Cavaliers Analyst Reveals Shocking Take About Pacers' Tyrese Haliburton

The Indiana star is rising up the rankings among the NBA's best players.

May 13, 2025; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton (0) talks to Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell (45) after game five of the second round for the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Rocket Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images | Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

The Indiana Pacers, currently leading the Thunder 1-0 in the NBA Finals, are in the midst of a widely unexpected playoff run.

Led by stars Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam, the Eastern Conference's No. 4 seed was seen as a major underdog among NBA Championship contenders. The Pacers had +6600 betting odds to win the title entering the postseason, but now sit three wins away from their first Championship in franchise history.

Haliburton has been a catalyst for the run, hitting four game-winning or game-tying shots amidst seemingly impossible comebacks. The 25-year-old point guard was not an All-Star this year and was voted the league's most overrated player in an anonymous player survey from The Athletic, but has made critics eat their words in these playoffs.

That includes Cleveland Cavaliers fans and analysts, who had to watch Haliburton dice up the top seed in the East during the Conference Semifinals. Following Haliburton's buzzer-beater Thursday that gave the Pacers a 1-0 NBA Finals lead over Oklahoma City, radio host Nick Wilson of 92.3 The Fan issued a formal apology on the air to the rising star.

"I, Nick Wilson, formally renounce my previous takes on Tyrese Haliburton," Wilson said. "He is, in fact, better than Darius Garland... He's better than Evan Mobley and he's better than Donovan Mitchell. Tyrese Haliburton is an absolute clutch a-- machine, super stud, holy crap. What a shot last night, what a performance. I'm going to confirm for everyone and God now, he's really good at basketball."

While the bold proclamation may be a case of recency bias, Haliburton's clutch play of late has certainly put him in interesting conversations. Against the Cavaliers, he averaged 17.4 points, 7.0 assists and 4.6 rebounds per game, capped off by a clinching Game 5 performance in which Haliburton scored 31 points with six made threes.