The Indiana Pacers look the part of an NBA title team, and it’s not just their superstar leading the way.
The Indiana Pacers have a commanding 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals over the New York Knicks. They have enjoyed heroics from Aaron Nesmith, Tyrese Haliburton, Pascal Siakam, and Bennedict Mathurin throughout the series, and look poised to make their first Finals appearance since 2000.
Haliburton authored one of the best games in NBA history in Game 4, scoring 32 points to go with 15 assists, 12 rebounds, four steals, and no turnovers.
He joined one other player in NBA history to record a 30-point triple-double with no turnovers.
Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty ImagesTyrese Haliburton joins Baron Davis in NBA history
Only two players have recorded a 30-point triple-double in the playoffs with no turnovers: Tyrese Haliburton in 2025 and Baron Davis in 2002.
While both are All-Stars, neither is an all-time great like Magic Johnson, LeBron James, Nikola Jokic, or even James Harden and Russell Westbrook.
Haliburton, despite being named the most overrated player in the league by his peers, is easily one of the best floor generals in the NBA. He is not a high-volume scorer compared to some contemporaries, but he takes care of the ball like no one else.
This season, he led the NBA with 5.5 assists for every turnover, and enjoyed a 12-game stretch in February and March where he posted 21.1 points, 12.6 assists, 2.4 steals, and only 1.1 turnovers per game.
With his league-leading assist-to-turnover ratio, Haliburton became the first player since Chris Paul in 2015 to be in both the top three in assists per game and assist-to-turnover ratio.
Photo by Jason Miller/Getty ImagesTyrese Haliburton is a superstar
Haliburton, with his playoff masterclasses and clutch baskets, has ascended into the highest tier of NBA players and is a bona fide superstar.
While Stephen A. Smith has continually made it clear that he doesn’t think Haliburton is a superstar, one of his ESPN colleagues thinks anyone who is hesitant to give him the label simply doesn’t know basketball.
“If you’re not waking up today, Wednesday, May 28th, saying that Tyrese Haliburton is a superstar, don’t talk to me about basketball today,” proclaimed Jay Williams. “He affected and accounted for over 80 of the team’s 130 points between points and assists over 80 points of the team’s 130. That is a superstar that we saw on the grand stage.”
Bill Simmons admitted on his podcast that recency bias affected his decision, but he ranked Haliburton as the ninth-best player in the league right now, and if they make the Finals will move him up a spot over Donovan Mitchell.
Haliburton isn’t the only star in Indiana
The Pacers have had their fair share of elite role-player play in the postseason. Against the Knicks alone, Nesmith shot eight-of-nine from deep in Game 1, TJ McConnell twice scored double-digits off the bench, and Siakam has twice offered 30 or more points.
Since trading for Siakam last season, the Pacers have made two straight Conference Finals for the first time since Paul George was in town.
On any given night, Siakam can be the first, second, or third-best player on the Pacers, but he simply plays winning basketball for Indiana and is the best second option in the entire league.
“He truly has just flown under the radar,” said Chandler Parsons of Siakam. “If Tyrese Haliburton is the most overrated player, which is ridiculous, this dude’s the most underrated player…He doesn’t take bad shots. He just goes about his business.”
Since winning a ring with the Toronto Raptors as a role-player behind Kawhi Leonard, Siakam has blossomed into a star but doesn’t command the attention a star does, very similarly to how Tim Duncan operated both on and off the court. That’s not the only way he’s been compared to the five-time champion, as he scores with a similar ease.
“The skill level, like the backboard shot, the glass, we hadn’t used the glass since Tim Duncan,” offered Lou Williams, who played against both. “Pascal Siakam, that’s what he does.”
As Indiana marches through the East and is just one game away from making the Finals, their well-rounded roster is only rivaled by the favorite to win the West, the Oklahoma City Thunder. Perhaps teams will take a page from their book as they build their rosters moving forward.