3 Positives, 3 negatives from Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton’s FIBA World Cup

3 Positives, 3 negatives from Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton’s FIBA World Cup: Positive – Playmaking

On a day where Tyrese Haliburton’s defense isn’t there, or perhaps his shot isn’t falling as well as he’d hoped for, his playmaking is always something that Team USA could count on. No matter what.

During the 2022-23 regular season, Tyrese Haliburton dished out 585 assists, good for fourth in the league despite only playing in 56 games, and his 10.4 assists per game average was good for second in the league. However, due to missing games, he did not qualify for the league leaders list.

Sure enough, through all 13 of Team USA’s exhibition games, Haliburton’s playmaking was one thing that was always present, even on nights when his assist numbers weren’t as high.

Haliburton hit his career high in FIBA for assists in his very first game against Puerto Rico, dishing out 12, and he matched it two games later against Spain. While he didn’t reach this mark in the tournament games, he still notched some great games, including an eight-assist night.

The Pacers point guard has always been keen on finding the open man going back to his days in college, and with multiple star teammates in Team USA, he took full advantage of the opportunity. He threw no-look pass after no-look pass and got the crowd and his teammates excited about what he was going to pull out of his bag of tricks next.

https://twitter.com/FIBAWC/status/1699046283997041055

At times, Haliburton felt the need to get a bit more flashy, even throwing this between-the-legs alley-oop to Paolo Banchero, a move that had the announcers and social media buzzing.

https://twitter.com/FIBAWC/status/1699061488818999347

If there’s one thing you can expect from a Tyrese Haliburton performance, it’s that he will set his teammates up well, and his teammates love him for it.