Tyrese Haliburton had a triple-double, while Pascal Siakam added 30 points to lead Indiana to a 3-1 lead over New York.
INDIANAPOLIS — John Haliburton was in the house Tuesday, but out of harm’s way, sequestered in a suite at Gainbridge Fieldhouse rather than his customary floor seat. That’s where the NBA’s best-known “Bad Dad” got into trouble heckling Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo after the Pacers’ first-round clincher last month.
The Indiana Pacers had banned their All-Star point guard’s father after his untoward antics that night — both Haliburtons apologized afterward — to keep him away for home semifinal games against Cleveland and Sunday’s Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals with New York.
To the great pleasure of advocates ranging from Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal to Pacers coach Rick Carlisle — “A father should be able to watch his son play basketball. Glad he’s back” — the elder Haliburton was set free and invited upstairs.
It would have been a real shame had he missed this one. His son didn’t merely lead Indiana to its 130-121 victory in Game 4, good for a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Haliburton had a game for the ages, becoming only the third player in NBA playoff history to have a game with at least 30 points, 10 rebounds and 15 assists.
Previously, across the league’s 78 years, only Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson (twice) and Denver center Nikola Jokić ever posted such numbers.
Add Haliburton’s zero turnovers and four steals — which weren’t tracked as official stats in the Big O’s day — and the fact Jokić had six of the former and none of the latter on his big night two years ago in a loss to Phoenix, and the performance was truly 1-of-1.
When his team needed it most, it was the difference between being up 3-1 by night’s end vs. knotted at 2-2 is transformative as NBA series go. When this postseason began, only 13 of the 288 teams that faced 3-1 deficits survived them. That’s 4.5%, with no one managing it since 2020.
A series tied 2-2 is almost a full reset — best-of-three, home-court advantage intact or restored. Winning Game 5 becomes everything, with 81.3% of the teams that do it going on to win the series (191-44).
That’s what the Knicks had in mind when they took the court Tuesday. Now they’ll be desperate just to extend it, for the chance to extend it again. Here are five takeaways as they all travel back to New York’s Madison Square Garden for Thursday’s Game 5 (8 p.m. ET, TNT):
1. Haliburton all but guaranteed this
Tyrese Haliburton torches the Knicks with an incredible 32-point, 15-assist, 12-rebound performance without committing a turnover.
The Pacers guard foreshadowed the most impressive playoff game of his young life in the doldrums after Indiana’s Game 3 loss. Unflinchingly shouldering the blame for the team’s inability to sustain a 20-point lead or at least outlast the Knicks with that cushion, Haliburton took it all — failures in pace, in execution, in decisions — on himself.
He would have gone back out that night, frankly, had it been possible. Which explained his blistering start in Game 4.
Helping Indiana to 43 points in the first quarter, Haliburton became just the second player in the NBA’s play-by-play era (since 1998, in other words) to get at least 15 points, five rebounds and five assists in a playoff quarter. The other? LeBron James.
The Pacers were humming in that period, making 15 of their 22 shots. They had 11 assists on those 15 buckets, five belonging to Haliburton. It was even more impressive considering they managed only 44 points in the second half on Sunday.
“He was really throwing the ball here, which was really important for us,” Carlisle said. “To not have any turnovers in those situations is really important. … There will be a statistical category perhaps named after him somewhere down the line.”
By halftime, Haliburton’s stats buddy had changed. Only he and Russell Westbrook have ever amassed at least 20 points, five rebounds and 10 assists in a playoff half.
More Carlisle: “I get tired of talking about individual numbers. … (Tyrese) happens to do some really impressive statistical things. But he’s well aware that all of this far transcends statistics.”
2. Knicks couldn’t get out of their own way
There were a few bright spots for New York in this one: It controlled the boards 44-33, turned 13 offensive rebounds into 15 second-chance points and got 77 points from Jalen Brunson (31), Karl-Anthony Towns (24) and OG Anunoby (22).
But the game kept getting away from them. Giving up 43 in the opening quarter was untenable and the Knicks’ 17 turnovers did more than just thwart their scoring opportunities — they were like lit matches tossed on Indiana’s gassed-up offense. That put way too much stress on the New York defense.
Coach Tom Thibodeau went with understatement, calling the first quarter “problematic.”
“We scored 120 points. That’s plenty of points,” he said. “But our defense wasn’t good enough.”
No one should try to get into a shootout with Indiana. The Pacers topped 50% overall and 40% from 3 and had five players score in double figures, making it unclear just what, if anything, New York’s defense was taking away.
3. Nesmith plays, resumes 2-way impact
Aaron Nesmith had suffered a right ankle sprain in Game 3 that hampered Indiana badly. Its 13-point lead turned into a 1-point deficit in the 11 minutes he sought treatment Sunday, and when he returned, he limped just enough to turn his availability for Game 4 into a question.
But word leaked well before tipoff that the 6-foot-5 wing was available, and his energy, toughness, defense and timely scoring were essential. An early explosive dunk served notice that Nesmith’s ankle was fine, and his 16 points were more impressive as the Pacers were plus-20 in his 32:26 playing time.
Equally helpful was his hounding of Brunson as about the only defender who truly bothered the tenacious engine of New York’s offense.
4. Mathurin’s ‘remember-me’ game
Someone asked Carlisle between the two games at Gainbridge this week about Bennedict Mathurin, a third-year wing whose role and opportunities had dropped off this postseason.
The question sounded framed to elicit an angsty or emotions-based response about Mathurin’s pluckiness, but the Pacers coach simply said, “He’s ready.”
Ya think? Mathurin had scored a total of 11 points in the series’ first three games, but he played 12:29 off the bench in Game 4 and scored 20. He had a six-point burst across the first quarter break, twice caught Knicks defenders napping by cutting to turn inbounds passes into layups, and stressed that defense even more by earning 11 free throws.
Said Carlisle afterward: “He’s legitimately tough. In a tough playoff series against a tough opponent like this, he fits in games like this.”
5. Pressure on world’s most ballyhooed arena
Teams throughout the 2025 postseason have done pretty well without home-court advantage, sparking conversations about why it seems less important than in days of yore.
The Knicks had better find some edge at Madison Square Garden on Thursday or they can stop looking until October. So far, they have gone 6-2 in the other guys’ arenas through three rounds but just 3-5 at home.
Indiana is poised to take advantage. It is 6-1 in road playoff games this spring. And other than Game 3 in each round so far — the Pacers have lost each one — they are 11-0, pushing toward the Finals.
So far, they are only the third team seeded fourth or lower to open 3-1 or 3-0 leads in three different series of a single postseason. Miami did it in 2020 and again in 2023.
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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
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