INDIANAPOLIS — Tyrese Haliburton finished with 32 points, 15 assists and 12 rebounds without a turnover in a historic postseason performance to lead the Indiana Pacers past the New York Knicks 130-121 on Tuesday night for a 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference finals.
With his father, John, back in Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Haliburton became the first player with such a stat line in the postseason since turnovers were first tracked in 1977-78 and he carried the Pacers within a victory of their second trip to the NBA Finals. Nikola Jokic and Oscar Robertson are the only other players to post 30 points, 15 assists and 10 rebounds in a playoff game.
Game 5 is Thursday in New York.
‘’I’ll look at that later and reflect on that at a different time. For me, it’s just about winning,’’ Haliburton said. ‘’ I wanted to prove I could respond when my back is against the wall, my team’s back is against the wall. I feel like we responded the right way."
Pascal Siakam added 30 points while Haliburton had four steals in his second career postseason triple-double. Obi Toppin’s 3-pointer with 46 seconds left sealed it.
Jalen Brunson scored 31 points. Karl-Anthony Towns had 24 points and 12 rebounds, and OG Anunoby finished with 22 points. But the Knicks couldn’t rally from another double-digit deficit.
It marked the first time in the series the home team won and leaves the Knicks one loss away from getting eliminated for the second straight year by Indiana.
‘’We’ve all got to be better. We’ve got to be better as a team,’’ Towns said after shaking off a left leg injury with 2:11 to play to finish the game. ‘’It’s unfortunate we couldn’t find a way tonight when we found a way in all the other series to do it.’’
