Tyrese Haliburton puts on playmaking and defensive clinic in first Team USA showcase

For only the second time since 1996, the Indiana Pacers' top player can call himself an Olympic athlete, and Tyrese Haliburton did not disappoint in his first outing for Team USA on Wednesday. After not playing a game since Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals, which was 49 days ago, Tyrese Haliburton has stepped onto the court again in Team USA's first Showcase game in Las Vegas against Team Canada on July 10th. Shortly after leading the Indiana Pacers to an unexpected Conference Finals run, Haliburton is back representing the USA in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

Going into the game's 10:30 PM start time, the starting lineups were not known yet, and the team was still reeling from the loss of Kawhi Leonard due to knee problems and Kevin Durant's known absence from the first game due to a calf strain. As such, coach Steve Kerr went with a rather unconventional lineup of Stephen Curry, Jrue Holiday, and Devin Booker all starting, along with LeBron James and Joel Embiid, for a total of three guards in the starting lineup, essentially making Haliburton a guarantee to be the lead point guard off the bench.

With the backup point guard spot all but confirmed for at least the first showcase game, Tyrese Haliburton was expected to get a decent chunk of minutes en route to Team USA's first win of the Olympic season against Canada.

This would also mean more to Haliburton, as Team Canada includes fellow starting Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard off the bench, who recently made the team, surviving the final round of cuts. Without any further ado, let's see how Haliburton did in his first taste of Olympic-level action.

Tyrese vs. Canada: First Half

It did not take long for Tyrese Haliburton to officially sub into the game, coming in with 4:53 left in the first quarter and with Team USA down 4-12. With this large deficit and a very slow start to their game, it was clear Team USA needed a spark from someone on the roster, and Haliburton provided that in abundance.

Mere seconds after subbing in, Haliburton got a block on Canada's RJ Barrett, showing the height and versatility that landed him on Team USA in the first place, further proved by him winning the ensuing jump ball as well. Outside of this, Haliburton recorded his only other stat with 3:35 left in the first quarter, diming up Jayson Tatum for a driving layup to cut the Canada lead down to four.

It did not take long for Haliburton to go back to his playmaking ways in the second quarter, as he quickly hit up Anthony Edwards for a fadeaway jumper within the first 30 seconds of the quarter for his second assist of the game.

A short while later, Haliburton grabbed an offensive rebound and spun off his defender, but missed the jumper, after which he hustled for a beautiful save and kicked it out to Anthony Edwards, but he missed the three-pointer, essentially negating Haliburton's hustle to keep possession but rewarding him two rebounds.

With around eight minutes left in the second quarter, Haliburton was taken out of the game. This rest lasted about four and a half minutes, after which he was subbed back in for the final 3:30, where he really got active. First, Haliburton threw his third assist of the game in the most stylish way possible, throwing a beautiful feed off a layup attempt to a cutting Bam Adebayo who finished the play with an inside dunk to give Team USA a four-point lead.

The rest of Haliburton's first-half output consisted of another rebound, and surprisingly enough, two steals. In fact, Tyrese Haliburton was perhaps Team USA's best defender in this game, debunking everyone's idea of him being a defensive liability by using his long arms to his advantage by pestering shooters and playing the passing lanes like an alert hawk, getting plenty of pilfers in the passing lane when players least expected it, even to the point where Bill Raftery complimented his defensive ability out loud

Shortly after the two steals, Tyrese Haliburton's first half came to an end. In about 10:30 of playing time, Haliburton filled up the stat sheet in his own way, going scoreless on 0/2 from the field but recording three rebounds, three assists, two steals, and one block while having an impressive plus/minus of +11, being one of the more impactful players on the team.

Tyrese vs. Canada: Second Half

In the third quarter, Haliburton played the final 4:30 and only recorded two assists, but had perhaps his most memorable play of the game. After an Anthony Davis rebound off a Canada three-point miss, Haliburton threw up an alley-oop pass that was seemingly meant for the trailing Anthony Edwards, but sailed above him and landed back in Davis' hands for a soaring layup finish, giving Team USA the highlight of the night and exciting basketball fans everywhere with another display of his incredible passing.

Haliburton's final assist of the quarter was also a memorable one, as he fed Anthony Edwards for a buzzer-beating three to end the third quarter with Team USA up 69-54, ready to put the game away.

Haliburton played roughly the first 2:40 of the fourth quarter, getting another rebound, missing a three-pointer to go 0/3, and getting his third steal of the night. Following about 4:20 spent on the bench, Haliburton was subbed back in to play out the final three minutes of the game with Team USA up 13 points and the game out of reach to the point where Micah Potter, Langston Galloway, and Nigel Hayes-Davis checked in as well. Haliburton made the most of his final three minutes, immediately getting an assist within three seconds of checking in off an inbound pass to Jrue Holiday.

At this point, only one thing was missing, and that was some points. Up until the last 30 seconds of the game, Tyrese Haliburton was scoreless on 0/3 from the field, noticeably hesitating before taking open shots and missing all of his jumpers.

However, that would change, as he picked off a pass from Canada's Phil Scrubb for his fourth steal, and followed it up with a breakaway reverse dunk, getting his first unofficial Olympic points in style and preventing himself from going scoreless in his first outing.

And with that, Tyrese Haliburton's first taste of Olympic competition was in the books.

Haliburton’s Final Stats and Takeaways

All in all, Tyrese Haliburton had a very productive night against Canada, logging only two points (1/4 FG and 0/2 3PT) but contributing in other ways with four rebounds, six assists (game-high), four steals (game-high), one block, and a game-high plus/minus of +17, making him, statistically, the most valuable player on the floor.

This, of course, resulted in a big-time Team USA win, as they knocked off Andrew Nembhard and Team Canada with a final score of 86-72 to win their first Showcase game to get them ready for the real games to start soon.

While Haliburton's stats were solid, they did not reflect how good he was on the floor and how much better he made everyone around him. Just like how he did in the World Cup a year ago, Haliburton's arrival on the floor quickly led to the pace being pushed up a notch and his teammates needing to run faster, but ultimately getting the ball exactly where they wanted to get a bucket.

Both in transition and the half-court, Haliburton's main objective was to give his All-Star teammates their best opportunity to succeed and put points up on the board, which he did in abundance, showing why his fantastic playmaking got him on Team USA in the first place over flashier scorers like Kyrie Irving and Jalen Brunson.

Furthermore, Haliburton's defense was a massive plus during the entire game. Not only was he very active off-ball, as shown by his four steals, but he played a big hand in contesting shots, even sending Kelly Olynyk out of the paint by simply closing out before he could get a shot off, resulting in Canada having to settle for a contested three-pointer, which was a miss.

More than anything, Haliburton's effort on defense in his 20 minutes on the floor on Wednesday was some of the most effort he's shown on that end in extended minutes as a Pacer. If he can bring similar energy to the regular season, combined with his height and length, which you cannot teach, he may very well become a sleeper two-way star soon enough.

However, this does not mean he was used right by Steve Kerr from the jump. For the majority of the first half, Kerr ran a bench backcourt of Haliburton and Anthony Edwards, which was to be expected. What was not expected, was Edwards bringing the ball up the court most of the time and Haliburton standing around waiting for a pass like a shooting guard.

This led to some costly mistakes, as Edwards is prone to tunnel vision at times and especially forcing up bad shots in traffic. As he knows from his days playing with Haliburton on the previous year's FIBA World Cup team, if he stays patient and gets to his spots, Haliburton will find him and get him the ball right where he wants it. They were thankfully able to fix this up in the second half, and Haliburton found himself with the ball in his hands more, but it is something to look out for going forward.

Regardless of the rocky start, Tyrese Haliburton had a very good performance in Team USA's first showcase game against Puerto Rico which will hopefully lead to Steve Kerr calling his number more consistently as the tournament goes on.

With Kevin Durant and Derrick White yet to play a game for Team USA, this game was very important for Haliburton to prove that he belongs in the rotation, and I would say he did just that, as he ran Team USA's offense to perfection and made all his teammates happy with the dimes he dropped as well as the pockets he picked on defense.

While he left something to be desired as a scorer, this was to be expected, as he was brought on for his defense and length at the point guard position. However, Pacers fans would still like to see the open shots fall for Haliburton, as he will be getting more of those with the amount of spacing Team USA has at their disposal. Judging by his games for Team USA in the FIBA World Cup last year, Haliburton seems to have the same impact this time around, except on a better team and with more options to pass to.

As time goes on, and Kerr tinkers with his lineups more and gives certain players more or fewer touches and minutes, we will see if Tyrese Haliburton can continue getting something close to the 20 minutes he got in the first Showcase game. For now, we can say that Tyrese’s performance in Game 1 was very promising, and gives Pacers’ fans hope for what we can see in the future.