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Tyrese Haliburton has been insanely efficient when Pacers have needed it most
Tyrese Haliburton has been insanely efficient when Pacers have needed it most
Outside of two first-round sleepfests (see you later Miami, Memphis), the 2024-25 NBA Playoffs has been pretty exciting so far. But if the start of the second round has suggested anything, we are in for quite the postseason.
We’re only days into the second round–with only one series having played two games through Tuesday’s action. That series is between the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers, who find themselves down 2-0 to the No. 4 Indiana Pacers after a pair of losses at home–coughing up a 20-point second-half lead in Game 2.
Pacers star guard Tyrese Haliburton handed Cleveland the final blow in the waning seconds. He missed a free-throw to cut Indiana’s deficit to one–just to make a go-ahead stepback 3-pointer over an outstretched Ty Jerome with 1.1 seconds left.
The 25-year-old guard sent the Milwaukee Bucks home in overtime in the series-clinching Game 5 in the first round. Whether you believe what I’m about to tell you or not, but Haliburton is 10-for-11 on shots to either tie or take the lead in the final two minutes of a game this season.
That’s absurd.
In the regular season, in normal clutch situations–defined as possessions where the point differential is five points or fewer in the final five minutes–he’s shooting 47.1 percent (33-70), including 16-of-39 (41.0 percent) from 3-point range.
Of the 65 players with at least 35 shot attempts in those situations, his 58.6 effective field goal percentage in those situations is the 11th-best; of the 30 with at least 50 FGA’s, his eFG% ranks fourth.
For perspective, Jalen Brunson, who won the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year this year, is 14th and 5th, respectively. I’m not going to say New York’s star guard did or didn’t deserve the award–it’s too early for us to care since it’s the award’s third year in existence; there’s not much criteria–but Haliburton has been one of the league’s most efficient players in the clutch this season.
It couldn’t have come at a perfect time, either, as the Pacers head back home with the clear advantage against a shorthanded Cavaliers.
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