Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton, playing through an injury, endured an awful night in Game 5 of the NBA Finals as Oklahoma City Thunder took a 3-2 lead in the series to move within one win of their first NBA title.
Haliburton missed all six of his attempted field-goal shots while ending up with four points, seven rebounds and six assists in 34 minutes as the Pacers lost 120-109 in Oklahoma City.
ESPN reported at half-time Haliburton was playing with calf tightness in his right leg, the same leg on which he injured his ankle in a previous contest.
After the Pacers lost to fall behind 3-2 in the best-of-seven series, Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said of Haliburton, "He's not 100 per cent. It's pretty clear. But I don't think he's going to miss the next game.
"We were concerned at half-time. He insisted on playing. I thought he made a lot of really good things happen in the second half. But he's not 100 per cent. There's a lot of guys in this series that aren't."
Haliburton was averaging 17.8 points, 7.5 assists and six rebounds in the Finals prior to Monday. He delivered the dagger jump shot to sink the Thunder on their home court in Game 1 as the Pacers won 111-110.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander became the NBA's Most Valuable Player this season primarily by being a dominant scorer, but in Game 5 he showed he's pretty good as a more traditional point guard too.
He had 31 points and 10 assists in a secondary role to Jalen Williams, who led the way with 40 points in the Game 5 victory.
"He can shoulder a load," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "I've said this before - he does so many things for us as a basketball team on both ends of the floor when he's the best version of himself... he was great tonight. Makes a world of a difference when he's that good, for sure."
