After failing to shut out the Knicks in Sport 5 with a 3-1 collection lead, all of the strain seemingly turns to the Pacers to complete New York off at residence and keep away from a possible Sport 7 the place something might occur.
However whereas Indiana had its lowest-scoring efficiency of the postseason Thursday night time, Tyrese Haliburton isn’t frightened.
“We’re a resilient group. We always want to respond when things don’t go well,” the star Pacers level guard stated.
“We understand what the stakes are and we understand the conversation — what it’ll be around our group. But we’re fine. We’re fine. There’s no need to panic or anything.”
The Pacers’ resiliency has been on show down the stretch this season, as they haven’t misplaced back-to-back video games since early March once they misplaced three straight video games, with two coming towards the Hawks and one to the Bulls.
However Indiana will want a serious bounce-back in Sport 6 to stave off a attainable Sport 7 again in New York at MSG.
And it’ll begin with Haliburton, who adopted up his historic 32-point, 15-assist, 12-rebound, zero-turnover efficiency with a whole dud, posting eight factors and 6 assists.
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“I’ve got to be better setting the tone, getting downhill, I feel like I didn’t do a great job at that,” he stated. “There were some different things they did defensively but for the most part I think their base stuff was the same. They picked up the pressure a little more … I’ve got to be better and I will be better in Game 6.”
The final time Haliburton posted such a stinker of a statline was final spherical towards the Cavaliers when he tallied simply 4 factors and 5 assists in Sport 3, the place the Pacers misplaced their solely recreation of the collection.
He adopted that recreation up with a pedestrian 11 factors, 5 rebounds and 5 assists in Sport 4 earlier than turning up the warmth in Sport 5 with 31 factors, eight assists and 6 rebounds to shut out Cleveland.
“I have the most confidence in myself and our group to play to our ability in Game 6,” Haliburton stated. “I don’t think there’s any need to panic by any means. We get another game to go back at home and attack these guys and get better, so I look forward to Game 6 and we’ll be prepared.”
