Following the Indiana Pacers‘ Game 3 win in the NBA Finals over Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night, Tyrese Haliburton responded to his critics after dropping 22 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds.
“I think the commentary is always going to be what it is, you know?” Haliburton said. “Most of the time, the talking heads on the major platforms, I couldn’t care less. Honestly, like what do they really know about basketball?”
One person who knows quite a bit about basketball is Magic Johnson. The five-time NBA champion and three-time NBA Finals MVP has been supportive of Haliburton during these playoffs and credits his pace for pushing Indiana into the Finals and two games away from a first NBA championship.
Johnson joined ESPN’s “Get Up” on Thursday morning to talk about the Pacers and was asked specifically what Haliburton had to do to get Indiana across the finish line.
“OKC has more talent than Indiana at the end of the day. But the way they’re going to win is they have to play fast, (Haliburton) has to score more in this series,” Johnson said. “He has to get 20-25 points every single game in order for the Pacers to win because they follow his lead, right? And so him and (Pascal) Siakam has to get at least 20 points to put the Pacers in a situation that they can win the game. That unlocks all the other guys. And so when they both came out aggressive, Siakam had a big first quarter. Haliburton had a big second quarter, that unlocked everybody else now to be comfortable enough to score and take their shots to help the Pacers win.
“So he has to set the tempo, not just with his pace and also his assists, but also his scoring. I had to do that against the Celtics. I could cruise in the other series, but not against the Celtics. I must score against the Celtics, while I still had to get 15-20 assists, and this is important for him: He has to do the same thing, set the table for the guys and score points against OKC.”
In the 1985 NBA Finals, Johnson averaged 18.3 points and 14 assists as the Lakers won in six games. And in the 1987 NBA Finals, Johnson averaged 26.2 points and 13 assists in the Lakers’ six-game series win.
This season, the Pacers are 20-1 when Haliburton scores at least 20 points and dishes out at least 10 assists. This series, Haliburton is averaging 17.7 points, 7.7 assists and 7.3 rebounds a game.
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