Tyrese Haliburton tore his ACL while playing the NBA Finals Game 7. The Indiana Pacers star suffered a lower right leg injury and was helped off the court against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday.
Haliburton put no weight on the leg and was taken to the Pacers’ locker room for evaluation. Once he got hurt, virtually the entire Indiana playing, coaching, and medical staff surrounded him on the court.
Haliburton had nine points, all on 3-pointers, when he got hurt with 4:55 left in the quarter. The star's dad, John Haliburton, was in the crowd when the injury aggravated and was seen bursting into tears as Tyrese Haliburton was being helped off the court.
{{/usCountry}}Haliburton had nine points, all on 3-pointers, when he got hurt with 4:55 left in the quarter. The star's dad, John Haliburton, was in the crowd when the injury aggravated and was seen bursting into tears as Tyrese Haliburton was being helped off the court.
{{/usCountry}}An NBA Finals MVP contender, Haliburton suffered a previous calf injury in Game 5 of the series. He played through it for the final three quarters of that loss to the Thunder, though he basically stopped looking to shoot in the second half.
He missed his first four shots in NBA Finals Game 7 on Thursday, too. And then, he somehow got back to normal. Jumping, cutting, shooting from 30 feet and twisting in the air at times, he looked nothing like the guy who left Game 5 limping so badly that it seemed like he was dragging his right leg behind him.
Haliburton missed the last two games of last season’s playoff run because of a hamstring injury, unable to play in Games 3 and 4 of the Eastern Conference finals against the eventual champion Boston Celtics. The Pacers lost by three points in each of those two games without Haliburton, who went on to be part of the team that won a gold medal for the United States at the Paris Olympics later that year.