“I’m pretty much in the same standpoint I was before Game 6.” Tyrese Haliburton was confident to play Game 7 despite injuring his right calf during Game 5. But come Game 7, the 25-year-old is now out of the finals with a season-ending injury. The Pacers and Thunder were going neck-to-neck in Game 7. But just when about five minutes were left in the 1st quarter, Indiana guard, who was already playing with a strained calf, fell on the ground without any contact while attempting to dribble past Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and ended up injuring his right Achilles.

Haliburton’s teammates and his father, John Haliburton, were left in tears watching him limping in pain. Talking to Lisa Salters of ESPN, John confirmed the Achilles injury to Tyrese. While calling the game, Salters shared the current situation of Tyrese as told by his father. “He said that Tyrese is doing as well as he can be under the circumstances,” Salters said on the broadcast.

Clearly, that nagging calf injury that almost took him out of Game 6 of the 2025 NBA Finals didn’t look promising. And as Hali left the arena and walked down the tunnel, that pin-drop silence at Paycom Center spoke a story of shock, fear, and pain. You could tell it wasn’t just the Indiana fans, but Thunder Nation, too. And Pascal Siakam, who has been a silent warrior for Indiana, consoled Indiana fans with a 4-word message.

In Haliburton’s absence, Siakam has always turned up for the Pacers, and Game 7 was no exception. When Haliburton left, it was ‘Thundertaker’ Pascal Siakam’s time to take control and lead his boys. Pascal Siakam stood tall amid the heartbreak, voice steady through the pain. He was not just leading, he was pleading. “We’re still in this,” he urged, pushing past his own sorrow. No more forcing it—trust the game, trust each other. Even in despair, he carried hope like a torch.

As of now, the fear that whatever went down Indiana’s #0 doesn’t look like just another pain in the strain. It’s something far more concerning, aiming towards an Achilles tear. Sports medicine expert, Dr. Brian Sutterer, MD, broke down the injury frame by frame, offering a sobering look at what might have gone wrong.

“As Haliburton steps backwards with his right leg, his ankle is in a dorsiflexed position,” Sutterer explained in his injury analysis. “That motion tensions the entire complex from the gastrocnemius down to the Achilles. When he tries to push off again, that’s when you introduce a strong concentric contraction while it’s still eccentrically loaded. That’s a dangerous setup—and what follows is the classic recoil motion we often associate with a full Achilles rupture.”

In simple terms, Haliburton’s Achilles was under high stress when he pushed off, and the sudden recoil suggests it may have torn. His diagnosis, while unofficial, has ignited waves of concern across NBA circles and beyond. The replay doesn’t lie. That recoil? It’s often the body’s tragic signal: the Achilles gave out. And if the fears turn into reality, then even Tyrese will have to miss a major part of the next season recovering on the bench.

Meanwhile, his teammate Myles Turner spoke with ESPN during the timeout. The worry was loud.

After Pascal Siakam’s message, Myles Turner speaks up on Tyrese Haliburton’s Game 7 injury

It’s most unlikely to see a calm player like Pascal Siakam move around and speak up. But this was no time to sit idle and wait for the Basketball Gods to grace them with their Divine Light. A pillar has fallen, and the next big face of the team showed up. That being said, Indiana Pacers center Myles Turner spoke to ESPN in the timeout. “What did you think when you saw Tyrese go down?” he was asked.

“It’s a heartbreak, man. It’s unfortunate, you know, the biggest game of the year that he didn’t, like, hold up on. But you know, we got his back, and it’s what it’s all about, man. Next man on the touted list,” Turner said. “I know that you’re all thinking about him, but like you said, we’ve still got a job to do. So, how do you get it done without him? You keep it in—keep him in your mind, keep him in your heart—and go win for him.”

Before going down, Tyrese Haliburton scored 9 points in 7 minutes. He was on a superhero run in the game. But alas! those Basketball Gods do like to torment and squeeze out happiness from the fans. Now, all you can do is hope that the news is positive from within the Indiana Pacers squad, because the Oklahoma City Thunder looks fierce as always.