Pacers guards Tyrese Haliburton and Buddy Hield have a competition to see who can dunk more this season

Haliburton and Hield are competiting to have more dunks during the Pacers season.

The Indiana Pacers are hoping to become a more athletic roster as they enter a new era. They finished 28th in total dunks during the 2020-21 campaign and 27th in dunks last season. Athleticism has not been a strength for Indiana in recent seasons, and they are hoping to change that.

Two Pacers players who are not known for their athleticism may help change the team's fortunes when it comes to dunk totals. Buddy Hield and Tyrese Haliburton, two guards who combined for 32 jams this past season, have a friendly competition to see who can dunk more this season.

"He's mad because I've got more bounce than him," Hield said of Haliburton. The two have been teammates for Haliburton's entire career.

Hield dunked on a fast break during the Pacers preseason victory over the Knicks, and he immediately looked toward Haliburton on the bench after the jam. During a public intersquad scrimmage called FanJam, Hield dunked and Haliburton exclaimed "doesn't count!" Haliburton also dunked during the scrimmage.

Those reactions merited questions. Why were dunks leading to such large reactions from the two players?

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"He challenged me to a dunk contest after practice like we're high schoolers. I said I can jump higher than him, he thinks he can jump higher than me. It's a running joke in our locker room about who can jump higher, who dunks more," Haliburton explained.

Hield had one dunk in the preseason and one dunk at FanJam, while Haliburton didn't dunk during preseason play and had just one jam during FanJam. As it stands, Hield claims he's ahead.

"I'm up one on him already. Working on that, getting my hops right," Hield said.

Haliburton disagreed, claiming that the tallying doesn't begin until the regular season starts. "Counts at zero, we'll see as the season goes," he said. Last year, Haliburton dunked 25 times while Hield threw down just seven slams.

Regardless of what the current score is between the two, Haliburton is a huge favorite to win the competition. The third-year pro had 17 dunks as a rookie and 25 last year, while Hield has only exceeded 16 jams in a season once in his entire six year career. History suggests that Haliburton will win.

But Hield is leading right now, and he has added motivation to dunk more in games thanks to this competition with Haliburton. If this contest leads to more highlights for the Pacers, they will make progress toward their goal of improving their athleticism as a team.

Indiana's season, and the contest between the two guards, begins on Wednesday in Indianapolis against the Washington Wizards.

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