After the Indiana Pacers dropped Game 2 of the NBA Finals, there was one obvious fix in the eyes of much of the NBA world: Tyrese Haliburton had to be more aggressive. The point guard had struggled to find his footing against an excellent Oklahoma City Thunder defense in the opening games of the series; it didn't stop him from hitting a game-winning jumper in Game 1 but in total Haliburton had only 31 points in the first two games of the Finals.
Haliburton answered the call in Game 3 and played a tremendous contest, scoring 22 points while dishing out 11 assists as Indy took a 2-1 series lead by way of a 116–107 win. His approach was markedly different as he regularly forced the issue against OKC rather than letting the defense come to him. Afterwards the Pacers star took a moment to fire back at all the criticism he'd heard the last two days, especially from "talking heads" who he doesn't believe know what they are talking about.
"The commentary is always going to be what it is," Haliburton said when asked about all the calls for him to be more aggressive from the sports world. "Most of the time the talking heads on the major platforms, I couldn't care less, honestly. What do they really know about basketball?... At a time like this I'm not really on social media as much. I try to stay off it as much as I can. But you see it. ESPN might be on in my house, and there it is. It is what it is."
Haliburton finished off by saying, "The commentary is what it is at this point. It doesn't matter. We're in the NBA Finals, two wins away from an NBA championship."
Tyrese Haliburton:
"Most of the time, the talking heads on the major platforms, I couldn't care less, honestly. Like, what do they really know about basketball? The commentary is what it is at this point. We're in the NBA Finals, two wins away from an NBA championship" pic.twitter.com/SXeLrN94qp
— Oh No He Didn't (@ohnohedidnt24) June 12, 2025
A strong stance from the 25-year-old star. Between this press conference and his postgame interview with NBA TV in which Haliburton pushed back against Charles Barkley's criticism of Pascal Siakam it's clear Haliburton is unwilling to sit by without giving his thoughts on what the sports media world thinks about his team.
It was a big win for the star PG, but the series isn't close to over yet. Friday will bring Game 4 and another opportunity for Haliburton to prove his doubters wrong.
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