Tyrese Haliburton on his recent three-point shooting for Indiana Pacers: 'It's just a little slump right now'
INDIANAPOLIS — Tyrese Haliburton's three-point accuracy is missing right now.
The Indiana Pacers star guard is shooting 22.4% from deep since the All-Star break, and he is 10/56 (17.9%) from beyond the arc in the month of March. The All-Star ball handler has been a 40% three-point shooter every season of his career prior to 2023-24, and he started off this year hot. But his accuracy has been all over the place of late.
"I don't know. I have no answer," Haliburton said of his recent shooting woes after his team practiced earlier this weekend. "They feel good, so right now it's kind of good for me because I'm learning how to score without [threes]."
To Haliburton's credit, the latter part of his statement is true, and it's propping him up. The four-year pro is 55/88 on two-point shots since the All-Star break, good for 62.5%. That figure is even better in March. Haliburton is a 55.2% two-point shooter for his career, but he is smashing those numbers right now. For the season, he's at 59.2% and climbing from inside the arc.
That's why his numbers since the All-Star break are still solid. He's averaging 15.9 points, 9.7 assists, and 3.9 rebounds per game in 12 outings during that span. Those are still good numbers, and that assist figure would still rank third in the league.
Haliburton is an effective weapon and a massive part of opposing game plans. But he is a different player without the three balls dropping at normal levels. The 24-year old would be averaging 1.5 more points per game since the All-Star break if he was making just 30% of his triples in that span. That perfectly illustrates the slump he's in. If he was at his career percentage of 39.6% in the same stretch, he'd be averaging nearly 20 points per game since the mid-season pause.
"It's just a little slump right now. All I've got to do is keep shooting, it will figure itself out," Haliburton said Friday. He believes that once he gets back to attempting and knocking down lethal jumpers at his previous level, everything will fall back into place. He is of the opinion that he's just missing shots.
His role has changed somewhat in the last few weeks. As Pascal Siakam works his way into the Pacers offensive plans, Haliburton has a few more off-ball tasks. His scoring usage, per pbpstats, is 24.61% this season. That number was 25.23% before All-Star weekend and is 22.46% in the last dozen games.
The NBA's tracking data says that Haliburton throws the third-most passes per game this campaign at 70.7. Before the East and West battled, that number was 69.8. Since the All-Star break, it's up to 74.1. Indiana focuses on passing as a key principle of their offense, and Haliburton is a big part of that. But he has shifted some of his scoring responsibilities toward passing the rock and moving off the ball recently as his outside shot has faded.
"I try not to. I try to play, still take what the defense gives me, still be who I am," Haliburton said when asked if he thinks about his recent level of accuracy during games. He still looks at the rim for jumpers often — his volume hasn't dipped much from beyond the arc. That keeps defenses honest. But the accuracy hasn't been there of late.
"When you miss a step back or something like that, then it's considered a bad shot. I make those pretty regularly," Haliburton said. He doesn't want to view those as a bad shot, even when he's not hitting them. "I don't really look at it that way. Sometimes it's about attempts, too."
The 2020 lottery pick has been above 40% from long range during all of the first three seasons of his career. Prior to the All-Star break, he was at that 40% mark, and he drilled over 40% before his early-January hamstring injury. Every indicator says that his current 12-game sample is a massive slump.
But outside of his 4/10 night from deep against Detroit in the first game back from the All-Star break — a night in which Haliburton looked like himself again — the star guard hasn't cracked 40% from deep in a single game. He's only been above league average once, a 3/8 night against the New Orleans Pelicans.
Tyrese Haliburton is in a slump. He, and the Pacers, will hope it's over as soon as possible.
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