Pacers' Tyrese Haliburton Joins Magic Johnson, John Stockton in Playoff History

The Indiana Pacers surprised the NBA world with a dominant 121-112 Game 1 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers.

While this win may have been due to the Cavs missing some of their best players, this still marks huge momentum for the Pacers to take the whole series.

Multiple players were key in this victory, including Andrew Nembhard (23 points, six assists), Pascal Siakam (17 points, eight rebounds, four assists), Aaron Nesmith (17 points, eight rebounds), and Myles Turner (13 points, 11 rebounds, three steals).

However, no one was more effective than point guard Tyrese Haliburton, who recorded 22 points, 13 assists, three rebounds, three blocks, and one steal.

Tyrese Haliburton set the pace in our 121-112 Game 1 win over Cleveland 💨

22 PTS | 13 AST | 3 BLK pic.twitter.com/Hui9P8FQXC
— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) May 5, 2025

In fact, this has been representative of how Haliburton has been this entire postseason, establishing himself as not just one of the best point guards playing today, but potentially one of the best of all time.

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In the playoffs, Haliburton has been averaging 18.3 points, 11.8 assists, 5.8 total rebounds, 1.2 blocks, and 0.8 steals per game. His 11.8 assists are currently leading the league in the playoffs.

This means that Haliburton currently has a career playoff average of 9.2 assists per game, putting him in line with the likes of Magic Johnson (12.3), John Stockton (10.1), and John Wall (9.8).

Highest career playoff APG average in NBA history:

Magic Johnson: 12.3 APG
John Stockton: 10.1 APG
John Wall: 9.8 APG
Tyrese Haliburton: 9.2 APG

Haliburton leads 2025 playoffs with 11.8 APG. pic.twitter.com/XB8tMjicQc
— Underdog NBA (@UnderdogNBA) May 6, 2025

Looking at Haliburton's career average with the Pacers, this shouldn't come as a surprise. In his three full seasons with Indiana, Haliburton has averaged 19.7 points, 10.2 assists, 3.7 total rebounds, 1.4 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game.

Despite this, many people don't seem to think of Haliburton as an elite point guard.

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In an anonymous poll of NBA players by The Athletic, Haliburton was named the most overrated player in the NBA with 14.4 percent of the vote. Additionally, he was not named an NBA All-Star this season.

While Haliburton has seemingly taken this in stride, others have stood up for the talented guard, including NBA legend Dwyane Wade.

"Wasn't he No. 1 most overrated ranked by the players? When I looked at it I said this is what's wrong with our game," Wade said on his podcast The Timeout. "If he's not someone who can score 30 [points per game], you don't look at him as an All-Star. But this is a guy who, when you look at [the Pacers] and see how that team runs and how it goes, they go as he go."

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For more news and notes about the Indiana Pacers, head on over to Indiana Pacers on SI.