Tyrese Haliburton Inconsistencies Could Hurt Pacers’ Long-Term Success

Feb 11, 2025; Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton (0) shoots the ball while New York Knicks forward Mikal Bridges (25) defends in the first half at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images | Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images

The Indiana Pacers are looking to get back to the Eastern Conference Finals this season.

Currently 30-23 which is good for the No. 4 spot in the East, there is still a lot of work to do before the playoffs.

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Before All-Star festivities took over, Indiana won six of their last 10 contests, including a four game win streak that started in Paris. It was also nice to have Pacers representation in the All-Star Game as Pascal Siakam earned the honor thanks to his 20.7 points and 7.3 rebounds per game.

In order to not just get to the same spot as last year, but make it out of the Conference Finals and compete for a championship, the Indianapolis Star's Dustin Dopirak listed a few questions that need to be answered over the next 29 regular season games.

Dopirak was critical of two-time All-Star Tyrese Haliburton who, after a slow start, is back to his productive ways.

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"But even though he's playing much better on average and even though he doesn't seem to let one missed shot or one bad game affect him nearly as much as he did in the early going," said Dopirak, "he still hasn't been very consistent and the Pacers' fortunes have in large part risen and fallen with his individual performances.

"They are 16-2 in games in which he has scored at least 20 points. They are 2-8 in games in which he scores fewer than 10 points with one of the two wins coming in a game in which he did not play in the second half because of a mild groin strain."

Dopirak also cited how important of a factor Haliburton is as Siakam's consistency can only do so much.

Last season, Haliburton shined averaging 18.7 points and 8.2 assists on 49 percent shooting in his first-ever playoffs run, but the inconsistency still showed in the first and second rounds. After finding his footing in the Semifinals, Haliburton went down with a hamstring injury in Game 2 of the Conference Finals and missed out on the final two contests of the series.

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