Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle on Wednesday referred to Tyrese Haliburton as a game-time decision for Game 6, with the star point guard later stating was going to everything he could to suit up after suffering a right calf strain.
Appearing on The Pat McAfee Show on Thursday (Twitter video link), ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that as long as he’s medically cleared, Haliburton intends to play tonight as Indiana looks to stave of elimination and extend the NBA Finals to seven games.
“From my understanding, he has every intention of playing tonight,” Charania said. “… Unless there’s some kind of a setback there (at the 5:00 pm ET walkthrough) where the medical team (decides to hold him out), he’s fully intending to be out there tonight. He’s going to gut it out. I would expect to have some padding on that calf.”
In a subsequent appearance on NBA Today, Charania shed a little more light on the severity of Haliburton’s injury (Twitter video link).
“It is a calf strain. … These are tricky injuries with the calf, we know the implications it could have on the rest of your leg,” Charania said. “I was told today, if this were the regular season, Tyrese Haliburton would be missing multiple weeks. So if he is able to play, how does he look? How sharp does he look? Or how much does he struggle and how much is he limited?”
While Haliburton managed to play 34 minutes in Monday’s Game 5 loss, he clearly was hampered by the injury, having missed all six of his field goal attempts and being limited to just four points, compared to his playoff average of 17.3 PPG. On the NBA’s latest injury report, the 25-year-old is officially listed as questionable.
If the third-team All-NBA guard is unable to suit up, T.J. McConnell and Andrew Nembhard will be in line for increased ball-handling and play-making responsibilities.
He may want to play, and that’s commendable, but he was a huge negative on the court last game when he tried to play through it. The team is better off with him sitting than playing hurt.
If it’s the same as it was in game 5, then you’re absolutely right. He’s had two full days of rest and treatment. If it has improved at all he should perform better. I just hope he doesn’t make it worse and tear his Achilles.
He just needs to give TJ some minutes to rest. Hali is probably significantly minutes restricted.
This is insane to me.
KD came back too soon from a calf injury and tore his Achilles. Same with Dame.
If Hali tears something tonight and needs surgery it destroys the Pacers ‘25-26 season.
Hali didn’t play well last game and they have some of the best backup point guard play in the league and a good bench. Sit Hali for the rest of the series and lean into the other top 8 guys a little more than they have been tonight.
Fully agree. The NBA is weird in this sense. People play through injuries that make it difficult to even walk. That Garland injury was no joke, and yet he was there running, jumping, competing with heavyweight boxer-sized men… He then had surgery and will miss the start of the next season.
We don’t know, maybe the surgery and a prolonged recovery were planned, but maybe he aggravated it and made it worse. Garland and the Cavs will not tell, of course.
In any case, it was absolutely stupid to have him out there playing.
Hali will be such an asset on defense and OKC will no doubt target him every play. Just sit. OKC in 6.
If he plays the narrative will be that he is a fool for risking a more serious injury. If he doesn’t play, the narrative will be that he doesn’t have the heart of a champion or something like that. It’s kinda a lose-lose situation.