INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton looked and sounded more like himself Monday night.
He made one 3-pointer after another, found open teammates with nifty passes and, yes, was smiling again. Celebrating a second-straight win certainly helped matters, too.
For the usually unflappable two-time All-Star, the bounce back game came as he finally started letting go of his pent-up frustration by speaking freely about what he’s learned over the first two months of this NBA season - and why he needs to stop blaming his early season struggles for Indiana’s slow start.
“Everybody wants to say be happy, have fun. That’s hard to do when you’re not playing well or you’re losing,” Haliburton said after the 114-110 victory over New Orleans. “But differentiating the difference between happiness and joy - I’ve always had a joy for the game of basketball and love and appreciation for what I do. So I think I just got caught in becoming frustrated with myself and this kind of creeped into like job territory, you know what I mean? That’s not me.”
Haliburton has displayed an unusual edginess since training camp began in late September.
On media day, he talked about disproving the critics who claimed last season’s run was more about luck than skill. He also found motivation in being deep on the bench during the U.S. Olympic basketball team’s gold-medal winning run.
He thought it could propel himself and his team to even greater successes.
Instead, a series of injuries have severely thinned the Pacers once-deep roster, Haliburton’s shots stopped falling, the losses piled up and suddenly the straight-talking guy who inspired so many with his beaming, trademark smile didn’t look or sound like himself.
Others noticed.
“I’ve got people sending me clips of how I’ve looked in the media and how I looked on the court and my body language sucks, my attitude sucks,” Haliburton said. “It’s hard to get out of what’s going on if you’re that way. I’ve been told my whole life to control what I can control and I can’t control if the ball goes in every time. But I can control my body language, I can control my energy and I can control my effort.”
Whether it was the short conversation between Haliburton and All-Star forward Pascal Siakam after Sunday’s victory over Washington or something else, Haliburton looked like a different player Monday.
He was 12 of 23 from the field, both season highs, made a season best nine 3s and produced his eighth double-double of the season.
Haliburton finished with his second-highest point total (34), matched a season-high with 13 assists and made all the big plays down the stretch - the tiebreaking 3-pointer with 3:06 remaining, driving for a layup that gave Indiana a five-point lead and finding Bennedict Mathurin for an alley-oop dunk that brought the crowd to its feet with a minute to play.
He believes it’s just a start.
“I think people look at the Indiana Pacers and they’re like ‘Man, their pace is down, the energy of the team isn’t very good.’ Put that on me,” Haliburton said. “That’s where I’ve been, and I got caught up in myself. I think for us to go back to playing Pacers basketball, playing the right way, (it’s) how can I internalize whatever I’ve got going on and then put that into the group and our guys? We’ve got to get back to having the right energy.”
How did Haliburton get to this point?
The 24-year-old has shot 45% or better in just five of 18 games this season, and the NBA’s defending assists champ has seen that average drop to his lowest point (8.8) since he was traded from Sacramento to Indiana during the 2021-22 season. Plus, the Pacers are 8-10.
Yes, Haliburton understands Indiana’s early woes are not entirely his fault.
Indiana lost two key backup centers, James Wiseman and Isaiah Jackson, with torn Achilles tendons just six games into the season. Starting forward Aaron Nesmith hasn’t played since Nov. 1 because of an injured left knee and starting guard Andrew Nembhard hasn’t played since Nov. 6 because of a sprained left ankle.
But after last season’s playoff run, Haliburton is no longer motivated merely making the postseason - something he didn’t do at Iowa State or in his first three pro seasons. He wants to win a championship, something he didn’t do as a Wisconsin prep star.
And Haliburton knows there’s only one way to achieve that goal - by being himself.
“You guys watch us every game and you wouldn’t say right now we’re playing with a joy, with a passion, with an energy,” he said. “Our energy is up and down and that starts with me. So I can make that promise - that will be there moving forward. Put that on me because when my energy is good and we’re holding each other accountable, things are going to go well. That starts with me at the top and it trickles down to everybody else.”
