The New York Knicks are just one game away from being eliminated from the NBA Playoffs and having their hopes of an NBA Championship dashed.
Despite a hard-fought effort, the Knicks fell to the Indiana Pacers in Game 4, giving the Pacers a commanding 3-1 lead as the series heads back to Madison Square Garden for Game 5.
While Karl-Anthony Towns scored 24 points, the Pacers managed to run him off the 3-point line. It was the first time since Game 2 of the conference semifinals that Towns attempted less than three 3-pointers.
Stephen A. Smith hesitant to agree on Tyrese Haliburton
After being voted by his peers as the most overrated player in the NBA, Tyrese Haliburton has been putting on a clinic in these playoffs.
On top of countless clutch moments and high IQ plays, he stuffed the stat sheet in Indiana's 130-121 win.
He finished with 32 points, 12 rebounds and 15 assists while committing zero turnovers.
Even still, Stephen A. Smith isn't quite ready to label Haliburton as a superstar.
"It was a superstar caliber performance. He deserves all the credit in the world for that," Smith said. "... But when I think about a superstar I'm thinking about you being a consistent No. 1 option that teams have to gameplan against every single night and you answer the call. To me, that hasn't always been Tyrese Haliburton."
Smith brought home his point with a straightforward sentence.
"I need to see more consistency before I give him that kind of label," said Smith.
As Smith mentioned, even if he's not considered a superstar by everyone, he's still giving that type of effort.
After being forced to watch much of last year's conference finals from the bench due to an injury, Haliburton is certainly giving it his all this time around and has New York on the ropes.