Tyrese Haliburton was nothing short of dominant in Pacers win vs. Celtics

The Indiana Pacers just picked up their biggest win of the season, defeating the Boston Celtics in an In-Season Tournament quarterfinal thriller on TNT.

Going into this game, hopes were all over the place, as the Pacers had suffered one of their worst losses in franchise history to the Celtics earlier in the season. But that was without Tyrese Haliburton.

With Haliburton returning to the lineup after taking a game vs. the Miami Heat off, a game that Indiana actually won, hopes were relatively high for Indiana to pull off an upset and advance further in the tournament.

And advance they did, as Indiana shocked the NBA world by making easy work of Boston in the second half to get the 122-112 win on their home floor in front of a national television audience to advance to the semifinal matchup on Thursday.

While plenty of Pacers stepped up, seven of them scoring in double figures, the man everyone talked about at the end of the night was perhaps the man with the most eyes on him, Tyrese Haliburton.

In only his second-ever nationally televised game and one of two national TV games for the Pacers, Haliburton put the NBA world on notice that he is built for the big moments. While his stat line doesn't tell the full story, it certainly does tell a story.

In a game-high 40 minutes, Haliburton put up a team-high 26 points on 10/18 shooting and 5/11 from three, grabbed 10 rebounds, and dished out a game-high 13 assists on the night, notching the first triple-double of his career.

Before we can get to the production, we first have to talk about the minutes. Haliburton missed the last game vs. Miami due to an upper respiratory infection and was visibly tired throughout the game, especially in the closing stages.

He was so tired, in fact, that he stated in his postgame interview that he had to take his inhaler at halftime due to being so out of breath.

Despite being visibly tired and out of breath for the majority of the game, Haliburton still tore the Celtics up in the second half. Following a rather lackluster first half, where he put up seven points on 3/8 shooting and only dished out two assists, doubts were starting to get cast over Haliburton and his play in big moments.

However, he shut those doubters up quickly with a second-half takeover, which led Indiana to the win over Boston, gaining the title of Kenny Smith's favorite player to watch in the process.

Because the Pacers don't get much national media attention, with them only having one scheduled national TV game this season, that being in January against Boston again, Monday was a fantastic opportunity for Haliburton to show the NBA world what he is made of, and he completely delivered.

Indiana is looking good so far in the In-Season Tournament, having gone undefeated going into the semifinals on Thursday against the Bucks. This is another opportunity for Haliburton and the Pacers to prove themselves on the big stage.