confronted Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo following his son’s last-second shot to get rid of Milwaukee within the first spherical. The Pacers allowed him to return for Sport 4 and he sat in a collection.
Each groups had been taking pictures at a clip of 70% lengthy into the first quarter because the Pacers raced to a 43-35 lead. Haliburton helped Indiana shut the half on a 6-0 run to make it 69-64 as he finished the half simply two rebounds in need of his third profession triple-double.
“He was our chief tonight and we had some difficult film stuff yesterday, not enjoyable,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle mentioned. “We allowed issues to go a special path than they wanted to go in Sport 3 and tonight we had been decided to show it again in our path.”
Did they ever.
Indiana opened the second half with an much more aggressive type that spurred a 9-2 run and closed the quarter on a 9-4 spurt to increase the margin to 102-91. Siakam scored the ultimate 5 factors of a 9-3 run early within the fourth to offer Indiana a 111-96 lead.
New York bought as shut as six thrice within the closing minutes however couldn’t get any loser.
