The Indiana Pacers have been ascending up the Eastern Conference standings. Twenty-five games into the season, they owned a 10-15 record. Since then, they are an impressive 25-10. Indiana is beginning to resemble the team that reached the Eastern Conference Finals last season. Meanwhile, star point guard Tyrese Haliburton is having an unreal recent stretch of play and has been playing the best basketball of his career.
Tyrese Halliburton’s Recent Stretch Has Been Insane
Tyrese Halliburton Has Been Playing Out Of His Mind In Recent Stretch
On Tuesday, the Pacers were able to defeat the Houston Rockets by the score of 115-102. That allowed Indiana to move to a season-high 10 games over .500. It was another spectacular outing for the recently-turned 25-year-old Haliburton. In 36 minutes, he totaled 28 points and 15 assists (to just two turnovers). Haliburton shot 9-16 from the field, 5-8 from beyond the arc, and 5-5 from the foul line.
That continues a stretch of outstanding play from the 6-foot-5 point guard. Tuesday marked the sixth straight contest where Haliburton reached double-digit assists and recorded no more than two turnovers. In those six games, he now has 75 assists to seven turnovers. It’s safe to say that a 10.71 assist-to-turnover ratio is remarkable.
Hali last six games:
12 AST | 1 TOV
15 AST | 1 TOV
11 AST | 1 TOV
10 AST | 1 TOV
12 AST | 1 TOV
15 AST | 2 TOVWhile also averaging 24.2 PPG, 2.8 SPG and 61/59/100% shooting. pic.twitter.com/AzAvfhVZ8M
— StatMuse (@statmuse) March 5, 2025
Not only have his passing and ability to take care of the ball been at elite levels, but Haliburton is also scoring rather efficiently since the All-Star break. The Pacers are now 5-2 since the time off. Haliburton also received time off, as he didn’t play in the All-Star Game after making the previous two. The fifth-year player has now shot over 50% from the field in all seven games while also shooting at least 50% from three-point territory in six of the seven. Since the break, Haliburton is shooting 60.0% from the field and 54.5% on three-point tries (also a perfect 17-17 from the charity stripe) while averaging 23.9 points.
The league-leader in assists and an All-NBA Third Team member in 2023-24, it was a slow start for Haliburton. In five October games, he only shot 34.6% from the field and 25.0% from three-point range. November and December were better, but not yet reaching his career efficiency. January and February saw the guard finish at over 50% field goal shooting and over 44% from three-point territory. March is certainly trending that way as well through two games.
Indiana Moving On Up
With the Pacers playing much improved basketball as the season has gone along, they have been moving up the standings in the Eastern Conference. It now looks that they have a strong opportunity to earn homecourt advantage in the opening round of the postseason.
Indiana is now tied with the Milwaukee Bucks at 35-25 for the fourth-best record in the East. The Bucks do own the tiebreaker due to their 2-0 record against Indiana this season. The teams meet up for two pivotal matchups coming up soon though on March 11 in Indiana and March 15 in Milwaukee. The Detroit Pistons are also in the hunt for a top-four seed, sitting one game behind both teams.
The Pacers next two games both come on the road, and both come against the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday and Saturday. Tyrese Haliburton will continue to look to play at his best as he has during his recent stretch, which in turn, will continue to make Indiana very tough to beat.
Photo credit: © Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images
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