Last night, Tyrese Haliburton looked like a shell of himself playing against the Thunder. He scored a playoff career low 4 points and missed all six of his field goal attempts. As expected, his disappointing performance garnered harsh criticism, especially from ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins, “Sit him down… He looks scared to death out there… He was going east to west instead of north to south.” However, not everyone agreed with Big Perk’s assessment of the Pacers superstar.

Following the Indiana’s team’s brutal loss, Stephen A. Smith chimed in on Hali’s performance. Sure, SAS could not deny that Tyrese looked awful on the court, “When you look at Haliburton, it was one of if not the most awful performance we’ve seen from a point guard in NBA Finals history… He couldn’t get loose. He couldn’t get free. He could barely get a shot off. He looked timid. He looked almost petrified at times.” But contrary to his colleague’s stance, Smith believed that Tyrese’s struggles were more due to his injury than his lack of confidence.

“I’m not gonna assume that he’s scared or anything. He’s too big in the big moments for me to ever accuse him of being scared. But he’s hurt.” He remarked. Well, Hali has proven throughout these playoffs that he is not afraid of the spotlight. In every series so far, he has hit at least one big-time shot in the closing seconds of a game that have proven pivotal in the Pacers’ journey to the NBA Finals. It’s clear that confidence is not a concern for Tyrese.

What might have affected Haliburton’s rhythm last night was his early game injury scare. In the opening quarter, he took a hard fall while trying to get past Chet Holmgren. He immediately began grimacing in pain and favoring his right leg, and was forced to exit the floor. Unfortunately, it was the same leg that has been bothering Tyrese throughout these playoffs. Stephen A. further highlighted the issue by saying, “Now, in fairness to him he must be hurt. He must be hurt. There’s no way that he can look that bad. I mean they were coming at him like that. He had to have been hurt.” While SAS opposed Perkins’ stance about Tyrese being scared, he did not completely take the blame away from the Pacers star.

Tyrese Haliburton and Rick Carlisle blamed for controversial decision amid TJ McConnell’s incredible performance

Early in the game, it became clear that Haliburton was not a 100%. Despite that, Rick Carlisle continued to rely on him as the primary playmaker, when backup guard TJ McConnell was clearly in much better form. Stephen A. pointed out the head coach’s poor decision making after the game, “If you’re hurt, now we have to look at Rick Carlisle… You also got to take into account, look at how TJ McConnell’s playing. Look at what he did in that third quarter. I mean the guy was making shots. You gotta keep him in the game when you know two things. Number 1, Haliburton is not a 100% and number 2, you know you got a Game 6 at your home turf on Thursday night.”

Even Perkins agreed with Smith’s sentiment, “Rick Carlisle somewhat cost them this game tonight with his substitution patterns. Like he should have kept TJ McConnell in.” When McConnell subbed in to replace Tyrese, he singlehandedly cut down OKC’s double digit lead to 2 points. The veteran guard went off for 18 points and four assists, giving Indiana the spark they needed. That’s when Carlisle should have put his foot down and told Tyrese to take rest of the night off and let the in-form TJ run the show. Instead, he subbed Hali back in and played him for 34 minutes despite knowing that he might be injured. As a result, Pacers lost all momentum once again and got blown out by eleven points.

SAS further questioned Tyrese for not offering to sub out when he knew he could not go full throttle, “Haliburton is a relatively young player and I’m gonna put most of it on Rick Carlisle in terms of that specific decision but what about you saying, ‘Yo man, coach you seeing the way he’s playing? He’s rolling right now. Go with that.’ You can do that as a player you know. No matter how young you are, Haliburton is not a rookie.” Had TJ been given the opportunity to finish the game instead of Tyrese, the outcome could have been different. But what’s done is done and for the first time in these playoffs, Pacers trail in a series. Do you think they will be able to bounce back on Thursday and level the Finals or will Carlisle and Haliburton’s decision come back to haunt them?