Ahead of Saturday night's Game 3 as the Indiana Pacers are down 0-2 in the series to the Boston Celtics, the cards are stacked against them even further. Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton is “expected to miss” the outing because of a hamstring issue that he re-injured according to The Athletic's Shams Charania.
Haliburton took a beating in Game 2 against Boston, but it was in the third quarter where the star re-injured the hamstring as the Pacers ruled him out for the rest of the game with “left leg soreness.” It is expected that most of the point guard work will be on Andrew Nembhard while Pascal Siakam looks to carry the weight of the offense Saturday night.
However, while it is always a forbidden thought process for a team to look ahead of the game in front of them, now the focus will be when it comes to Game 4 and the status regarding Haliburton. Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN would answer that concern for the most part and said his status “remains in serious question.”
“Haliburton is out for Game 3 and will be reassessed ahead of Game 4 on Monday,” Wojnarowski posted on his X (formerly known as Twitter) account. “But his availability for that game also remains in serious question, sources tell ESPN. Pacers will err on side of caution with their franchise star.”
Haliburton was vying to play Game 3 for Pacers despite injury
There is no doubt that Haliburton is the main engine of the Pacers offense as he had another breakout season where he averaged 20.1 points and 10.9 assists per game (No. 1 in the NBA) while shooting 47.7 percent from the field. What could be concerning is that the 24-year old suffered a left hamstring strain during the regular season and missed 10 games because of it as the current injury is being labeled as a “left hamstring injury.”
The Pacers star had a great start to the series against Boston as in Game 1, he scored 25 points to go along with 10 assists despite the close loss. Going back to Charania's report, Haliburton's MRI came back displaying a strain and while he was willing to play through it, “doctors made the call to keep him out” for Saturday's outing.
“Haliburton underwent an MRI on Saturday that showed a strain and he’s considered day to day,” Charania wrote. “A league source said he’s feeling better than he was Thursday and he was hoping to play Saturday, but doctors made the call to keep him out of Game 3.”
Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle was hoping injury wouldn't be serious
Now that the hole is getting deeper as they are down 0-2 in the series, one has to wonder if Haliburton will appear again this series since with how exceptional Boston has been, beating a team twice without their main star is in the cards. In any sense, Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle was hoping it just to be a “short-term aggravation” according to The Athletic.
“We hope that this is a very short-term aggravation,” Carlisle said after Game 2 regarding Haliburton. “Tyrese hit the floor, so he came back here and had a couple of tests done with his chest. He fortunately returned pretty quickly.”
Carlisle would refer to a hit in the first quarter where he was going for a rebound but collided with Jaylen Brown where he landed awkwardly. Haliburton would be checked on at halftime, came out to start, but left in the third quarter where he was ruled out.
“He was getting worked on the entire halftime,” Carlisle said via The Athletic. “He came out, gave it a shot and was giving it all the effort he could. I haven’t talked to him directly and I can’t read minds, but it wasn’t going well. The trainers determined that he needed to go in the back to get worked on.”
Indiana stars that have to step up for Haliburton
Besides the aforementioned Pacers players of Siakam and Nembhard, other players that will have to step up includes the big-man in Myles Turner. He would say after Game 2 that while Haliburton's injury hurts the team, the weight should not be in one player's shoulders as he also talks about the rebounding battle and how he needs to be better.
“It’s not a one-man job,” Turner said. “We got here as a team, and that’s how we’re going to have to continue to play…That led to a lot of their easy buckets, they made a different lineup tonight, a switch tonight, I mean, their fives aren’t going to able to guard me, so they decided to put some of their smaller guys on me, and I wasn’t able to get as involved in the pick-and-roll, but (we’ll) watch the film, make adjustments and take it from there.”
Pacers have adapted without Haliburton before
Another player that has to fill in that point guard role is T.J. McConnell who has been efficient for the Pacers and this postseason, being a pest off the bench. He would also say that it will be tough to adapt without Haliburton, but they have done when he's been absemt.
“When your franchise guy goes down, obviously it’s tough, but that’s a time for this group — who has done it this year — for everyone to step up and take a bigger role,” McConnell said. “We’ve done a good job of that when he has been out, and obviously, it hurts when he goes down, but (it’s) one of those things where it’s the next-man-up mentality. … We haven’t heard anything about him yet, but guys just have to step up and be ready.”
In any sense, the Pacers look to get their first win of the series in Game 3 against the Celtics, but it will be a tough hill to climb without Haliburton. However, Indiana has been undefeated so far this postseason as the Gainbridge Fieldhouse will be loud for their team.
Follow Us
Subscribe