Tyrese Haliburton silences critics in another dominant Indiana Pacers performance

This week, the all-star voting was released, and Indiana Pacers’ guard Tyrese Haliburton was only 8th among all guards in the east. Given that he has been statistically the best point guard in the east, this was a bit of a surprise to many.

It appears that Haliburton may have used this as additional motivation against the Trailblazers. These results followed the surprising comments made by Knicks announcer Wally Szczerbiak who said that Tyrese was a fake all-star. Given Tyrese’s play in recent weeks, it appears that all of the disrespect he is getting from the national media may continue to fuel his motivation.

However, Tyrese further cemented his case on Friday by completing demolishing the Portland Trailblazers and leading Indiana to it’s fifth (fifth!) straight home win. He was brilliant in the game putting together a statistically successful night. Haliburton’s stat line for the night:

Haliburton against Trailblazers: 15 points, 12 assists, 4 rebounds, 1 steal

And that was on a night where Tyrese was unable to shoot at an efficient level, only shooting 30% from behind the arc, well below his season average. Tyrese is showing that he doesn’t need to be scoring at an efficient clip, but can impact the game in other ways when he is having an off shooting night.

So how about the rest of the Pacers team?

In the win against the Trailblazers, the Pacers showed some promising signs. The game was neck-and-neck for most of the game until the Pacers were able to step on the gas in the fourth. This young team continues to make strides in being able to finish out games, with the exception being the recent collapse against the 76ers. The team also appears to have been able to overcome their slow-start problem and get out the gate at least at a moderate pace.

Other things of note:

• Nesmith continues to play solid defensive basketball with an ability to score at opportune times.
• Hield struggled a bit from three, but was able to hit a few key shots at the right moment.
• Turner continued his bid for a career year with 17 points. He also is beginning to look like a competent rebounder with 7 on the night.
• Bennedict Mathurin put in another solid performance that indicated that he may still be on track to win Rookie of the Year.

The Pacers continue their playoff push in the upcoming week against the Hornets when they come to visit Gainbridge.

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The Indiana Pacers are looking great, and may be in a great position to make a playoff push. Tyrese Haliburton is looking like ...