Tyrese Haliburton spoke quite honestly after his heroics helped the Pacers steal Game 2 from the Cavaliers at home.
The Indiana Pacers completely shattered the Cleveland Cavaliers tonight. Going into their house, the Pacers defeated the Cavaliers to steal both home games and go up 2-0.
NBA fans were absolutely enthralled by Tyrese Haliburton’s game-winner and subsequent celebration. It marked yet another moment where Haliburton stepped up and delivered for the team.
Recently, Haliburton was voted the most overrated player in a poll, to which he had a brilliant response. But the comments clearly upset him.
While Donovan Mitchell tried to defend Haliburton, the All-Star guard didn’t have any sympathy for his rival. And after the game, he explained how the Cavaliers crowd motivated him.
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During the closing stages of the game, the Cleveland Cavaliers fans chated ‘Overrated’ at Tyrese Haliburton. This was presumably to poke fun at the recent poll that voted him most overrated.
Speaking after the game, Tyrese Haliburton expressed his shock over the fans chanting that at him. But he did admit that the poll would be used as ammo against him, and he uses it as motivation to get better.
“That one was unexpected. I didn’t know we had beef. But I guess, good for them. That came out of nowhere.”
“I think now that the label is there, it’s going to be every time. Every time I go on the road, it will probably follow me until the next poll comes out, and then, we’ll see if I’m No.1 again. But for me? I control what I can.”
Haliburton ended his response with an emphatic statement, telling Cavaliers fans to “Overrate that!”
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Tyrese Haliburton is far from a score-first point guard. And his 19-point, 9-assist performance tonight proves that.
However, Haliburton has shown that when the chips are down, he can be trusted to go out and get the Pacers a bucket.
This year, Haliburton has been brilliant in the playoffs, averaging 18.4 points, 10.7 assists, and 6.3 rebounds per game.
If he can lead the Pacers to consecutive Eastern Conference Finals, Haliburton will have a decent argument to be named in the upper echelon of NBA players.
