Almost a month ago to the day, on January 8, 2024, Tyrese Haliburton went down with a Grade 1 left hamstring strain after slipping on the Indiana Pacers court and getting carried off with a towel on his head.
At first, this injury seemed to have potential season-altering consequences as, during that time, the grade and severity were not known. It was possible that Haliburton could miss anywhere from the rest of the month to a few months and the All-Star game in Indiana, which he was starting in.
To add to the awkwardness, the Pacers would trade for All-Star Pascal Siakam during Haliburton's absence in a move designed to not only help Haliburton on the floor but perhaps grab some extra wins during his absence.
However, this would turn out to be quite interesting when Haliburton announced his return quicker than anybody could've expected. Originally slated to be re-evaluated on January 22, Haliburton surprised the NBA world by announcing that he intended to play in Indiana's January 19 matchup against Portland, three days ahead of his scheduled re-evaluation, much less a potential return to the court.
Despite looking decent in this outing, it was clear that it was perhaps too soon for the superstar, as he would miss the next five games managing his injury in hopes to not re-aggravate it.
Eventually, the serious concerns about him playing would be put to rest, and Haliburton would make his full-time return to the rotation on January 30 against the very team he got injured against, the Boston Celtics.
As of February 7, it has been five games with Haliburton back in the rotation, and now is perhaps as good a time as ever with the trade deadline coming up to review how exactly Haliburton has fared in these return games, how his minutes have been managed, how well he has shot, and, perhaps most importantly, how well he has played alongside Pascal Siakam.
(Note: This was written before the Indiana Pacers' loss to the Golden State Warriors on Thursday night.)
Taking Tyrese Haliburton's injury restriction into account
To start, I think it would be best to discuss the elephant in the room, that being Haliburton's limited minutes since his return to the lineup. Averaging around 34 minutes per game before the injury, it was expected that Haliburton's minutes would be staggered a bit in his first few return games to avoid the very realistic chance of a re-injury or a re-aggravation.
As such, Haliburton has been limited to around 22 minutes per game, which has been the subject of some discourse among Pacers fans. While they are not particularly upset about the restriction itself, as it allows Haliburton to get back into the swing of playing full NBA minutes, something he hasn't done in almost a full month at this point, they are a bit weary about the placement of said minutes and when he should and shouldn't be on the floor.
For example, the first two games of Haliburton's return campaign were against the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks. In these games, Haliburton played quite well for someone coming off injury rehab, but both of these games were lost in the fourth quarter.
Coincidentally, Haliburton only played six minutes in the second half of the Boston loss and another six in the second half of the New York loss. This issue becomes prominent when a closer look is taken at the box scores of these games, revealing that Indiana vastly outplayed their competition when Haliburton was on the floor compared to when he was on the bench when they would eventually squander their momentum.
Despite the inconsistent team play, Haliburton himself has been quite impressive in his return, averaging 15.4 points, 2.6 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 0.8 steals, and, surprisingly, 1.2 blocks per game on 52.5/36/75 splits in exactly 23 minutes per game.
Adjusting this to his pre-injury minutes average of 33.4 returns the full picture, as with no minutes restriction, Haliburton would potentially average 22.4 points, 7.8 assists, 3.7 rebounds, 1.1 steals, and 1.7 blocks per game. While these per-33.4-minute stats aren't concrete by any means, they are an interesting tidbit to note when judging just how rusty Haliburton has been since his return and how much more room he has to grow, given that he has only just played his sixth game with Siakam.
Tyrese Haliburton's play alongside Pascal Siakam
Speaking of Siakam, he and Haliburton have gotten pretty accustomed to each other in the relatively short amount of time they have played together. Excluding the initial Portland game, Siakam has played 173 minutes in games with Haliburton, and not all of those minutes have come with the two together, with Haliburton being on a minutes restriction in all but the first game.
In these five games, Haliburton and Siakam have combined for an impressive 38.6 points, 9.8 assists, and 8.8 rebounds per game while leading the Pacers to an offensive rating of 119.8, only three points down from their previous 122.8 average and pretty impressive for a team still dealing with injuries and finding out their new identity.
All in all, while the Pacers' record with Haliburton back hasn't been the most glossy, with them sitting at 2-3 since the Boston return and dropping two winnable games to playoff teams, you can't ask for too much since the team is dealing with plenty of nagging injuries and fully in the pre-All-Star Break lull.
Going forward, Indiana has the projected fourth easiest strength of schedule, and with 30 games left and a determination to stay out of play-in uncertainty, it should be fun to see where this team goes from this point on.