Très bien! Tyrese Haliburton 3rd-quarter barrage keys Pacers ...

3 days ago

The Indianapolis Star

Très bien Tyrese Haliburton 3rdquarter barrage keys Pacers

Tyrese Haliburton scored 28 points including 18 in the third quarter to lead the Pacers to a revenge blowout of the Spurs in Paris on Saturday.

Tyrese Haliburton scored 28 points and the Indiana Pacers avenged their 30-point blowout loss on Thursday with a 136-98 win over the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday at Accor Arena in Paris, splitting their two-game series and somehow managing to outscore the Spurs in the aggregate.

The Pacers have won nine of their past 11 games, 10 of their past 13 and 15 of 20 since their 10-15 start to improve to 25-20 on the year, which keeps them in fifth place in the Eastern Conference. The Spurs fell to 20-23.

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Player of the Game: Tyrese Haliburton

Haliburton pulled the Pacers back from the brink almost single-handedly. After the Pacers blew a 17-point lead in the third quarter and gave the Spurs the lead, he helped them build the lead back to 15 points by scoring 18 points in the quarter including 16 in the last 3:25 of the period. He made 7-of-8 field goals in the period including all four of his 3-pointers.

For the game, Haliburton finished with 28 points on 11-of-17 shooting including 6-of-9 from 3-point range with four assists including a highlight-reel no-look pass through three defenders to find Myles Turner for a dunk in the second quarter.

Turning Point

Haliburton's late barrage saved the Pacers when the game appeared to be slipping away. After taking a 15-3 run to end the second quarter with a 65-50 lead at the break, they scored the first bucket of the second half to take a 67-50 lead.

After that, however, the Spurs outscored the Pacers 27-9 to take a 77-76 lead at the 4:56 mark on a floater by Victor Wembanyama. Pacers forward Obi Toppin hit a 3-pointer to stop the bleeding, but then Chris Paul hit a 3-pointer to give the Spurs the lead back.

After that, however, Haliburton got going with a 17-foot pull-up jumper with 3:25 to go putting the Pacers up 81-80. He scored the Pacers next 16 points and Pascal Siakam followed with a 3-pointer as part of a 19-3 run to put the Pacers up 98-83 with 20 seconds to go in the third. The Pacers kept the pedal down in the fourth, outscoring the Spurs 38-12 to put it away.