Tyrese Haliburton has responded to questions about his late-game turnovers which heavily contributed to the Indiana Pacers’ demise in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals on Tuesday.
The Pacers had a 3-point lead with 27.1 seconds remaining in regulation when Haliburton dribbled the ball off his foot and out of bounds.
After a subsequent turnover by Andrew Nembhard allowed Jaylen Brown to force overtime with a clutch three-pointer, Haliburton later lost the ball out of bounds again, this time with 1:01 left in overtime and the Pacers trailing 124-123.
“I think it’s on us,” Haliburton said postgame. “They’re a great defensive team, they got great defenders, individual and team defenders, but they’re not a team who forces a ton of turnovers. I just felt like more of them were on us than them. We got to clean that up.
“We know we can play with these guys. We know we belong. It’s discouraging just because of the plays that happened down the stretch, we felt like we were in position to win the game, just didn’t win the game. But what I will say, is encouraging, we had been trash in Game 1s for the first series and second series. Today we played great for about 47 minutes, just didn’t sustain for 48.”
Haliburton also praised Celtics guard Jrue Holiday for his defense.
“[Jrue Holiday] is the best defender in the NBA and has been for a long time… I’ll learn from it and I’ll be better in Game 2.”
The Pacers and Celtics will return to the court when Game 2 tips off in Boston on Thursday.
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