INDIANAPOLIS – Tyrese Haliburton would not be playing on Thursday if this were a regular season game. He probably would be sidelined for a week or two if this was December or January.
But this is June. It's the NBA Finals. The Indiana Pacers' season is on the line. That's why — even with a strained right calf — Haliburton is trying to find any way possible to play in the win-or-else Game 6 that awaits against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night.
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Will the Pacers' star guard and Olympic gold medalist play or not? That's the big question going into Game 6, and there probably won't be an answer until a few hours before the 8:40 p.m. Eastern tip-off time on Thursday night.
“I think I have to be as smart as I want to be,” Haliburton said Wednesday. “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.”
The good news for the Pacers: Haliburton did everything the team did in practice on Wednesday. The bad news: That only involved sitting through 25 minutes of film, a 30-minute walkthrough and then some light shooting while basically flat-footed the whole time.
“He'll go through the day tomorrow,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said Wednesday. “Our prep session is tomorrow late afternoon. They’ll get together and do some testing. That will determine whether he plays or not. If he doesn’t play, we have a plan, obviously, if we’re without him.”
Haliburton is trying every treatment he can think of right now in order to help his strained right calf, a diagnosis that was confirmed by an MRI exam on Tuesday. Hyperbaric chambers, needles, massage, electronic stimulation, special tape.
Whatever it takes.
“We got soldiers on this team,” Pacers forward Obi Toppin said. “We’re going to try to play through any type of injuries or anything. Ty is a soldier. He’s most likely going to be good. We don’t know yet.”
Haliburton was dealing with an ankle injury earlier in the series and now has the calf matter to deal with as well; it's not clear if the two are related, and really, it doesn't matter at this point.
The calf issue presented itself during Monday's Game 5 loss in Oklahoma City. Haliburton played through it for most of his 34 minutes, but failed to make a field goal in the game and Indiana lost to Oklahoma City 120-109 — falling behind 3-2 in the title series.
Now facing a win-or-else scenario, there is a chance Haliburton does not play in Game 6 on Thursday.
If Haliburton cannot play, it would seem likely that the Pacers would promote guard TJ McConnell to a starting role. McConnell has been brilliant throughout these playoffs and was a big spark in Game 5 when Indiana closed an 18-point deficit to a two-point difference in the second half before Oklahoma City pulled away again and for good.
“He is another ball handler, someone that can get us to our spots, push the pace,” Pacers forward Pascal Siakam said of McConnell. “He played great last game. He is going to be huge for us going forward, too.”
Haliburton left Game 5 late in the first quarter and returned to the bench area with a wrap on his lower leg. He not only returned to the game, he played 34 minutes — but did so while missing all six of his shots and with him barely looking to shoot at all in the second half. He finished the game with seven rebounds and six assists, but only four points.
It was the first time in Haliburton’s career that he logged at least 34 minutes and failed to make a single field goal.
The Pacers, Carlisle said, discussed not letting Haliburton play in the second half. Haliburton vetoed those plans and played 17 minutes in the second half, leading the Pacers in rebounds and assists after intermission.
Haliburton was part of the team that won Olympic gold in Paris for USA Basketball last year, but he was slowed by injuries then as well — and missed the final games of Indiana’s run against Boston in the Eastern Conference finals a year ago because of a hamstring issue.
“I have a lot of trust in our medical staff. I have a lot of trust in our organization to make the right decision,” Haliburton said. “I think there’s been many situations through the course of my career where they’ve trusted me on my body. ... I want to be out there. That’s the plan.”
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