Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers got off to their second consecutive slow start in the NBA Finals, and unlike in Game 1, Game 2 had no late-game heroics or magic to close the game, which resulted in a 123-107 victory for the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Haliburton scored just three points while going 1-of-5 from the field in the first half, along with three assists, as the Pacers scored just 41 points in the first half. Haliburton gave credit to the Thunder’s defense while acknowledging that it’s up to him to be better for his team.
“This is who they are defensively,” Haliburton said, according to ESPN. “They got a lot of different guys who can guard the ball, fly around…
“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.”
“Our offense is built from the inside out,” Haliburton continued. “We got to do a better job getting downhill. They collapse and then make plays there, but I thought we could improve a lot there. But they’re flying around. They got great point-of-attack defenders. They got great rim protectors. They’re a great defense.”
Pacers center Myles Turner said that the team is looking for new ways to get its star point guard going early.
“With Tyrese, there’s plenty of formulas to get him going. There are things we went over in our game plan that we didn’t execute well enough today. We’ll get them in the paint. We have been one of the better teams scoring in the paint all year and we have to establish that early.
“We only had four or six points in the paint in the first half, and that’s not Pacers basketball.”
The Pacers and Thunder face off again on Wednesday night in Indianapolis.
