From a talented defender who was considered to be a star in the NBA, Tyrese Haliburton has turned himself into a record holder and a true superstar of the American professional basketball tournament.
The defender born in 2000 has just continued to add his name to the history of the tournament by achieving a set of stats that no one else has achieved, just a few days after having 2 consecutive games with 20 points and 20 assists.
Facing rival Milwaukee Bucks on the morning of January 4, Tyrese Haliburton led the team with 31 points, 12 assists, 3 blocks without any turnover in 34 minutes of play.
Adding 5 successful 3-pointers for the 23-year-old PG, the NBA confirmed that Haliburton became the first player in history to have the above series of indicators .
Another record pointed out by the NBA is that in the last 5 series of matches that the Pacers won, Tyrese Haliburton had 76 assists and only had 5 TOs.
No player has ever had so many assists and so few TOs in the history of the tournament, from the 1977 season to the present (when the turnover index was officially recorded).
Tyrese Haliburton is averaging 12.7 assists per game, temporarily ranked above Trae Young (11.3 APG) and Luka Doncic (9.3 APG) to lead the entire NBA. In addition, the Indiana Pacers defender is “unmatched” in the number of shots he makes and the number of 3-pointers he creates for his teammates.
By the end of the series on January 4, Haliburton had a series of 10 consecutive matches with double-digit assists, and he had 10 assists in 27 out of a total of 31 matches since the beginning of the season.
All statistics show how excellent Tyrese Haliburton is in terms of holding and creating for his teammates. But even more impressive is that he also scored excellently with 24.9 points/game, creating a huge impact every time he played.
Returning to the rivalry that helped Tyrese Haliburton enter NBA history, the Indiana Pacers won against the Milwaukee Bucks with a score of 142-130.
This is the fourth time Haliburton and his teammates defeated Milwaukee, closing the Regular Season series with a score of 4-1 against the 2021 NBA champion.
If the Pacers’ victory two days ago against the Bucks was thanks to the Indiana reserves scoring 70 points in the whole match, today, they continued to bring another special number.
In the third half alone, the Pacers scored 47 points (half score 47-29) to break away from the opponent’s grip and go straight to victory.
“ It seems like we were lucky to meet the Bucks this many times early on. In addition to 3 meetings with the Celtics, we had many challenges with the two top teams in the East to easily find out our strengths and weaknesses.
As a young team, this is a necessary process for us to become more mature and gain more experience for the sprint phase of this season ,” Tyrese Haliburton shared after the match.
With 5 consecutive victories, the Indiana Pacers (19-14) from the play-in group have climbed to 5th place in the Eastern rankings and threaten the fourth-place team Miami Heat (20-14).
The next match for Tyrese Haliburton and his teammates will be hosting the Atlanta Hawks at home on Saturday morning, January 6.
