Pacers re-introduce themselves to Basketball America and the country discovers a superstar named Tyrese Haliburton

With Monday night's victory over the Celtics, the Pacers are headed to Vegas for the In-Season Tournament semifinal. Enjoy the ride, Indy.

Well…hello, America. And a special hello to Shaq and Kenny, Ernie and of course Charles, who, along with a national TV audience that was seeing the Indiana Pacers for the first time this year, discovered what all the hubbub is about. Here in flyover country, Indy is blessed not only with the most exciting team in the NBA, averaging over 128 points per game – far and away the most in the league – but features some guy named Tyrese Haliburton, who started to hear the chants late in the second half.

MVP! MVP! MVP!

On this, the best pro basketball night the city has experienced since Game 6 of the 2018 first-round series against Lebron James and the Cavaliers, Haliburton had his version of the “flu game.” The “upper respiratory infection game” doesn’t have the same cache, but believe me, it was impressive. After a first half when Haliburton said he was “dead,” he hit the inhaler at halftime – he’s never done that before – and came out and took over in the Pacers’ 122-112 In-Season Tournament quarterfinal game over the mighty Boston Celtics.