The collective hearts of the Indiana Pacers dropped in the first quarter of Game 7 of the NBA Finals after star guard Tyrese Haliburton went down with an injury and was ultimately unable to return. While the Pacers managed to keep things close, even leading at halftime, the absence of Haliburton was too much to overcome as they fell to the Oklahoma City Thunder, 103-91. Following their game, Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle spoke about the injury, as per Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files.

“All of our hearts dropped. He will be back,” Carlisle said. “He authored one of the great individual playoff runs in the history of the NBA.”

Prior to exiting the game due to injury, Tyrese Haliburton was on his way to continuing that individual run in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. He hit three of his first four three-point shot attempts to help the Pacers take early control of the game. He ultimately finished with nine points in seven minutes in his final game of the 2024-25 season.

Haliburton had been dealing with a calf injury following Game 5, and his status moving forward was always up in the air, although he did manage to play in Game 6 and started Game 7.

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As Rick Carlisle mentioned, Haliburton’s run this postseason for the Pacers was one of the best individual playoff runs in recent memory. He hit multiple clutch shots during the Eastern Conference Playoffs against the Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks, and even hit the game-winner in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

Coming into Game 7, Haliburton had played in 22 games this playoffs at a little over
34 minutes per game. He was averaging 17.7 points, 5.6 rebounds, 9.0 assists and 1.4 steals with splits of 46.1 percent shooting from the field, 32.9 percent shooting from the three-point line and 82.8 percent shooting from the free-throw line.

It remains to be seen now what the potential timeline is for Haliburton’s injury return for next season.