The Pacers won't win the NBA Finals unless Tyrese Haliburton can improve in this area

When Tyrese Haliburton hit what would be the game-winning shot with 0.3 seconds left in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, the flashpoint moment obscured what was otherwise a relatively quiet performance for the Indiana Pacers star, as he finished the opener with 14 points and six assists.

In Game 2, which the Pacers lost 123-107 after trailing by double digits for most of the night, there were no late heroics by Haliburton to save what was another so-so effort.

While Haliburton’s winner will forever be etched in Finals lore, it also can’t be used to hand-wave what’s been a significant issue for Indiana, which has trailed for the vast majority of the first 96 minutes of the championship round: Haliburton needs to play much better if the Pacers are going to win the series.

In his first two games against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Haliburton is averaging 15.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 6.0 assists. Alarmingly, he’s also averaging 4.0 turnovers (compared with 1.6 during the season), and he hasn’t attempted a single free throw.

On Sunday, he scored only 5 points through the first three quarters on 2-of-7 shooting.

Haliburton’s scoring and assists are both down compared with the regular season, and especially compared with the rest of the playoffs. And after turning the ball over only 10 times in six games of the Eastern Conference Finals, he’s nearly matched that total with eight so far against the Thunder.

“Defensively, they have a lot of different guys who can guard the ball, fly around,” Haliburton said after Game 2. “They are really physical. I think I’ve had two really poor first halves. I just have to figure out how to be better earlier in games. But kudos to them. They are a great defensive team, but watch the film and see where I can get better.”

One issue for Haliburton has been his inability to create for himself and his teammates via driving into the paint.

In the regular season, Haliburton averaged nearly 11 drives a night, forays into the teeth of the defense that would often lead to good offense for Indiana. In the conference finals, Haliburton averaged closer to 13 drives per game and shot 57.9% from the field when attempting a field goal on such plays, while also never turning the ball over.

Against a long-armed and athletic Thunder defense with fewer weak points to attack, Haliburton is under nine drives a game, with a total of no assists and six turnovers.

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“They were the best in the league during the year at keeping people out of [the paint],” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said Sunday. “They are great at it. We have to find ways to get in the ball in there, and you know, it’s just there are so many things that have to go right on a set of two possessions to get the ball into the heart of their defense.”

While Haliburton is not the kind of takeover scorer say, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is for the Thunder, he is unique in the way he is able to create offense for his teammates. But unlike in previous rounds of the playoffs, Haliburton hasn’t been able to find mismatches to attack in order to scramble Oklahoma City’s defense.

In the conference finals, Haliburton averaged 17.3 potential assists a game and created 27.0 points a night on assists. Against the Thunder, he’s dropped to 14.0 potential assists while creating only 31 points total through two games.

“I feel like in the first half we were just moving the ball on the outside and I don’t think we had a single point in the paint in the first quarter, if I’m not mistaken,” Haliburton said about Game 2. “Our offense is built from the inside out, and we have to do a better job getting downhill.”

He added: “We know that the paint is our emphasis and the paint is our friend. The more that we’re able to attack the paint, usually better things happen for us.”