HALIBURTON’S HEROICS HELP PACERS OUST CELTICS FROM NBA TOURNEY

The Indiana Pacers upset the Boston Celtics in the NBA In-Season Tournament, winning 122-112 in the quarterfinals on Monday night.

Haliburton finished with 26 points, including 16 in the second half, 10 rebounds, and 13 assists. After Indiana ended group play with a 4-0 record, Myles Turner added 17 points and 10 rebounds, and seven Pacers finished in double digits. Indiana was the only team left undefeated in the tournament.

The Pacers will play in the Las Vegas semifinals on Thursday against either Milwaukee or New York.

With 32 points and 12 rebounds, Jayson Tatum led the Celtics, followed by Jaylen Brown with 30 points and nine rebounds. Jaylen brown didn’t hesitate to dunk ferociously at the rim vs pacers as he dunked in many games before.

A late 9-0 run that started with a basket by Haliburton interrupted Boston’s three-game winning streak, All-Star Kristaps Porzingis was forced to miss his fourth straight game due to a strained left calf.

Boston Celtics dominated the the first Half of the game leading with 24-22 points in 1st quarter and 31-26 in 2nd quarter. Celtics were leading Pacers with 55-48 into the Half time.

In the third quarter, Indiana turned the tide of the match, rallying from a 56-48 halftime disadvantage to knot the score at 71 and then taking an 85-74 lead.

With 6:07 remaining, Brown’s 3-pointer gave Boston a tie at 94. Six more ties followed until Haliburton’s 27-foot rainbow jumper resulted in a foul. Tyrese Haliburton was all hyped after scoring this clutch 4 point play.

The game was full of energy with 15 lead changes and 15 times tie score happened. Celtics dominated the paint scoring 56 points in the paint compared to 44 points by Pacers. It was the costly 17 turnovers by the Celtics which resulted in shifting the momentum in the favor of the Pacers. Celtics struggled once again from 3-pointers with 29.3% from 3-point shooting line compared to pacers 47.5%.

This was a novel experience for the Indy young squad. For many of the young players on Indiana’s basketball team, this was as close to playoff basketball as they had ever experienced—from the audience waving towels and yelling “De-fense!” to the notable media presence, single-elimination stakes, and festive environment. Not even Buddy Hield, the 3-point specialist, and Haliburton have participated in a postseason game yet.

It was also different on the court. The energy level was high both from team and fans. Fans definitely enjoyed this electric game.

Tyrese Haliburton on getting “MVP” chants in the Pacers’ In-Season Tournament Quarterfinals Win. https://x.com/NBA/status/1731901464996417951?s=20

“It really means the world to me to have the opportunity to represent Indiana and this storied organization”.

Tyrese later tweeted “Not done yet” to show that he means business and he is not losing his focus of the main goal and that is to go winning every time. In- season tournament win will boost the confidence of this young squad for their playoff campaign.