`Overrated' Haliburton and `fluke' Pacers keep doing their thing, seize early control of Bucks series

Tyrese said he wasn't bothered by a poll in The Athletic. I don't believe him.

Tyrese Haliburton shrugged. No big deal, he said. The anonymous player poll in The Athletic, the one where players overwhelmingly ranked him as the league’s most “overrated player,” didn’t move him, upset him or inspire himin Tuesday’s Game 2 Pacers’ victory over the Bucks. He finished with 21 points, 12 assists and several heated conversations with Dame Lillard, Bobby Portis and everybody else who yapped in his general direction.

I don’t believe him.

I don’t believe him when he says it didn’t bother him. I don’t believe him when he says it doesn’t hurt – even a little bit – to be viewed by 13 of 90 poll respondents as the most “overrated” player in the NBA. Rick Carlisle had a profane response when asked about the poll – more on that later – but I’ve got to think the head coach doesn’t mind having a super-motivated Haliburton playing with an edge. Sorry, Ty, but when 13 of 90 summon your name when asked about the league’s most overrated, that’s a shot to the heart. You can’t be human and not feel some sort of way about being singled out.

For the record, Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert finished second on the overrated list and Atlanta’s Trae Young was third. Incredibly, Jimmy Butler and Giannis Antetokounmpo received “overrated” votes.

“I must be doing something right if that’s the case,” Haliburton said. “I don’t have a big speech or comment on it (the poll). All I care about is this locker room and winning games, and we’re in position to go to Milwaukee and continue this series on. I know who I am. I’m confident in my own skin and not worried what anybody thinks. My teammates trust me. So does my front office, my coaching staff. I could care less.”

Carlisle had some thoughts, jumping on the question like it was a loose ball in Game 7 of the 1986 NBA Finals.

“It’s bullshit…I heard about this and the other guys on the list were Jimmy Butler and Giannis (Antetokounmpo),” Carlisle said. “I want to see the guys’ faces that voted these guys…This is a bullshit poll. Not everybody even answered in the poll. Guys were able to answer if they wanted to…The whole thing’s bullshit, OK? And it’s a really shameful thing.”

He continued: “Jimmy Buytler would be a finalist for MVP if he had gotten to Golden State a month and a half earlier with what they guy’s done. And Giannis? Are you kidding me?”

I am of two minds on anonymous player polls.

On the one hand, they do offer a snapshot into the way a portion of the league views fellow players and coaches. These clearly unscientific polls make for a cheap and easy read, draw eyeballs and the almighty subscriptions, and they create conversation, just like the one we were having with Carlisle and Haliburton after the Pacers’ 123-115 Game 2 victory. Mission accomplished, I would say.

Whether it’s good journalism is another story. I say that as someone who was given the assignment at The Athletic to go into the Pacers locker room and ask a few players the established set of questions: Most underrated. Most overrated. Best coach. Worst coach. A whole bunch of stuff. I did it because I was assigned the job.

I guess I’ve gotten increasingly queasy at the notion of giving anonymous sources free rein to be critical of others. It’s just like these NFL executives and scouts who speak anonymously to trash NFL hopefuls prior to the draft. If you’re going to be critical, there should be a name or a face behind it. There are times when anonymous sources are part and parcel of an important story, and I’ve used them over the course of my career, but in general terms, I think we should save anonymous sources for really relevant and necessary news stories.

Trust in the media (even the sports media) feels like it’s at an all-time low, and I’m not sure we help the cause by rolling out anonymous polls that provide players with the opportunity to rip one another. Feels cheap, honestly.

Haliburton insisted the poll had no impact. Again, I don’t believe him. The man is chronically on-line. He knows what’s being said. Everywhere.

But…

“I’m not gonna change,” he said. “I don’t give a fuck.”

Which is a good thing because after two games, the Pacers have virtually wrapped up this series. (Don’t tell Carlisle I wrote this.) But the franchise is 11-0 in series they led 2 games to nothing, and I see no way Milwaukee wins four of the next five and turns this series around. Even on a night when Damian Lillard played and both Kyle Kuzma and Bobby Portis excelled, the Bucks had no answers. They switched up their defenses, went zone, went man, and nothing much worked. The Pacers had a franchise high 40 points in the first quarter. Six players (including all five starters) finished in double figures.

The Bucks stuck around and pulled within two points after a late 13-0 run, but Pascal Siakam and Andrew Nembhard hit monstrous three-pointers and the Pacers were home free.

Meanwhile, there was chirping. Lots of it, most of it coming from the Milwaukee side.

“We don’t like them and they don’t like us,” Haliburton said.

If he’s being honest, he’s loving all the conversation. “Shit’s fun,” he said with a smile.

Winning is, too, and right now, the Pacers look like a team with big dreams – again. Last year, they played free and easy, a team with minimal experience learning the ropes on the way to the Eastern Conference Finals. Now, they look like they’re in firm control. Haliburton and Siakam have been Batman and Robin. Andrew Nembhard continues to establish himself as a big-game, post-season player. Aaron Nesmith, a piece of the team’s connective tissue, guarded Antetokounmpo and did a yeoman’s job. The bench continues to give the Pacers good minutes. It’s all working now.

And the city is noticing. Again, after that 10-15 start, the Pacers went 40-17 to finish out the regular season.

“The building was as loud as I’ve ever heard it,” Carlisle said of Gainbridge Fieldhouse. “I’ve been in here for the Finals games in 2000 and a lot of conference finals game, and it’s never been louder than it was tonight…That really helps us.”

They were a “fluke” last year. Their alpha point guard is “overrated.”

Keep talking, and the Pacers will continue winning.