Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton has been catching a lot of flak for his Game 5 performance in the NBA Finals. Haliburton missed all six of his field goal attempts, scoring four points in 34 minutes, all at the free throw line.
On Tuesday, NBA University posted a graphic on X of Tyrese Haliburton's playoff short chart, and one thing immediately pops out: the left side of the court is littered with red.
According to data from ShotCreator, outside of the paint, Haliburton is shooting nine-of-51 (17.6 percent!) from the left side of the court in the playoffs.
On such shots from the middle and right side of the floor, Haliburton is shooting 56-of-129 (43.4 percent).
Haliburton's most efficient shots have come when he's head-on with the basket. From the middle of the floor, Haliubrton is shooting 9-of-15 (60 percent) on mid-range jumpers and 20-of-45 (44.4 percent) from 3.
Unfortunately for Haliburton, this trend has been noticed by the Oklahoma City Thunder and has become a key point of emphasis for them defensively. Four of Haliburton's six misses in Game 5 came from the left side of the floor - all four of his 3-point attempts.
In Game 4, Haliburton made just one shot outside of the paint - a deep 3-ball, from straight away. He missed all four shots from the left side of the basket.
Interestingly enough, Pascal Siakam has been somewhat the opposite of Haliburton. The key difference is that Siakam has been lights out from 3 from all over the arc, shooting 43.3 percent in the playoffs. The only part of the arc he's shooting sub-44 percent from is the right wing, where he's shooting 33.3 percent.
Siakam has taken 68 shots from the mid-range in the playoffs, and the numbers are polarizing. From the left side, he's shooting 53.8 percent. On the right side? 29.1 percent.
Siakam's marksmanship from 3 on the right side makes his data not as concerning as Haliburton's. But the Thunder are clearly keen to Haliburton's deficiencies on the left side of the court. Haliburton has to be better from that side, or Rick Carlisle has to find a way to scheme up his offense to keep Haliburton on the right side.