Tyrese Haliburton has been the Pacers’ saviour throughout these playoffs. In every series so far, he has hit at least one big-time shot that has proven pivotal in their journey to the NBA Finals. But late game heroics are likely not going to cut it against an elite team like OKC. Haliburton needs to do more. Stephen A. Smith demands him to do more!

Although the series is currently tied at 1-1, Tyrese has played nowhere close to superstar level so far. In the opening game, he scored just 14 points, which was fortunately overshadowed by his epic game-winning shot in the final second. His struggles continued in Game 2, as he finished with merely 17 points—12 of those coming in the game practically out of Indiana’s sight. This time, the Pacers got blown out by the West champs. Meanwhile, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was on fire in both games.

Addressing the drastic contrast between the two franchise players, Stephen A. made his demand clear for Haliburton ahead of tomorrow’s encounter, “Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is not only a star, a superstar, but he plays the same position as Tyrese Haliburton. They are damn near the same height for crying out loud. You got to step up and handle your business!”

The ESPN veteran continued, “This brother Shai Gilgeous-Alexander dropped 38 in Game 1, dropped 34 in Game 2, averaging 36 on the series. You got to answer that call. You can’t be averaging 11 points or 15 points rather, shooting 33% from the field. You can’t go to first 40 minutes of the game with just five points and you score 12 points in the fourth quarter when the game is out of reach. That ain’t good enough. So, Haliburton’s gotta do more.”

So far, SGA has outplayed Tyrese in most aspects of the game. The MVP has been better both offensively and defensively. The Canadian guard made history notching 72 points in the first two games of the Finals, historically scoring the most points in Finals debut ahead of Game 3. Meanwhile, Hali has had a hard time finding his groove, especially during the early stages of the game.

The numbers speak for themselves: the Pacers are just 27-27 this season when Tyrese Haliburton scores under 20 points—including their Game 1 loss in the Finals. Flip that stat, and it’s a whole different story. When Haliburton scores 20 or more? Indiana is a dominant 32-4. So when Stephen A. Smith calls on Tyrese to be more aggressive and step up on the biggest stage of his career, he’s not just stirring the pot—he’s absolutely right.

He even addressed the issue during Sunday’s postgame presser, “I just got to figure out how to be better earlier in games. Kudos to them, they’re a great defensive team. But (I will) watch the film, see where I can get better.” Now that the series is heading to Indiana, maybe playing on the home court will finally end the point guard’s struggles. As for SAS’s criticism and demands, Hali is used to it by now.

How Tyrese Haliburton used media criticism as fuel to lead Pacers to NBA Finals

Well, this is not the first time Haliburton’s low numbers have been questioned. Earlier this season, he was voted the league’s most overrated player by his NBA peers via an anonymous poll. Even before that, he and his team were doubted by the media despite them making it to the Conference Finals last year. Many deemed it a fluke run. During a one-on-one sit-down interview with ESPN’s Malika Andrews, Haliburton addressed the constant criticism and how it fuelled him.

“People are gonna say what they’re gonna say at the end of the day. I think there was a lot of commentary around me and our group as a whole, honestly earlier in the year. I think the big point was coming into the year, we had expectations to get back to the Eastern Conference Finals and have more playoff success. But everybody else’s expectations were ‘Oh, they’re just gonna repeat being the Hawks from a couple of years ago. They got lucky to get to the Conference Finals. They’re not gonna do very well.’” He remarked.

Of course, he was referring to the Hawks making it to the Conference Finals four years ago and not returning to that stage since. Many expected the same from the Pacers, but Haliburton proved them wrong. He continued, “For me, feeling as if I’m the leader and one of the guys at the forefront, I felt like I was letting our group down. For me the biggest thing was just finding where I can be better, how I can be better.”

Blocking the outside noise, he talked to his close ones for comfort, including his coaches, teammates, and even mental health professionals. And he focused on controlling what he can, “Just trying to do better at controlling the controllables and good things happen.” So far, his methods have paid off and hopefully they will continue to do so in the ongoing NBA Finals. But Stephen A. is right about one thing – to beat a team like OKC, Haliburton needs to play at a superstar level to counter Shai’s dominance. Do you agree?