Even though the Pacers were able to cling a win in Game 1 of their NBA Finals clash against the Thunder, they had trailed the entire game until Tyrese Haliburton‘s last-second shot with 0.3 seconds left. However, they did not have the same luck in Game 2, which resulted in a 123-107 loss. 

We are starting to see a pattern, as the Indiana squad seem to be enduring slow starts to their games, while OKC have proved to be dominant all throughout their two matchups. During their last game, Tyrese only posted 17 points and 6 assists, limited to only 3 points and 3 assists in the first half.

This matched the Pacers’ lowest-first half point total in the postseason, as they only dropped in 35% of their shots in the opening quarters. “This is who they are defensively,” expressed Haliburton, who started out by giving credit to Oklahoma City‘s defense, regarded as the NBA’s best.

The star guard then added: “They got a lot of different guys who can guard the ball, fly around. … I just got to figure out how to be better earlier in games. Kudos to them, they’re a great defensive team. But [I will] watch the film, see where I can get better.”

The 25-year-old then looked inward. “Our offense is built from the inside out,” he said. “We got to do a better job getting downhill. They collapse and then make plays there, but I thought we could improve a lot there. But they’re flying around. They got great point-of-attack defenders. They got great rim protectors. They’re a great defense.”

Even though he’s had many highs during his playoff run, many teams have also found ways to limit him offensively. For example, during their second-round clashes against the Cavaliers, he only scored a combined 15 points in Game 3 and 4, and weeks later just 8 points in a Game 5 defeat to the Knicks.

“With Tyrese, there’s plenty of formulas to get him going,” teammate Myles Turner said. “There are things we went over in our game plan that we didn’t execute well enough today. We’ll get them in the paint. We have been one of the better teams scoring in the paint all year and we have to establish that early. We only had four or six points in the paint in the first half, and that’s not Pacers basketball.”

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