OKLAHOMA CITY — (AP) — This is not how Indiana star Tyrese Haliburton saw the season ending.
He was outside the locker room, a walking boot on his right leg, standing on crutches, greeting his teammates as they came off the floor at the end of their season. There were hugs. There were tears.
The end, by any measure, was heartbreaking. And the pain of Game 7 of NBA Finals is going to linger over the Pacers for a long, long time.
Haliburton — who was playing with a strained right calf — tumbled to the court in a heap, immediately began punching the floor in frustration and needed to be helped to the locker room in Game 7 of the NBA Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday night.
Indiana had a one-point lead at halftime, but in the end, the Pacers lost their best player, then their verve, then their shot at the NBA title. The Thunder won 103-91, after the Pacers managed only 43 points in the second half.
“Doesn’t surprise me at all,” Pacers guard TJ McConnell said when asked if he was surprised Haliburton was there at the end to console teammates. “That’s who he is as a person, a teammate. He put his ego aside constantly. He could have been in the locker room feeling sorry for himself after something like that happened, but he wasn’t. He was up greeting us. ... That’s who Tyrese Haliburton is. He’s just the greatest, man.”
John Haliburton, Tyrese's father, told ABC late in the first half it was an Achilles tendon injury, as the replays of the play clearly indicated. An MRI is still likely to confirm that, but there are simple tests — without a need for imaging — that doctors typically use to determine whether there is a serious injury to the tendon.
The Pacers quickly ruled out Haliburton for the rest of Game 7 with that they called a lower right leg injury, and replays appeared to show something popping in the back of his leg. The injury happened with 4:55 left in the first quarter.
Haliburton put no weight on the leg and had his face wrapped in towels as he was taken to the Pacers' locker room for evaluation. Virtually the entire Indiana playing, coaching and medical staff surrounded him on the court once he got hurt. Even Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander quickly went over, touched Haliburton on the head as the Pacers guard lay face-down on the court and offered a kind word.
“All of our hearts dropped," Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “But he will be back.”
To their credit, the Pacers tried to rally for their teammates. But the Thunder were the best team in the league all season, finishing 68-14 — and in the second half Sunday night, with the title on the line, they were much the best again.
Haliburton, who had been dealing with leg issues in the series and had the calf issue flare up in Game 5, had been getting all sorts of treatment to get the calf in good enough shape for him to play in the last two games of the NBA Finals. He played well in Game 6, and Game 7 started promisingly — with Haliburton making three deep 3-pointers.
And then he was gone.
“I think I have to be as smart as I want to be,” Haliburton said before Game 6 last week. “Have to understand the risks, ask the right questions. I’m a competitor. I want to play. I’m going to do everything in my power to play. That’s just what it is.”
Haliburton, part of the team that won Olympic gold at the Paris Games last summer, was using hyperbaric chamber therapy, massage, needle treatments, electronic stimulation, special tape and a wrap to help treat the calf strain. He said after Game 6 that his treatment was going on virtually around the clock.
John Haliburton told ABC sideline reporter Lisa Salters that his son was surrounded by family and watching the game in the Pacers' locker room.
“He said that Tyrese is doing as well as he can be under the circumstances,” Salters said on the broadcast.
Injuries have been a huge factor in these playoffs. Boston star Jayson Tatum was wheeled off with a right Achilles tendon tear that essentially ended any realistic hope the Celtics had of defending the title they won last season. He will surely miss at least some of next season as well.
Milwaukee's Damian Lillard also tore an Achilles tendon in the Bucks' first-round series against Indiana. Golden State's Stephen Curry ran out of time before his injured hamstring could allow him to return to the Warriors' second-round series against Minnesota. If the Los Angeles Lakers' season had gone past the first round, LeBron James would have been sidelined with a knee sprain.
James was watching Game 7 and immediately posted his reaction to Haliburton's injury on social media. It was a one-word expletive, which didn't need much explanation.
For Lillard, for Tatum — and now, quite probably, for Haliburton — the issues will linger into next season or rob of them of the chance to play in 2025-26 entirely.
I know that he gave us everything, you know, everything he had. It just hurts that he couldn’t see it through with us," Pacers forward Pascal Siakam said. “But just incredibly proud of him, and everything he’s accomplished. And I know, you know, there’s more. There’s more coming.”
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