On Sunday, the Indiana Pacers defeated the league-leading Cleveland Cavaliers to secure their sixth straight win. They are now four wins above .500 and own the No. 5 seed in the East. Overall, there is a lot to be excited about in Indiana. Specifically regarding their victory over the Cavaliers, however, it is a bit of a good news, bad news situation.
The good news? Indiana handed the Cavaliers just their fifth loss of the season and their first loss in over a month. The bad news? They did it in large part without Tyrese Haliburton, who suffered a left hamstring injury in the win and sat out the entire second half.
Currently, the severity of Haliburton's injury is unknown. However, because his injury is on the same hamstring that kept him out for some time last season, including Indiana's last two games of the playoffs, there is cause for concern, and it may be what stops the Pacers from reaching their full potential this season.
Tyrese Haliburton's hamstring injury should concern Pacers fans
In addition to Haliburton missing games for the Pacers last year because of the hamstring injury, the star guard also played very few minutes during Team USA's gold medal run in the 2024 Paris Olympics because of a leg injury. Even if Haliburton makes his return soon (or does not miss any time at all), it is fair for Pacers fans to be worried that this injury could pop up in the playoffs once again.
As it stands, despite their slow start, it seems increasingly likely that Indiana will make another playoff appearance this season. If fully healthy, there are reasons to believe they can make another deep run. However, Haliburton's status is one to monitor the rest of the way.
The one potential positive about this is that Haliburton suffered his injury in the middle of January and not any time closer to the playoffs. It is unclear what the team's plans are. However, it would make sense for them to be as cautious as possible and let Haliburton rest as much as possible. If Haliburton is set to miss any time, the Pacers will rely more heavily on Andrew Nembhard and T.J. McConnell to take over point guard duties in the meantime.
If it was not clear last year, it is definitely clear this year--Haliburton is crucial to the Pacers' success. They will only go as far as he can take them (which is evidently very far based on last year's conference finals run). Hopefully, this injury is just a freak incident that will not impact the Wisconsin native or the Pacers in the postseason. However, at this point, Pacers fans have the right to be worried.