Pacers' Tyrese Haliburton is sidelined in upset against Celtics

BOSTON – When Jayson Tatum fired a lob down the middle of the lane and bowled through Ben Sheppard for what became a 3-point play, Pacers All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton knew he had to come back with an immediate answer.

Not even 90 seconds into the game, the Pacers had an 11-point lead, but since these Celtics are the reigning NBA champions, TD Garden is a place where the lead can quickly disappear. A 3-point play from All-Star Jaylen Brown, a 3-point play from veteran center Al Horford and that 3-point play from Tatum were enough to cut the deficit to two and send the Garden into an uproar .

“You know in the fourth quarter that a team like that is never going to go away,” Haliburton said. “You just stick together and understand that in this building a guy giving him a 3 is like a windmill dunk. The audience will participate. They will give them juice, give them energy when they need it. That’s it.” Basketball, we have to silence that.

And that night, perhaps for once, Haliburton knew that his best chance of doing so was to get to the edge himself. It took almost all 24 seconds of the ensuing shot clock for him to make it, but he did, starting the run that gave the Pacers a surprising 123-114 victory, two nights after the Celtics beat them by 37 points. They have won seven of their last 10 games to improve to 16-17, and with the win they clinched the three-game season series with the Celtics (23-9), becoming the first team this season to beat Boston twice defeated. Haliburton scored 31 points with seven assists, six rebounds and zero turnovers and made ten of his eleven field goals inside the arc.

After Tatum’s free throw, Haliburton took the inbounds pass in the backcourt, brought the ball up the floor and found the 6-6 Jaylen Brown and his 7-foot wingspan waiting for him in the halfcourt. He tried to get to a screen, but that didn’t work. He tried to pass Brown on the right side of the lane, but Tatum squeezed in to close the gap. He brought the ball out again.

This time, center Myles Turner hit Brown with a screen, and Brown decided to tag out to keep Turner from making an easy throw. Horford – the five-time All-Star and 38-year veteran – moved to Haliburton, and this was the match he was looking for. Haliburton passed the ball to forward Jarace Walker, who then passed it on to guard Andrew Nembhard at the top of the key. Haliburton got the ball on a dribble handoff, but Tatum switched to him, and with the shot clock down to five seconds, Haliburton got around Tatum, hit a sneaky layup off the glass and saw him circle the rim before finally falling .

That basket was the start of a 13-0 run with nine straight points in which Haliburton was directly involved. The Celtics took a timeout but never recovered.

“At that moment I just knew I had to be aggressive,” Haliburton said. “My duties here include stopping runs, starting runs and so on. They trust me with the ball in my hands.”

Typically, however, in clutch scenarios when Haliburton is trying to “make the shot,” he looks for 3-pointers, sometimes floaters, and almost never layups. He’s always relied on the 3-point shot, but this season his shot profile has been even more 3-point-heavy than ever before.

In each of Haliburton’s first three seasons, at least 42.8% of his field goal attempts came from behind the arc. However, heading into Sunday night’s game, the 2024-25 season’s record was lopsided, as 269 of its 443 total field goal attempts came from beyond the arc (60.7%).

Perhaps more concerning was the extent to which layups and dunks began to disappear from this shot profile. According to Basketball Reference, prior to Sunday night’s game, just 8.1% of his field goal attempts — which equates to about 36 total shots — had come within 3 feet of the basket. In every season prior to that, at least 13% of his shots came from less than 3 feet from the basket. His attempts from 3 to 10 feet were also a career low at 13.5%. Because he scored fewer easy baskets, he shot a career-worst 43.1% while also shooting a career-worst 35.3% from 3-point range.

But on Sunday night, Haliburton made a point of going straight downhill. He scored the first basket of the game by slanting a 6-foot floater over Horford. His second field goal came when the Pacers picked up the pace after a basket, Hauser picked it up at half court and Haliburton flew past him on a left-handed drive for a right-handed layup.

His next two throws were jumpers – an 18-foot pull-up and a 27-foot step-back for his only 3-pointer of the night – but each of his final seven shots were in the paint.

Haliburton finished the night 11 of 19 from the floor and just 1 of 6 from 3-point range, meaning he was 10 of 13 from 2-point range. Partly because he got to the rim, he also drew fouls on 8 of 9 free throws. It was Haliburton’s fifth 30-point game this season and he hit at least four 3-pointers in each of the previous four. The most two-point shots he had in those games were seven.

Haliburton’s downhill approach set the tone for the rest of the Pacers, who outscored the Celtics 66-48 and posted their third-highest points total of the season by making 33 of their 52 attempts in the lane. They provided 27 assists with only nine turnovers and scored six points in double figures.

“It’s a shift in thinking,” Turner said. “I think Ty has seen so many different defenses this season. I think that’s in his head sometimes. I think he wasn’t satisfied tonight. I think that was really important for him, to not settle for anything outside, just keep cleaning. “When you start throwing punches, he forces you to help, he does what he does best , and involves other people.

Part of the reason Haliburton had so much success getting to the rim was that the Celtics were missing a few key defensive players. Jrue Holiday — the six-time All-Defensive pick and arguably the best on-ball defender in the world — missed his third straight game because of an impingement to his right shoulder. Center Kristaps Porzingis missed his second straight game with a sprained left ankle. Haliburton still had to contend with Brown and point guard Derrick White, a two-time All-Defense selection himself. However, he managed to get past White a few times and took advantage of the Celtics’ willingness to switch. He got past Tatum in transition a few times and was particularly ruthless when the veteran Horford tagged in on him.

“I try to come downhill and be aggressive,” Haliburton said. “That’s what everyone is asking me to do and I know it will do good things for our offense.”

It also helped that he had his backcourt mate Nembhard back after he missed Friday night’s game – the second night of the Pacers’ second consecutive game of Christmas week – due to injury concerns after missing 12 straight games in November with knee tendonitis. As Haliburton continues to command the defense’s attention, Nembhard has become an even more important part of the offense as a second ball handler, often bringing the ball upfield and directing the offense, allowing Haliburton to create space for himself through off-ball movement . Nembhard scored 17 points on 6 of 12 shooting, dished out eight assists and grabbed eight rebounds, while also defending tough against Tatum and others and posting a team-best +23 plus-minus in 33 minutes.

“When you have an extra playmaker — one of my definitions of a playmaker is that he enhances the skills of the people around him,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “Tyrese is elite, and Drew is quietly elite too. They both do it a little differently, but they complement each other very well.”

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Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton is sidelined in upset against Celtics

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