INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton missed the final two playoff games with a sore left hamstring and spoke about it for the first time since the injury occurred during his exit interview on Tuesday.
“It was really frustrating. It was awful, to be honest with you. I tried so hard to make something happen and it was just something that was out of my control,” said Haliburton, who was injured in Game 2 and had to watch Indiana’s final two games of the season from the bench.
Haliburton left the game during the third quarter that night. The extent of the injury was unknown at the time, but his 2023-24 season ended with Boston at the end of the second half. Haliburton said the injury actually occurred during the second quarter, when he hit Al Horford during an isolation. He had his foot bandaged at halftime.
“I knew right away something was wrong,” he said.
Haliburton limped to the team bus after the game and could barely walk the next day. But two days later, the swelling in his hamstring had gone down. He felt better and had an MRI that morning. He hoped to play in Game 3.
“I told my agent that morning, ‘I feel great. I’m not going to lie to people. No matter what they say, I’m going to try to play,'” Haliburton recalled. But organizational meetings were held and the decision was taken out of Haliburton’s hands. He sat out that game and Game 4 to protect his long-term health. “He wants to play very badly. He wants to play desperately. But the decision for tonight’s game was taken out of his hands early in the day,” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said before Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals. “It was determined that tonight’s game was not an option.”
Haliburton said Tuesday that the new hamstring pain has nothing to do with the hamstring tightness he experienced in the same leg during the regular season, which caused him to miss 10 total games and put Haliburton on a strict minutes restriction after his return that changed his and the Pacers’ season.
“It’s not a recurrence, it’s a brand new condition,” Haliburton said of a recent injury he suffered in a different part of his hamstring.
The season is over so Haliburton can rehab and recover. He said he plans to stay in Indianapolis over the next few weeks to recover in preparation for his next basketball obligation: playing for the U.S. team at the Paris Olympics.
“I’m not worried” about his Olympic chances, Haliburton said, adding that his “biggest concern is we have six weeks before we report to training camp,” and that a member of Indiana’s medical staff will be traveling with the U.S. team.
Haliburton finished the season averaging 20.1 points and 10.9 assists and was named to the All-NBA Third Team. In the playoffs, the star guard averaged 18.7 points and 8.2 assists, but the postseason was shortened.
