{"id":68885,"date":"2025-05-31T14:17:17","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T14:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/68885\/"},"modified":"2025-05-31T14:17:17","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T14:17:17","slug":"pacers-tyrese-haliburton-dazzles-with-game-4-triple-double-in-dads-return-to-arena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/68885\/","title":{"rendered":"Pacers\u2019 Tyrese Haliburton dazzles with Game 4 triple-double in dad\u2019s return to arena"},"content":{"rendered":"

INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 Tyrese Haliburton\u2019s best game of the 2025 playoffs<\/a>, one of the best of his career, one of the best in NBA postseason history, just happened to come on the night his dad was back in the building.<\/p>\n

The Pacers<\/a> lifted their temporary ban on Haliburton\u2019s father, John, attending games, and his son dominated with a 32-point triple-double in the Pacers\u2019 130-121 win over the New York Knicks in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals.<\/p>\n

The Pacers<\/a> lead the series, 3-1, and can reach their second NBA Finals by beating the Knicks on Thursday at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

\u201cHell yeah (having John in the building had something to do with it),\u201d Haliburton told TNT in his postgame interview on the court, though he later pumped the brakes on the perceived \u201cemotions\u201d of having his dad in attendance.<\/p>\n

Haliburton posted his second-career postseason triple-double with 12 rebounds (a playoff career high), 15 assists and an equally impressive zero turnovers \u2013 no one had ever scored that many points with at least 15 assists and no turnovers in NBA playoff history. He also added five 3s (on 12 attempts), only making his already unique-to-history performance stand out even more.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know that \u2013 I feel like we\u2019re making up stats,\u201d Haliburton said.<\/p>\n

Haliburton\u2019s 32 points were the most he\u2019s scored during the Pacers\u2019 magical postseason run, and were his second-highest playoff total (he dropped 35 against the Knicks last year). He is the third player in NBA history to have more than 30 points, 10 rebounds and 15 assists in a playoff game (Oscar Robertson, Nikola Joki\u0107), but Haliburton\u2019s 3s and zero turnovers set him apart.<\/p>\n

Haliburton was already up to 20 points, 8 rebounds and 10 assists, with no turnovers, in the first half, which ended with the Pacers ahead 69-64.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know Ty did some historic stat stuff tonight,\u201d Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said. \u201cThat\u2019s great, but. It\u2019s tough talking about stats when it\u2019s such a team thing right now. So, happy for him. It\u2019ll get celebrated on all the networks, stuff like that. But in our world right now, it\u2019s day seven of 13, and tomorrow\u2019s day eight. And we gotta just keep our eye on the ball and keep focusing on each day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pascal Siakam added 30 points (including 11 in the fourth quarter), Bennedict Mathurin scored 20 off the bench Aaron Nesmith, playing on a sprained ankle, contributed 16 points for the Pacers. Jalen Brunson scored 29 points for the Knicks, and Karl-Anthony Towns scored 24 points, ending the game hobbled after a hard fall late in the final quarter.<\/p>\n

New York trailed by 13 with 5:38 left in the game and tried to continue the series\u2019 streak of someone \u2014 Knicks or Pacers \u2014 making a furious fourth quarter comeback. The closest the Knicks got was six points. Obi Toppin\u2019s 3-ball with 46.3 seconds left put the Pacers ahead by 10 and seemed to end the Knicks\u2019 rally.<\/p>\n

So you may say this was the first game of this wild series without any real shockers or surprises, and you\u2019d be wrong. In the second half, Pacers entertainment staff handed the microphone to former Indianapolis Colts punter and ESPN personality Pat McAfee, who introduced Knicks fans Spike Lee, Ben Stiller, and Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet \u2013 all of them in attendance in Indianapolis.<\/p>\n

The crowd booed the New York-Hollywood stars lustily, and then McAfee said, \u201cLet\u2019s send those (expletives) back to New York with their ears bleeding.\u201d<\/p>\n

OK, then.<\/p>\n

Almost as an aside, John Haliburton attended his first Pacers game since Game 5 of the first round against the Milwaukee Bucks, when he appeared to taunt Giannis Antetokounmpo on the court after Indiana closed out the series with an overtime win.<\/p>\n

The elder Haliburton, who is 68, apologized for the incident, but Indiana\u2019s front office temporarily banned him from attending Pacers games at home or on the road. Team management lifted that ban before Tuesday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad he\u2019s back,\u201d Carlisle said before the game. \u201cA father should be able to watch his son play basketball. We welcome him back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haliburton sat in a suite behind the basket closest to the Pacers\u2019 bench, instead of in his usual courtside seat. Wearing a light blue Pacers hoodie with white pants, he stood for portions of the game while slapping hands with all the fans he could reach.<\/p>\n

During his postgame news conference with reporters, Tyrese Haliburton said that during the eight games his father missed, John Haliburton was \u201cfine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s at the house watching the game in a beautiful home, or he finds his way into a sports bar with a bunch of Pacer fans,\u201d Tyrese said. \u201cMy dad is doing just fine. There was obviously a lot of commentary around him, especially right after (the incident with Giannis), which I think some was warranted, some went a little too far.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there was any emotion to (his return),\u201d Tyrese continued. \u201cI just wanted to put on a good performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pacers\u2019 offense broke down in the fourth quarter of Game 3 and Haliburton took a lot of the blame for it. Carlisle said there was a tough, unpleasant film session on Monday during which the team found and corrected some mistakes. Haliburton said he and his teammates wanted to keep pushing the ball on offense instead of allowing the game to slow down, something that would benefit the Knicks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to be able to prove that, you know, I can respond when my back\u2019s against the wall, when our team\u2019s back is against the wall,\u201d Haliburton said.<\/p>\n

Haliburton proved his point, and, emotional or not, he did it with his father watching \u2013 something he said was important growing up to him because his father was a referee and worked most weekends, meaning he\u2019d miss a lot of Tyrese\u2019s games when he was a child. When John could be there, Tyrese said, he always wanted to play well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that I love a father-son relationship,\u201d said Pacers center Myles Turner, who contributed 13 points and three blocks. \u201cI grew up with my father, you know, in my house. It\u2019s a big part of my life and it\u2019s a very special moment, you know, to be able to reach conference finals and potentially move on. So I\u2019m glad that a father can see his son grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Haliburton saw that, and so much more, Tuesday night. His step is one more win from the finals.<\/p>\n

Tyrese Haliburton is unique in every single way as a playmaker. Because of that, so are his Indiana Pacers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

(Photo: Dylan Buell \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 Tyrese Haliburton\u2019s best game of the 2025 playoffs, one of the best of his career, one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[5,7318,2328,2304,4,2305,2303,260],"class_list":{"0":"post-68885","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-postseason","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-indiana-pacers","10":"tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","11":"tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-mlb-playoffs","14":"tag-mlb-postseason","15":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}