Is Hali a Top 10 Player?

 I'm summoning my inner Bill Simmons with this one. After last night's incredible performance from Tyrese Haliburton in a pivotal game 4, you can't help but ask is he actually underrated? I love watching the Pacers play and I have all post season. Tyrese Haliburton is a big reason why. Growing up with Kyle Lowry I came to appreciate a floor general style of point guard. Hali is certainly a different style of player from Kyle, but similar to Lowry he's so good at getting his team going and picking the right moments to take over. It leads to fun basketball and the ability to put up 130 points in a conference finals game. Electric stuff, he deserves a post so here it is. 

One of the Greatest Playoff Performances Ever

Tyrese Haliburton finished the game last night with 32 points, 12 rebounds, 15 assists, 4 steals and 0 turnovers. This was the first playoff game in NBA history where a player had 30+ points, 10+ rebounds, 15+ assists and 0 turnovers, an essentially perfect stat line. The numbers stand out and should be celebrated, but I am even more impressed with how he got his throughout this game. Early on Brunson was cooking for the Knicks hitting a bunch of tough 3s to keep them in the game early. The Knicks have a strategy to play Hali in single coverage so that he can't get his passing game going which is generally how he wants to play. Seeing this, Haliburton was aggressive early pulling up from deep and nailing contested 3s himself to go blow for blow with Brunson. As the game went on Haliburton pushed the pace, he'd rip down rebounds and find a guy in transition for a bucket over and over again. His transition game is so fun to watch, maybe the best in basketball. He always runs with his head up, if you don't check him he'll pull up and likely nail a 3, if you do check him the ball is already out of his hands to the exact right player for a bucket. Usually in the playoffs teams try to slow it down and play in the half court, but Haliburton's vision and shooting make that impossible. No team has been able to slow down the pace of the Pacers and it's because of Hali. 

By the second half, the Knicks were completely scrambled. Haliburton would drive downhill and be met with a crowd, which is exactly what he wants. He kicked it out for 3s, found dump off passes for dunks and took it all the way to the cup himself when the opportunity called for it. There was a play where Hali pulled up in front of Brunson from near the logo and drained a massive 3 then hit Brunson with his own signature celebration. He's so much fun man, he'll bust you up then skip down the court just to piss you off. I love it. Haliburton wasn't just getting it done on offense. He was in passing lanes all game anticipating the Knicks passes and launching fast breaks off steals. His energy infected everyone on the Pacers and his teammates were menaces in the lanes as well. One of my favorite things the Pacers do is whenever someone else gets a steal and starts a fastbreak, they make sure to find Hali even if it's inconvenient. 9/10 it results in a better look than they could've hoped for. By the end of the game the Pacers were up 7 with 45 seconds left, a pretty safe lead but as we've seen not secure yet. Haliburton was the inbounder and the Pacers ran a play to fake a screen action for Nesmith in the corner. Obi Toppin leaked out to the top of the floor and Haliburton hit him with a perfect pass for the dagger 3 that sealed the deal. 

This Run as a Whole

It's not over yet, but we really need to take a step back and just appreciate what we've witnessed from Tyrese in this playoff run so far. In the first round after smoking the Bucks in game 1, Damian Lillard came back for game 2 to try and save the season. There was a play at the end of the game where Dame was heating up and the Bucks were close to taking the lead. Haliburton was inbounding the ball as Dame talked trash to him. Rather than responding, Hali just nodded with a smug look on his face, then promptly hit a couple of big 3s to put the Pacers up 2-0. Then in game 5 with the Pacers up 3-1, the Bucks actually played a great game and went to overtime. In overtime the Bucks dominated early and got off to a 7 point lead with under 40 seconds to play. The Pacers hit some 3s and Gary Trent Jr turns the ball over a couple of times and all of the sudden it's a 1 point game with 10 seconds to go. Hali gets the ball with Giannis guarding him, he takes him off the dribble, hits him with a crossover and gets all the way to the rim for the tough finish and game winner. He jumps on the scorers table to the crowd going wild and his dad starts a fight with Giannis. It's the first round, that's 2 legendary moments already. 

Now round 2, the Pacers already win the first game convincingly against the best regular season team in the east in the Cavs, and the Cavs responded. Cavs got up 7 points with less than a minute to go. Pascal Siakam is fouled and misses both free throws, but Aaron Nesmith storms in for a violent putback jam over Donovan Mitchell to cut it to 5. The Pacers hit a couple of 3s, the Cavs miss some free throws and now Hali has a chance again to go for the win down 1 with time winding down. He gets Ty Jerome stuck on him, dances around and nails a step back 3 for the win on the road in comeback fashion once again. They go on to drop game 3 but smoke the Cavs in games 4 and 5 to convincingly win a series nobody gave them a chance in.

Then cut to the conference finals where this guy does it AGAIN! Down something like 14 points with a minute and a half left, Aaron Nesmith has an out of body experience and hits a million 3s in a row to get the Pacers right back into it. Now with the lead cut to 2 and time winding down Haliburton drives into the lane and sees Mitchell Robinson is there ready to block his attempt, he backs up, all the way to the 3 point line and launches a contested shot that falls. Thinking it was a 3, like everyone else in the building, Hali does Reggie Miller's famous choke celebration and points at Reggie who's calling the game, and laughing like a maniac. The play was reviewed and called a 2, but you can't tell me that wasn't the coolest moment ever. Luckily the Pacers went on to win in OT to secure the moment. If they make it past the Knicks, and I think they will, it will be a tough task going up against the Thunder who most likely are making it out of the west. People are going to count them out again, and maybe they're right to do so, but when have we seen a playoff run like Hali's having right now? I flat out refuse to count these guys out ever again and Tyrese has quickly become one of my favorite players in the world.

That's that! Just a little moment to appreciate what could be an all time great blooming before our very eyes. It's crazy what he's doing this playoffs, most players don't get this many playoff moments their whole careers and he's got them all in 1 run. If I didn't love Shai so much they'd be my team for the finals, lucky for me I can be happy either way!