Pacers need more from Tyrese Haliburton in Game 3, but that’s more than simply scoring

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana struggled to score in the first half of Game 2 against the swarming Oklahoma City defense, putting up just 41 points on 34.9% shooting, including shooting just 46.2% in the paint. The problems started with their all-everything point guard, Tyrese Haliburton, who shot just 2-of-7 through three quarters, with not one of those attempts coming in the paint.

That’s happened to the Pacers a handful of times this season and in the playoffs — most notably Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Knicks, when he had 8 points on 2-of-7 shooting for the game. In the face of intense defensive pressure, Haliburton defers to teammates — if the defense is loading up on him, someone else has to be open. His instinct is to find that open man.

As fans, we have been conditioned to expect our stars to attack in the face of that pressure — people want Haliburton to go Kobe and start shooting over triple-teams. People want him to be like Mike. Be selfish and pull his team up with him.

That’s not how Haliburton is wired. That’s not the Pacers’ formula.

That’s Indiana’s dilemma for Game 3 and the rest of the series: The Pacers need more Haliburton, but it can’t be just scoring. He’s not going to go out and jack up 25 shots Wednesday night in Game 3 — he hasn’t taken more than 23 in any game this season. Indiana thrives when Haliburton is setting the table and everyone is eating, but he’s got to eat more, too.

Thunder pressure defense

Haliburton’s challenge starts with the problem 28 other teams have faced this season: Oklahoma City’s physical, high-pressure defense.

“They got more guys than most teams in the NBA that are high level at the point of attack,” Haliburton said. “They’re really connected on the defensive end. I feel like they mix up coverages. I think coach [Mark] Daigneault isn’t afraid to do things on the fly. He doesn’t do everything that’s like very traditional…

“I think the biggest thing is just personnel. Their personnel is different than everywhere else.”

“We’ve got guys that are hard to screen either because of strength or quickness or both,” Daigneault said. “[Lu] Dort comes to mind. [Alex] Caruso comes to mind. [Jalen Williams] comes to mind. Cason Wallace, for sure. They’re good pursue guys. Having guys at the rim is helpful [Chet Holmgren, Isaiah Hartenstein]. You can’t spring downhill and assume there’s something good there for you. Hopefully, the help is deterring that to a degree.”

Haliburton and other Pacers mentioned leaning into watching the film of Game 2 (and the first half of Game 1), seeing what didn’t work, and what worked better in the fourth quarter of Game 2 (when Haliburton scored 12 points and looked more like himself, but it was too little to late). “The answers always lie in the film,” Haliburton said.

Pacers mixing it up

When discussing the Thunder defense, Haliburton employed phrasing typically reserved for describing how to slow down an elite offensive player.

“You can’t give these guys the same dosage, the same look of anything,” Haliburton said. “If you try to run high pick-and-roll all game, they just crawl into you, really pack the paint, nothing is open. There’s got to be a mix of things. Got to be off the ball, playing off the pitch, coming off ball screens. You can’t run the same thing consistently against these guys. You got to mix it up.

“We got to do a much better job of that. I feel like I probably got caught in too many high pick-and-rolls where they can really pack it in and end up getting shots late against the clock, especially the first half of both games.”

To a man, the Pacers talked about getting the ball into the paint more and working inside-out to get their attempts, as they have done all season. It also could mean a little more Pascal Siakam with the ball in his hands for the Pacers.

“[Siakam is] one of the few guys on their team that really looks for isolation to score. A lot of other guys, it’s through the flow of their offense and pace,” Caruso said.

Whatever the Pacers do to adjust, it won’t change how the Thunder want to play.

“My approach will be the same. Our approach will be the same,” Dort said.

Indiana is going to come out at home Wednesday night in a critical Game 3 (with the series tied 1-1) and throw its best punch — and that punch has to have Haliburton shooting more.

Just not too much.