Pacer’s Haliburton draws ‘super duper’ praise despite mediocre FIBA game

After two back-to-back games against Slovenia and Spain, the latter of which came down to the wire in Team USA’s biggest scare of the FIBA exhibition games so far, Tyrese Haliburton and Team USA are back in action after 4 days of rest, this time in Abu Dhabi against Greece. Now, this is not the Greece team that you are used to, as they are missing a key contributor, to say the least, in the form of two-time league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, who withdrew before the exhibition games started.

Giannis aside, this Greek team is still very talented, with the likes of Giannis’ brother Thanasis and Greek basketball legend Dimitris Diamantidis being a few of the names on the Greek basketball roster.

This is Team USA’s fourth of five exhibition games, which end on the 20th with a final game against Germany. This will be five days before the official start of the FIBA World Cup and when the games start to really matter. For the US, the FIBA World Cup kicks off on Saturday, August 26, against New Zealand.

If you were expecting Tyrese to make the starting lineup after averaging 10 assists in the first 3 exhibition games then I have some bad news for you, as the lineup remains unchanged from the first three games, with Jalen Brunson getting the start following his 21 points on 9-for-9 shooting in the previous game.

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This wasn’t fazing Haliburton at least, as he was clearly having fun and goofing around prior to the game in Abu Dhabi.

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With that being said, how did Tyrese Haliburton fare in another challenging exhibition game?

Tyrese vs Greece: First Half

Steve Kerr only waited 7 minutes this time to check Haliburton in, subbing him in with 4:57 left in the first quarter, and Tyrese did not make him wait long for results, hitting his favorite target, Cam Johnson 15 seconds later for the open 3

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This Haliburton and Cam Johnson connection has produced some very exciting plays recently, and the people have taken notice of this.

Tyrese would get back to distributing soon after, this time getting it to Bobby Portis inside for the bank shot.

Tyrese would not only look for others in the first quarter, taking matters into his own hands for the creative drive and layup finish in traffic.

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Tyrese would further cement his impact in the second quarter with another highlight assist, this time to Paolo Banchero after skillfully faking out 2 Greek defenders, leading to Banchero’s dunk, which left the commentators in awe.

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Soon after, Tyrese would continue his playmaking ways, once again hitting his favorite target, Cam Johnson for another 3-pointer. before getting subbed out with 7:22 left in the first half. He would get subbed back in with 46 seconds left but would not log any stats for the rest of the half and would get taken back out at the start of the 3rd quarter.

Haliburton would finish the first half with 2 points (1/2 FG, 0/1 3PT), 4 assists, 2 rebounds, 1 turnover, and 1 foul in only 8 minutes of play. One could assume that he was saving his best performance for the second half as he has been doing the past three games.

Tyrese vs Greece: Second Half

Kerr would not waste much time in getting Haliburton some more action, with him getting subbed in with 7:52 left in the third quarter. Haliburton would struggle at first, getting called for a travel and committing another foul shortly after, but would bolster his defensive stats shortly after, recording a steal and a block. Haliburton would also hit a free throw and, in perhaps his best scoring play of the night, would stop on a dime, hit a behind-the-back move, and convert on a pull-up three after shaking his defender loose.

Besides another traveling call, this would be the last of Haliburton’s contributions in the third quarter. In the 4th quarter, Haliburton would record another steal, another turnover, missed a three, and got subbed out with 6:38 left in the fourth quarter, not seeing the floor for the rest of the game.

Haliburton’s Final Stats and Takeaways

This was definitely Tyrese Haliburton’s quietest game of the 4 he has played so far for Team USA. In a total of 19 minutes, his lowest so far, Haliburton logged 6 points (2/4 FG, 1/3 3PT, 1/1 FT), 4 assists, 2 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 block, 2 fours, and a surprising 4 turnovers as Team USA cruised to their fourth straight victory, beating Greece 108-86 behind 21 points from Anthony Edwards.

Now, I wouldn’t say that this game is anything to worry about, as for one, it is still an exhibition game and does not dictate how Tyrese’s tournament play will go, and two, Tyrese was barely getting the ball, even being spotted frantically calling for it on a certain play and being completely ignored.

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This has been the norm so far in the tournament, with Tyrese’s 8.3 points per game being surprisingly low considering the expectations on him and the scoring breakout he has had ever since landing in Indiana. However, this is to be expected, considering that he is sharing the floor with plenty of talented scorers in their own right on Team USA.

Tyrese was also whiffing on open shots, especially threes, as he did go 1/3 on the night.

The 4-assist total is also quite surprising considering the fact that Haliburton was averaging 10 assists coming into the game on Friday and had two 12-assist performances, one in the first exhibition game and another in the previous game vs Spain. This relatively low assist performance would drag down Tyrese’s assist average in the exhibition games, from 10.0 to 8.5. Still impressive, but not reaching double figures like the previous number.

However, it is not deniable how valuable Tyrese is whenever he steps on the floor, as the fans have also noted that the pace quickens and more opportunities are created with him running the offense and setting things up and Tyrese has also found his preferred targets to get the ball to, namely Cam Johnson.

Only time will dictate how Haliburton’s scoring comes along and if he can keep up his passing. If anything, at least his 2 steals, and 1 block are a good indication of his defense nicely progressing. Hopefully, as time goes on and Team USA comes up with a set gameplan for the tournament starting soon, Steve Kerr, Tyronn Lue, and Erik Spoelstra will recognize Haliburton’s contributions in the limited playing time he gets and perhaps run more plays on him. For now, his performance has been up and down, but it is without question that he is helping Team USA’s bottom line so far.

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