Fantasy Sports

Caitlin Clark vs. Tyrese Haliburton: Who Rules Indiana Fantasy Basketball?

Alan Goldsher|
Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark gazes adoringly at her basketball BFF, the Pacers' Tyrese Haliburton, during Game 3 of the NBA Finals.
Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark gazes adoringly at her basketball BFF, the Pacers' Tyrese Haliburton, during Game 3 of the NBA Finals. | Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

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Indiana PacersIndiana Fever

Tonight, the Indiana Pacers host the mighty Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 4 of the NBA Finals

Tomorrow night, the Indiana Fever host the undefeated New York Liberty in game 10 of the WNBA season.

The following night, fantasy nerds like me might peek at the respective box scores and think, Hmm, between Caitlin Clark or Tyrese Haliburton, which Indy-based superstar would best elevate my fantasy team?

We decided this question must be answered, so we ran the numbers. Spoiler alert: It’s reeeeeeally close.

BFFs

Before we dive into the digits, we need to emphasize that this is a friendly rivalry. Actually, according to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, it’s exactly the opposite of a rivalry, as the two have, “…the most powerful friendship in basketball."

“They don't just attend each other's games and send congratulatory messages on social media. No, the reigning king and queen of Indiana basketball go on double dates with their significant others and talk constantly about basketball and the pressures of superstardom."
Ramona Shelburne, ESPN

So if Clark and Haliburton stumble upon this article—doubtful because they’re, y’know, playing basketball—they’ll probably bring it along to one of their social outings and laugh, and laugh, and laugh some more.

All good. Laugh away. We can take it.

Now let’s talk fake hoops.

9-Cat

One of the many cool things about fantasy basketball are the various scoring and format options:

  • You can roll week-to-week, head-to-head.
  • You can roll with full-season averages.
  • You can roll with any number of stat categories in both formats.

For our Hoosier State tete-a-tete thought experiment, we’ll go with a nine category, week-to-week, H2H format, utilizing Clark and Haliburton’s respective career stats, which’ll look a little somethin’ like this:

Points

  • Clark: 19.2
  • Haliburton: 17.5

Rebounds

  • Clark: 5.7
  • Haliburton: 3.7

Assists

  • Haliburton: 8.8
  • Clark: 8.5

Steals

  • Haliburton: 1.5
  • Clark: 1.3

Blocks

  • Clark: 0.7
  • Haliburton: 0.6

FG%

  • Haliburton: 47.7%
  • Clark: 41.6%

FT%

  • Clark: 89.0%
  • Haliburton: 85.5%

Turnovers

  • Haliburton: -3.0
  • Clark: -5.5

Fever Burns Pacers…Sort Of

So Clark ekes by Haliburton in Fantasyland, taking five of the nine categories, but it’s worth noting how freakishly close their numbers are. Save for field goal percentage, the statistical divide across the board is miniscule.

All of which tells us that basketball-wise, Indiana is the luckiest state in the contiguous 48.

And probably Alaska and Hawaii.

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Alan Goldsher
ALAN GOLDSHER

Alan Goldsher has written about sports for Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Apple, Playboy, NFL.com, and NBA.com, and he’s the creator of the Chicago Sports Stuff Substack. He’s the bestselling author of 15 books, and the founder/CEO of Gold Note Records. Alan lives in Chicago, where he writes, makes music, and consumes and creates way too much Bears content. You can visit him at http://www.AlanGoldsher.com and http://x.com/AlanGoldsher.

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