NEW YORK -- Tyrese Haliburton is one of the best passers on the planet. He loves creating shots for his teammates, and he doesn't have to score 30-plus points to make his mark on a game. That said, his six points and six field goal attempts in Game 1 of the Indiana Pacers' second-round series against the New York Knicks on Monday were not enough.
Haliburton needs to "be more aggressive and be myself," the two-time All-Star said after the Pacers practiced at the National Basketball Players Association's Manhattan office on Tuesday. "I just felt like, even Game 1 of the last series, I wasn't myself. Just lack of aggression, my energy was -- everything was off yesterday."
With about five minutes left in the third quarter at Madison Square Garden, Haliburton came off a hand-off from Myles Turner, took one dribble and missed a 3-pointer. He didn't take another shot for the remainder of Indiana's 121-117 loss, and he didn't take a free throw all night.
While he had eight assists and had to deal with Knicks guard Donte DiVincenzo pressuring him on the ball and denying him off the ball, Haliburton did not get defensive about his approach. Haliburton credited the Knicks for being "a really good defensive team with a lot of different weapons" and described their coach, Tom Thibodeau, as "one of the best defensive minds for the last decade-plus," but said his lack of production was on him.
"I look at it more as a Tyrese issue more than a Knicks issue," Haliburton said.
Repeatedly, Haliburton said that he'll be better in Game 2 on Wednesday.
"I think that every player in the league who's a scorer and a high-usage guy, passes the ball a lot, it's a balance we need to find," he said. It's not easy, but obviously, I erred on the side of playmaking yesterday and that wasn't the right decision for me."
Haliburton blamed himself for the controversial offensive foul called against Myles Turner with 52 seconds left, and for the botched pick-and-roll involving him and Turner that led directly to an OG Anunoby dunk with a bit more than three minutes on the clock.
"I think it's less about miscommunication with Myles and more on Tyrese," Haliburton said.
Pacers coach Rick Carlisle, however, stressed that they're not looking for Haliburton to go into hero mode. It all "starts with our defense," he said, and then they need to put pressure on New York in transition and with their movement and tempo in the halfcourt.
"When we get stops and rebounds, which are hard to come by in this series, we gotta get the ball moving, Carlisle said. "And we gotta trust the pass. We're a unique team in that we really need each other. We don't have any one guy that can put the team on his back. Not Tyrese, not Pascal [Siakam], not anybody. That's one of the things that's made our team very special. But we have to understand there's a certain formula."
Carlisle did allow that six field-goal attempts is too few for the face of the franchise. He also pointed out that Haliburton, who was listed as questionable with back spasms leading up to the opener, is not fully healthy.
"I gotta do a better job of getting him more shots," he said. "I'll give you that. And look, he's playing through some stuff. He'll be on the injury report, questionable tomorrow, with the back thing. I'm confident he'll play, but he's playing through some stuff there, too. This is the second round of the playoffs, and this is hard. And you gotta embrace the difficulty of the whole thing."
The back issue is "a factor" and "a concern," Carlisle said, but Haliburton is "doing everything he can to keep himself feeling as good as possible."
Siakam said Haliburton simply has to "continue to be himself" and, when New York is denying him, "work harder to get the ball, be a screen setter." Haliburton "doesn't have to be scoring," he said, as long as the 24-year-old is "at his pace and playing fast" and affecting the game in other ways.
"Ty's going to be Ty," Siakam said.
Haliburton made it abundantly clear that he wasn't pleased with his performance, but he didn't exactly sound down in the dumps. Just a couple of weeks ago, he scored nine points on seven field goal attempts in the first playoff game of his career, and he's still playing. Postseason basketball is "everything I've ever asked for," he said.
"The world ain't ending 'cause we lost one game," Haliburton said. "Understanding we have an opportunity to get another one tomorrow and go home 1-1. So I'm not hitting the panic button or alarm or anything. I think this is just, as a competitor, what more could you ask for than playing in the playoffs, playing in Madison Square Garden? There's nothing like it. So I'm embracing all of it and enjoying every second of it."
