NBA FINALS: THUNDER VS. PACERS

June 8, 2025

Tyrese Haliburton

Indiana Pacers

Game 2: Postgame

Oklahoma City Thunder 123, Indiana Pacers 107

Q. You had a stretch in the fourth quarter where you really got it going but felt like a lot of things were hard to that point. What were they doing? Anything different than the first game?

TYRESE HALIBURTON: No, just defensively they have a lot of different guys who can guard the ball, fly around. They are really physical. Force the officials to let us play a little bit more. So just got to do a better job playing to their -- I think I've had two really poor first halves. I just have to figure out how to be better earlier in games. But kudos to them. They are a great defensive team but watch the film and see where I can get better.

Q. Kind of in that same vein, but Coach called your offense an ecosystem where the more one guy succeeds, the more everybody succeeds. What have they done to disrupt that?

TYRESE HALIBURTON: We have to do a better job of getting to the paint. It's a lot easier said than done. I feel like in the first half we were just moving the ball on the outside and I don't think we had a single point in the paint in the first quarter, if I'm not mistaken.

So you know, our offense is built from the inside-out, and we have to do a better job getting downhill. They collapse and make plays from there. I thought we could improve a lot there. But yeah, man, they are flying around. They have got great point-of-attack defenders and great rim protectors. We can do a better job, watch the film, and see where we can get better going into Game 3.

Q. For as frustrating as I'm sure tonight feels like right now for you guys, you are leaving here with a split.

TYRESE HALIBURTON: Yeah.

Q. That has to mean something to you guys. I know it doesn't take tonight away but you did what you had to do; you took home court. How much nicer will that make things when you get back home and figure out how to attack Wednesday?

TYRESE HALIBURTON: Yeah, I think any time you're the lower seed in a playoff series, your job is going split or go try to get one on the road. We got Game 1.

Felt like we really let the rope slip there in the second quarter. So I think there's many different ways that you can choose to digest what's in front of you. But yeah, I think we just focus on taking it a day at a time. You got the split. You feel good about that. But we definitely wanted to play better tonight. I think our processes need to be a lot better for us to be successful here.

So yeah, it's still a race, first to four. We are going to our home court tied 1-1, and we love playing at home. Love playing in front of our fans. Our fans are amazing. So just see where we can get better, and yeah, take it a day at a time.

Q. In the fourth quarter, it seemed like you got going off the ball a little bit where they couldn't track you. Was that just by happenstance? Was that something intentional of yours or something that you can replicate early in games in these first halves that you said were poor?

TYRESE HALIBURTON: Yeah, I think through the course of a series, even in the games that you lose, you're trying to learn from them, see where you can get better.

So we had some success there. You know, me playing off the pitch a little bit more, flying around rather than, you know, if I'm in that high ball screen, which I feel like I am really successful at, that gives them a chance to really load up, pack the paint. They got a couple steals in there. I had some really dumb turnovers tonight. They are kind of showing like a soft blitz, sometimes a full blitz. They are giving me different looks.

So I have to do a better job of figuring out where I can be better. In that game in the second half when you're down by so much, you can choose to, you know, just take the game for what it is and just be done or try to continue to learn different things.

I think through the course of the series or through these first two games, I'm learning where my spots are and where I can be better. So we'll take the good and the bad, watch film and see where we can improve the next game.

Q. Most teams defensively try to take the three away first. They don't seem to mind you shooting threes. They are taking the paint away. What's the challenge when you see a defense that's unusual in that sense?

TYRESE HALIBURTON: Yeah, I think you just have to choose -- you have to make a decision on getting threes your way. I think we made some shots that were kind of on the swing/swing, but we've got to do a better job of getting downhill and just playing from inside-out.

They are a team, like you said, that really takes away the paint. Does a great job of swarming the ball. Feels like there's five guys around you every time you're in the paint. But we have to do a better job of getting threes our way.

And I felt like in the first quarter, we were able to turn them over probably a little bit more than they were accustomed to, and we didn't do a great job of capitalizing on that. Again, when you're forcing turnovers like that, you should probably getting more rim twos than just early kick-ahead threes. That's me, and that's where we can be better as a whole.

So you know, again, watch the film, see where we can get better. We know that the paint is our emphasis and the paint our friend. The more that we're able to attack the paint, usually better things happen for us. So it's just about getting threes your way. If you just swing the ball around and take late shot clock threes, it's really difficult.

And sometimes when you're stuck in that situation, you have to make whatever you can with it. But we have to do a better job of not playing so late into the clock and getting threes our way.