Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton Intends To Play Game 6
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.
NBA Finals Notes: Game 6, Daigneault, SGA, Haliburton
With a chance to capture their first title since the franchise moved to Oklahoma City, Thunder players are focused on the process of winning Game 6 rather than its historical implications, writes Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. Heavy favorites when the series began, OKC has a chance to celebrate tonight on the Pacers‘ home court.
“We want to win the game tomorrow, but the most important thing we need to do to win the game tomorrow is prepare today and prepare tomorrow and play the first possession really well, then the next possession, then the next possession,” coach Mark Daigneault told reporters on Wednesday. “That’s how we try to approach a game, how we try to approach the playoff series, how we try to approach every single day and let that win the day.”
The Thunder have largely controlled the series after letting Game 1 slip away due to a miraculous Indiana comeback. They won handily in Game 2, staged a rally of their own in Game 4, then took their first lead of the series in Game 5. MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is encouraging his teammates to take their normal approach to tonight’s game and not get distracted by thoughts of a victory celebration.
“The cusp of winning is not winning,” he said. “The way I see it, winning is all that matters. It hasn’t been fulfilled. We haven’t done anything.”
There’s more on the Finals:
- Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton is considered to be a game-time decision, but ESPN’s Brian Windhorst expects him to play. Appearing this morning on Get Up (YouTube link), Windhorst noted that Indiana’s medical staff already had the results of Haliburton’s MRI from Tuesday when the team listed him as questionable. He believes the Pacers are “setting the stage” for Haliburton to be active, but it’s uncertain if the right calf strain is too severe for him to be effective.
- An ESPN panel doesn’t give the Pacers much chance of extending the series if Haliburton can’t live up to his normal standards. While most of the group expects the Finals to end tonight, Jamal Collier observes that Indiana’s role players have performed better at home, while Zach Kram points to Andrew Nembhard as someone who could swing the series if he can find a way to score like he did earlier in the playoffs.
- With the Finals nearing their conclusion, Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic examines why the games often seem less important than they used to. He cites a number of factors, including a “humdrum” presentation and the league-wide focus on the transactions cycle, and suggests that things may change when NBC resumes its coverage of the NBA this fall.
Carlisle: Haliburton Likely ‘Game-Time Decision’ For Game 6
11:44am: Haliburton confirmed after Wednesday’s light practice that he has a calf strain but he’s hopeful he can play in Game 6, Spears tweets.
“I’m a competitor. I want to play. I’m going to do everything in my power to play,” Haliburton said.
11:01 am: With his team’s season on the brink, Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle anticipates that Tyrese Haliburton will be a “game-time decision” for Game 6 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night, Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star relays.
Carlisle commented on Haliburton’s status during a Wednesday morning radio interview on 107.5 The Fan.
“He is going to be carefully evaluated over the next 36 hours and will likely be listed as questionable on the injury report and probably will be a game-time decision for Game 6,” Carlisle said. “Everything is on the table.”
Haliburton did not make a field goal in Indiana’s Game 5 loss to Oklahoma City as the Thunder grabbed a 3-2 lead in the series. Game 6 will be played in Indianapolis. The star guard reportedly underwent an MRI on Tuesday due to an injury believed to be a right calf strain.
“We have to prepare for two scenarios: one where he plays and one where he does not,” Carlisle said.
Carlisle said rotation changes could be coming, regardless of Haliburton’s status. Indiana has lost the last two games of the series.
“Everything is on the table,” Carlisle said. “… It’s pretty simple. Tomorrow night our task is to take care of home court – which is what they did in Game 5 – and get to an ultimate game, which is Game 7. That’s the task in front of us. We have to figure out exactly what tools are in front of us as a team and we have to consider everything. Minute count, throwing that out the window is easy to say, but if you have guys out there that are more fatigued than they should be, that’s not good and against this team, that’s very difficult.”
Center Myles Turner remains defiant that the Pacers can win the next two games, as he told Andscape’s Marc J. Spears. Turner declared, “It’s not over” shortly after the Game 5 loss.
“Our fans have been anticipating this for such a long time,” Turner said. “They’ve been antsy. The biggest thing is to show up for Game 6. They’ll be behind us and be as loud as they were here [in Oklahoma City]. For someone in my position, you never know when you can get this opportunity again. This is the youngest, healthiest and most spry I will ever be. For me, I just got to give it all that I’ve got. Back against the wall. Empty the tank.”
Pelicans, Pacers Complete Draft-Pick Swap
2:23 pm: The trade is official, the Pelicans confirmed in a press release.
12:51 pm: The Pelicans and Pacers have agreed to a trade, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania, who reports (via Twitter) that Indiana is sending the No. 23 overall pick in this year’s draft to New Orleans, along with the draft rights to 2023 second-round pick Mojave King.
In exchange, the Pelicans will trade Indiana’s 2026 first-round pick back to the Pacers. That pick, which was originally sent to Toronto with top-four protection as part of the Pascal Siakam blockbuster at the 2024 deadline, was flipped to New Orleans at the 2025 deadline in the Brandon Ingram deal.
The deal will give the Pelicans some extra ammunition in this year’s draft. New Orleans also controls the No. 7 overall pick but previously traded away its second-rounder. The Pelicans will now have an opportunity to add two of the top 23 players from the 2025 draft pool, assuming the front office hangs onto both picks.
King, who was the 47th overall pick in the 2023 draft, has played in the G League, New Zealand, and Puerto Rico in the past two years. Although he’s not considered an elite draft-and-stash prospect, the 6’5″ guard is still just 23 years old, so it’s not out of the question that he’ll sign an NBA contract at some point.
As for the Pacers, the deal accomplishing two things. For one, it will remove a cap hold of roughly $3.24MM from their books for 2025/26, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks. That will give the team slightly more cap flexibility as it looks to re-sign Myles Turner without going too deep into luxury-tax territory.
Additionally, as Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo Sports tweets, the move will free up more of the Pacers’ future first-rounders for trade purposes. Previously, due to the Stepien rule that prevents teams from leaving themselves without a pick in the first round of consecutive future drafts, the Pacers wouldn’t have been able to offer more than two first-rounders unconditionally in any trade package. Now they could offer up to four (2026, 2028, 2030, and 2032).
While teams typically aren’t permitted to make trades between the in-season trade deadline and the end of their season, the Pacers can make this deal while they remain alive in the NBA Finals because it doesn’t involve any players on their 15-man roster.
Tyrese Haliburton Undergoing MRI On Right Calf Injury
2:01 pm: Haliburton is believed to have suffered a right calf strain and is undergoing an MRI to determine the severity of the injury, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
9:32 am: Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton, who spoke earlier in the NBA Finals about dealing with a “lower leg” issue, was hampered by an injury affecting the same leg during the team’s Game 5 loss on Monday, writes Jamal Collier of ESPN.
Haliburton’s initial lower leg issue was later revealed to be a right ankle ailment. On Monday, he went to the locker room in the first quarter due to right calf tightness before returning to the court and finishing the game. He told reporters after the loss that Monday’s injury was in the “same area,” but that he never considered shutting it down for the night.
“It’s the Finals,” Haliburton said. “I’ve worked my whole life to be here and I want to be out there to compete, help my teammates any way I can. I was not great tonight by any means, but it’s not really a thought of mine to not play here. If I can walk, then I want to play.”
Monday’s performance was easily Haliburton’s worst of the NBA Finals. His four points matched a personal career playoff low, and he didn’t make a single field goal attempt, going 0-for-6 from the floor as the Pacers fell behind 3-2 in the series. He did manage to grab seven rebounds and hand out six assists, but Indiana was outscored by 13 points when he was on the floor in a game the team lost by 11 points.
“Just trying to keep pace in the game, impact whatever way I can,” Haliburton said, per Shakeia Taylor of The Athletic. “Just trying to get (Pascal Siakam) the ball in the right spots. Try to get the ball to guys in the right spots if I can. As far as what happened there, we have to watch film to see it.”
Having their All-NBA point guard battling health issues obviously isn’t ideal for the Pacers as they prepare for a win-or-go-home Game 6 in Indiana, but head coach Rick Carlisle expressed confidence the Haliburton will be available on Thursday.
“He’s not 100 percent. It’s pretty clear,” Carlisle said. “But I don’t think he’s going to miss the next game. We were concerned at halftime, and he insisted on playing. I thought he made a lot of really good things happen in the second half. But he’s not 100 percent. There’s a lot of guys in the series that aren’t. We’ll evaluate everything with Tyrese and see how he wakes up tomorrow.”
As Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star writes, backup point guard T.J. McConnell gave the team some huge minutes on Monday with Haliburton struggling. McConnell scored 18 points on 8-of-14 shooting in 22 minutes off the bench.
If Haliburton doesn’t look like his normal self on Thursday, the Pacers may have to lean more on McConnell, Siakam, and Andrew Nembhard for play-making.
Windhorst: Timberwolves Most Aggressive In Pursuit Of Kevin Durant
The Timberwolves have been the team most aggressively pursuing Kevin Durant in trade talks so far, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said this morning during an appearance on Get Up (Twitter video link). Windhorst notes that Minnesota made a strong push to acquire Durant from the Suns before the February trade deadline to team him with Anthony Edwards, and that effort has been renewed this offseason.
Windhorst identifies the Raptors and Clippers as teams that are “lurking” in the Durant trade saga, with Toronto offering the ninth pick in this year’s draft along with combinations of players in “multiple different scenarios.”
A list of Durant’s preferred destinations leaked over the weekend, with the Spurs, Rockets and Heat said to be the only teams he would considering signing an extension with. However, Windhorst hears that those three teams “have not made offers that have gotten Phoenix excited.” A report on Sunday indicated that the Suns are more focused on maximizing their return in a Durant trade than sending him someplace he wants to go.
Sources tell Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link) that the Raptors are willing to give up either RJ Barrett or Immanuel Quickley to upgrade their roster, and several league figures have said they would consider including Jakob Poeltl as well if it means getting Durant in return. Phoenix is reportedly seeking a starting-level center for next season, and the Durant deal might be the best opportunity to acquire one.
Fischer reports that Toronto’s No. 9 selection is being viewed around the league as “perhaps the most likely top-10 pick in the draft to be traded.” He adds that the Raptors would prefer not to move out of the first round completely, so the Suns’ choice at No. 29 could be part of the deal.
Phoenix would love to get Ivica Zubac, Fischer adds, but the Clippers consider him off limits. However, he notes that L.A. has two future first-round picks and some swap rights that it could offer along with Norman Powell, Bogdan Bogdanovic and Derrick Jones.
Fischer doesn’t expect the Grizzlies to get involved in the Durant chase, even though they have a fresh collection of draft assets from Sunday’s Desmond Bane trade. He notes that Memphis was reluctant to pursue Jimmy Butler before the deadline because of fears that he wouldn’t sign an extension, and Durant is probably viewed the same way.
Addressing the Suns’ desire for a center, Fischer states that the team has done background work on Celtics big man Kristaps Porzingis in case he’s made available. Fischer also hears that Phoenix would be interested in free agent Myles Turner if he doesn’t re-sign with the Pacers.
Pacers’ Jarace Walker Expected To Miss Rest Of Finals
Pacers reserve forward Jarace Walker likely won’t return to action during the NBA Finals, head coach Rick Carlisle said on Sunday, per Tony East of ClutchPoints (Twitter link). Walker has missed the entire series so far with a sprained right ankle.
“He is doing better,” Carlisle said. “He is off crutches and he is walking with a slight limp now. So it’s very unlikely that he’ll be able to play in this series. But he is doing better. It would be great if he was available because I do think he would help us.”
The 6’8″ forward enjoyed an expanded bench role on Indiana during his second pro regular season out of Houston. In 75 healthy games, Walker averaged 6.1 PPG, 3.1 RPG, and 1.5 APG in 15.8 MPG. He also notched shooting splits of .472/.405/.667. Carlisle tightened his rotation in the playoffs, reducing Walker’s minutes to 9.8 MPG.
Without Walker available, Obi Toppin has become an even more essential frontcourt bench contributor for Indiana in the series, taking on a larger role.
Indiana and the Thunder are currently knotted up, 2-2, in the ongoing series. A pivotal Game 5 is slated for Monday night in Oklahoma City. The Pacers are appearing in their first NBA Finals since 2000 — more than three years before the 21-year-old Walker was even born.
Pacers Notes: Game 4 Loss, Haliburton, Mathurin, Nesmith, Carlisle
The Pacers were on their way to taking a commanding 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals Friday night when their offense inexplicably hit a wall, writes James Boyd of The Athletic. The crisp passing and constant motion they’ve displayed throughout the series disappeared in the fourth quarter, allowing Oklahoma City to rally for a 111-104 victory and head back home with the series tied.
“We just got too stagnant,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “The ball was not being advanced quickly enough. We weren’t creating problems, and we were up against the clock a lot. So things got very difficult, but you gotta give Oklahoma (City) credit. They made it very difficult.”
The numbers tell an ugly story as Indiana was outscored 31-17 during the final 12 minutes. Tyrese Haliburton, who went 3-of-7, was the only Pacers player to make more than one shot during the fourth quarter as they registered just one assist and committed three turnovers. Ten of their 27 fouls came in the fourth quarter, and they shot just 5-of-18 as a team while missing all eight of their three-point attempts.
“I gotta do a better job of keeping pace in the game,” Haliburton said. “I thought I did a much better job of that last game, especially down the stretch. Keeping pace, getting rebounds and really pushing (the ball). I think we gotta do a better job of when we do get stops, getting out and running. A lot of times in that fourth (quarter), we were fouling too much, taking the ball out, having to kind of run (a set play) versus just random basketball.”
There’s more on the Pacers:
- Even with the late struggles, Indiana was positioned for another miracle finish when Bennedict Mathurin went to the foul line trailing by four points with 24 seconds remaining, per Kyle Neddenriep of The Indianapolis Star. Mathurin missed both shots, but got another opportunity a few seconds later with a five-point deficit. He split those attempts, effectively killing any hope of a Pacers comeback. “It’s very tough,” said Mathurin, who had been connecting at 89% from the line throughout the playoffs. “I’ve made those free throws, and I love making tough free throws. The only thing I can do is to knock them down next time.”
- During Friday’s broadcast, ABC announcer Mike Breen shared a conversation with Pacers forward Aaron Nesmith, who credited Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla for helping him early in his career, relays Brian Robb of MassLive. Nesmith played two seasons in Boston before being traded to Indiana in 2022.
- Carlisle has been preparing his players for a lengthy series, which will last 18 days if it goes the full seven games, according to Jamal Collier of ESPN. Carlisle believes his team will be mentally ready when play resumes Monday night. “It’s long. It’s arduous. But it’s the greatest opportunity going,” he said. “It’s really hard, and it’s supposed to be hard. This is where we’re going to have to dig in and circle the wagons and come back stronger on Monday. This is a big disappointment, but there’s three games left. This series is going to come down to the basics. … This kind of a challenge is going to have extreme highs and extreme lows. This is a low right now, and we’re going to have to bounce back from it.”
Finals Notes: Gilgeous-Alexander, Thunder Resilience, Takeaways, Pacers
The NBA Finals between the Thunder and the Pacers is heading back to Oklahoma City with the series tied at two games apiece following fourth quarter heroics from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. As Tim MacMahon of ESPN writes, Gilgeous-Alexander scored 15 of his 35 points in the game’s final four-and-a-half minutes to help the Thunder overcome a two-possession deficit.
“I knew what it would have looked like if we lost tonight,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I didn’t want to go out not swinging. I didn’t want to go out not doing everything I could do in my power, in my control, to try to win the game.”
Gilgeous-Alexander’s 11 points in the final three minutes are the most during that stretch of a Finals game in 50 years, per MacMahon. The Thunder’s defense also held the Pacers to just one point in the final 3:20.
“I relish those moments, love the moments, good or bad,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “When I was a kid shooting at my driveway, I’d count down the clock for those moments. Now I get to live it. It’s a blessing, it’s fun, and I relish it.”
We have more notes from the NBA Finals:
- Game 4 of the NBA Finals felt “eerily reminiscent” of Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals between Oklahoma City and Denver, Tim Bontemps of ESPN writes. The Thunder trailed on the road in that game by multiple possessions before rallying and ultimately winning that series in seven. For the first time all series, it felt like the Pacers tired in the fourth quarter, missing all eight of their three-point attempts in the period after making 39% in the first three quarters.
- Gilgeous-Alexander’s chill demeanor is shining through in these playoffs, and his legendary Game 4 performance showed no moment is too big for him, Sam Amick of The Athletic writes. “You wouldn’t know if it was a preseason game or it’s Game 4 of the NBA Finals down 2-1 with him,” teammate Alex Caruso said. “That’s why we have such a good mentality as a group. That’s why we are able to find success in adversity. No matter what’s going on, you look at him and he’s the same. Underneath that stoic personality or (his) look on the court is a deep, deep-rooted competitiveness. That is sprinkled throughout the whole team. …He never blinks, never shies away from the moment.“
- The Pacers let little things slip in their Game 4 loss, The Athletic’s Shakeia Taylor writes. Indiana missed eight free throws, including some late attempts from Bennedict Mathurin, while the team committed more fouls, lost the offensive rebound battle, turned the ball over more, and allowed far more second chance points. Still, the Pacers are confident they’re still in a good spot as the series heads back to OKC. “We’ve won some games on the road before, so I think we just gotta go out there with our confidence,” Pascal Siakam said. “We’ll watch [film on] what we did wrong and try to get better at those things. We just gotta go out there and do things that we’ve done in the past.“
Pacers Notes: Carlisle, Toppin, Underdog Status, Trends
The Pacers‘ offensive style of controlled chaos and freedom stems not only from the synergy between Tyrese Haliburton and coach Rick Carlisle, but also from the decades of experience Carlisle has coaching elite point guards, Jamal Collier and Tim MacMahon write for ESPN.com.
As a young coach with a reputation for demanding control of his team, Carlisle found himself leading a Mavericks squad in 2008 helmed by Jason Kidd, an experience that taught him a valuable lesson that he has applied to multiple other star initiators, such as Luka Doncic and now Haliburton. Kidd showed him how to introduce more flow and rhythm to the offense, and after some initial resistance, the pair grew to appreciate and get the best out of each other, eventually winning a championship together.
“It’s pretty clear, when you have a player of that kind of magnitude, that kind of presence, that kind of knowledge, vision and depth, you got to let them do what they do,” Carlisle says.
Haliburton, for his part, doesn’t take that trust for granted. Speaking about Carlisle making sure the team knew the ball was coming to Haliburton for the final play of Game 1, he said: “That was the ultimate trust that I could get from anybody, because he is such a brilliant basketball mind. He’s been around such great guards, great players. For him to give me that confidence, I think has really taken my career to another level.”
Before Haliburton’s arrival in Indiana, Carlisle was back to his roots of operating as a strict play-caller. All that changed when the Pacers traded for Haliburton. He had dinner with his new point guard the night after the trade, and the relationship blossomed from there.
“What I learned my first year in Dallas was to give J-Kidd the ball and get out of the way, let him run the show, let him run the team,” Carlisle said. “Tyrese, very similar situation, but didn’t take half a season to figure it out. The situation in Dallas with Luka was the same.”
We have more on the Pacers:
- Obi Toppin‘s impact for Indiana has gone well beyond box-score numbers, writes James Boyd of The Athletic. While it’s true that Toppin’s pivotal putback dunk and subsequent block on Jalen Williams in the fourth quarter of Game 3’s win will show up in the stat sheet, it’s his non-stop energy that has made him such a successful part of the Pacers’ balanced attack. “He continues to bring that pace to the game and he’s flying up the floor and you’re hitting him ahead (for easy buckets)… He fits so perfect with what we do,” Haliburton said. Indiana’s bench play has been a crucial part of the team’s 2-1 lead over the Thunder, as Toppin, Bennedict Mathurin, and T.J. McConnell have all proven indispensable throughout the series.
- The Pacers have a chance to be the most atypical championship team since the 2004 Pistons if they can win two more games, writes Tony Jones of The Athletic. Built around great players who are not quite superstars, depth, versatility, shooting, and great coaching, Indiana has managed to defy expectations — but Jones writes that maybe that says more about those expectations than the Pacers, who went 54-22 to end the season and have few weaknesses on either end of the floor. At the end of the day, Jones says, this team deserves to be considered a juggernaut, not one that’s just happy to be here.
- Haliburton rebounding the ball is one of the best indications that the Pacers are about to score, writes The Athletic’s Fred Katz in a piece examining trends of the Finals. During the 2025 playoffs, he writes, the Pacers are scoring 160.8 points per 100 possessions on plays following a Haliburton defensive rebound. Katz also points to the speed at which the Pacers get into their offense as a key to creating even marginal advantages, as their speed forces opponents into cross-matches that can be beneficial to Indiana. Katz also points out that out of 140 players to attempt at least 40 pull-up shots this year, McConnell does so from the closest distance, to great effect. He has hit 20 of his 34 pull-ups this postseason.