Where's Tyrese Haliburton?

Pacers star guard is a no-show in Game 5 in New York, and he had a lot of company. Terrible Pacers performance has them on the edge of extinction.

Tyrese Haliburton arrived at the team charter in Indianapolis Monday wearing a “Miller Moments” T-shirt emblazoned with examples of Miller’s basketball heroism during past playoffs, especially in Madison Square Garden. If it was supposed to be a statement, it fell egregiously flat more than 24 hours later. While Miller routinely rose to these kinds of post-season moments – a crucial Game 5 in a series tied at 2 – Haliburton shrunk like a cheap suit in a car wash.

This is the second time in three road games Haliburton, the Pacers’ star and face of the franchise, has failed to show up and play with any kind of force or determination in this series, and it’s as curious as it is frustrating. I understand, he had Miles McBride, who was inserted into the starting lineup so the Knicks could play smaller and apply more ball pressure, and he did a fine job on Haliburton. But this wasn’t necessarily about McBride or the Knicks’ defense; this was about Haliburton, whose wild, schizoid swings in this series have played a role in the fact the Pacers are now down 3 games to 2 and need to win Friday at Gainbridge to take this to a seventh game in New York.

Where was he? Mostly on the perimeter, making little or no appreciable effort to come to the basketball, content to let Andrew Nembhard or T.J. McConnell handle the point guard duties. Honest, I watched the game closely, and those first five to 10 minutes, I kept wondering, “Is Haliburton even playing?” He finished with 13 points, five assists and two rebounds. Just nine shots. Nine. From your star player. Inexplicable.