With one minute to play for at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas this Thursday night, Tyrese Haliburton stepped back beyond the arc and dropped a three-pointer that gave Indiana an eight-point lead against Milwaukee. After hitting the game-ending shot, the Pacers star trolled Damian Lillard’s “Dame Time” celebration by starring down at his right wrist.
“I know what time it is,” the 23-year-old reportedly said as he celebrated the dagger shot. This meant that the Indiana franchise was officially headed into the In-Season Tournament’s championship game against the Los Angeles Lakers this Saturday.
As Haliburton had 27 points and 15 assists for the Pacers during their 128-119 victory, check out the video below and witness the exact moment the point guard knew the deed was done as he celebrated like Lillard:
Tyrese Haliburton just snatched Damian Lillard’s chain on the national stage then mocked his signature celebration
This dude is stamped. pic.twitter.com/UchxbOouJZ
— dean 🦂 (@DeanScorpion_) December 8, 2023
Now that the purple and gold routed New Orleans 133-89 in the second semifinal, Tyrese is ready to keep the momentum going, “shock the world” and get that trophy to Indiana.
“We’re playing the right way and we’re shocking the world right now, we’re going to continue to do that,” the Pacers star said. “And as long as we play the right way, we know we’re going to be in every basketball game.”
His teammate Myles Turner contributed with 26 points, Obi Toppin added 14 on 6-of-8 shooting, Isaiah Jackson had 11 and Bruce Brown hit 10. The Indiana squad is averaging an impressive 132.6 points per contest during this competition, and averaging 128.3 overall this season.
Both Bennedict Mathurin and T.J. McConnell were crucial to last night’s triumph, as they came off the bench when the Pacers were trailing by two, and inspired a 16-7 run that set the tone for the rest of the match.
“I know a lot of people don’t watch us play all the time, but we truly have one of the best benches in the NBA, if not the best bench in the NBA,” Haliburton said. “We’re a really deep team with a lot of different guys who can contribute. I’m sure we’ve got a lot of guys that people aren’t really familiar with, but they’ll be familiar all too soon, for sure.”
Indiana coach Rick Carlisle recognized the importance of his team’s bench contribution to the win, while Milwaukee reserves did poorly
One of the most important elements of the game came off the bench, as the Pacers’ backups outscored Milwaukee’s reserves 43-13. Overall, Indiana’s bench combined plus-62, while the Bucks’ reserves were minus-46.
“Yeah, our bench really was the difference in today’s game,” said head coach Rick Carlisle. “If you look at the plus-minus, it’s pretty obvious that those guys played a major role.”
After their most recent season-high 146 points in their quarterfinal triumph against the New York Knicks, Milwaukee was only 12-of-33 from range and 43-of-96 from the field this Thursday.
“We’ve got to close it out in the fourth quarter, which is something we’ve done very well, we just couldn’t pull it off tonight,” explained Bucks coach Adrian Griffin. “It’s not the outcome that we wanted but we made it to Vegas and we got to experience this. And I think it’s going to do wonders for our team. You always learn in wins and you learn in losses.”
