“I mean, it’s the NBA Finals. It’s the finals, man. I’ve worked my whole life to be here and I want to be out there to compete.” You could feel the frustration in Tyrese Haliburton’s voice after the Game 5 loss. He was limping, his dream season just one loss away from ending, and he was doing it on one good leg. Any other game, any other time of year, he wouldn’t have been in the building. But this is the Finals.
The entire city of Indianapolis was holding its breath before tip-off. The Pacers were on the brink, and the only thing anyone was talking about was the status of their All-Star guard. Then the report from Shams Charania dropped, and it wasn’t good: a “multi-week” calf strain that would sideline him under any normal circumstance. He was “questionable,” but everyone knew what that meant. It meant he was hurt—badly. Playing was a massive gamble.
In fact, during Game 5, former GM Bob Myers also spelled out the danger. Myers, who knows a thing or two about superstar injuries, explained the scary progression for this kind of issue. “You may sound simple calf tightness,” Myers warned, “the next thing is a calf strain which is a calf tear so anybody that’s played basketball knows it’s a hard thing to play through.” He was basically describing a ticking clock. For a player like Haliburton, whose entire game is built on explosive cuts and that herky-jerky rhythm, playing on a compromised calf isn’t just a risk—it’s playing with fire.
But after the Pacers forced a Game 7 with a 108-91 blowout win, Haliburton let everyone in on the conversation that mattered most. It wasn’t about strategy. It was about trust. “I just had to have an honest conversation with coach that if I didn’t look like myself and was hurting the team, like, sit me down,” Haliburton said after the game. “Obviously, I want to be on the floor, but I want to win more than anything.”
In a moment when nobody would have blamed him for being selfish, he put the team first. He wasn’t just willing to play through pain; he was giving his coach permission to pull him if he became a liability. When a reporter later asked how he was dealing with the injury, he summed up his entire gritty mindset with two simple, powerful words: “Nobody cares.”
That was the core of his mentality. Tyrese knew no one on the other side felt sorry for him, so he couldn’t feel sorry for himself. “I’m dealing with something,” he admitted, before delivering the full, raw quote. “But, you know, nobody cares. They don’t care. I don’t care. We’ve got to get the games.”
And the question hanging over this series is no longer about one man’s calf. The question now is whether they bottle that energy and pull off one of the great upsets in Finals history?
Can Haliburton actually take the Pacers all the way?
For Haliburton, the path forward is clear. “We’ve got one game,” he said. “What happened today doesn’t matter. It’s all about one game and approaching that the right way.” His presence in Game 6 was definitely the emotional fuel the Pacers needed.
The single play that defined the night was vintage Haliburton: a steal where he tight-roped the sideline before whipping a no-look pass to Pascal Siakam for a thunderous dunk. It showed he wasn’t just out there for the sake of it. He was himself. And honestly, this is a great answer to critics like Kendrick Perkins who called him “scared” in game 5.
But the real story of their win was that it wasn’t a solo act. The Pacers’ bench, led by T.J. McConnell and Obi Toppin, completely outplayed their counterparts. As McConnell put it, “We were going home if we didn’t come out and give everything we have and leave it all out on the floor.” That desperation, spread across the entire roster, is what makes them so dangerous.
Jun 5, 2025; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton (0) passes the ball past Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) during the second quarter during game one of the 2025 NBA Finals at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images
Now comes the hardest part: the mental battle. While Indiana is riding high, Haliburton is already guarding his team against complacency. “For the next two days, everybody’s going to be talking about how good we looked… how much pressure is on OKC,” he warned on SportsCenter. “That’s going to be the narrative. We got to do a good job of staying away from that stuff. I think that can be poison.”
It’s a level-headedness they’ll need, because the Thunder are learning their own lessons. “No team’s just going to roll over and go home,” said a humbled Chet Holmgren after the loss. OKC knows they just played their worst game of the series. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had a career-high eight turnovers. You can bet that won’t happen again.
So, it all comes down to this. One game, on the road, against a 68-win team and the league MVP. The odds are still stacked against them. But the Pacers have a healthy dose of belief, a star playing through a serious injury, and a supporting cast that just delivered a knockout blow. The pressure is immense, but for a guy who was willing to have his coach bench him for the good of the team, it’s just another challenge to be met. It’s one game for a championship.
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