He finished with 26 points, 13 assists, 10 rebounds and no turnovers in 40 minutes while battling an illness. They entered Tuesday leading the league in field goal percentage (51.1%), assists (30.1), points in the paint (59.9), fast-break points (17.7) and scoring (128.1 points) - nearly two points above Denver's NBA single-season record (126.5) from 1981-82.Įven after a slow start on a subpar shooting night, Haliburton capped his first triple-double with the tie-breaking four-point play. Offensively, there's little doubt about the Pacers' potency. “Everybody saw what they did to us in Boston, so it was personal,” Bruce Brown said. It was a 61-point turnaround from an embarrassing 155-104 loss in this season's first matchup with Boston, one that Indiana used as motivation. The Pacers played so well, they were serenaded with the chant of “De-fense! De-fense!' - a throwback to coach Rick Carlisle's first stint with the Pacers and throughout ex-coach Frank Vogel's tenure, something few thought would return this season. “We got a couple of stops and nobody wants to run with us when we’re getting stops.”

Jayson (Tatum) was doing a good job of attacking me in the first half, so we did a good job of changing it up a little bit and figuring it out defensively,” Haliburton said. “We just changed some things schematically on defense there. It's not that the league's worst-ranked scoring defense suddenly found a magical solution.īut when the Pacers needed stops, they threw a wrinkle at Boston in the second half and managed to hold one of the league's top teams scoreless for 86 of the final 117 seconds - long enough for Indiana to break a 105-105 tie with nine straight points. So we're excited to go to Vegas and play some more defense.' And it's not just about being here, it's about winning. “We wanted to be in this situation all year and here we are. “ Our defense was there? Could you tell?” he joked. They're heading to Las Vegas because of defense.Īfter forcing seven turnovers in a game-changing third quarter and 18 overall in Tuesday's 122-112 victory that eliminated title contender Boston from the inaugural NBA In-Season Tournament, All-Star guard Tyrese Haliburton took a moment to put the spotlight on something that once seemed unthinkable.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The Indiana Pacers entertain fans with their sprinter-like tempo and historic scoring pace.

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