By TIM REYNOLDS AP Basketball Writer
INDIANAPOLIS — Tyrese Haliburton’s status for Game 6 of the NBA Finals is understandably in at least some doubt, after the All-Star guard was undergoing evaluation Tuesday to determine the extent of the injury to his lower right leg.
Part of that evaluation was an MRI exam, according to a person with knowledge of the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press because neither Haliburton nor the team revealed that publicly. ESPN first reported that an MRI was scheduled, calling the injury a calf strain.
Pacers coach Rick Carlisle did not specifically say that the MRI would be part of the team’s next moves in figuring out how best to proceed with Haliburton, though made clear that the Eastern Conference champions would be taking a close look at the injury. Given that it is evidently a muscular injury, an MRI is part of the typical evaluation process.
If this were the regular season, Haliburton likely would be out 7-10 days (the standard recovery time for a Grade 1 strain), partially to protect him from himself. Calf strains can become a much more severe injury if the muscle is not allowed to heal properly.
“We’ll evaluate everything with Tyrese,” Carlisle said after Game 5, which the Pacers lost in Oklahoma City to fall into a 3-2 deficit in the series on Monday night. Game 6 is Thursday night in Indianapolis.
Haliburton left Game 5 late in the first quarter and returned to the bench area with a wrap on his lower leg. He not only returned to the game, he played 34 minutes – but did so while missing all six of his shots and with him barely looking to shoot at all in the second half. He finished the game with seven rebounds and six assists, but only four points.
It was the first time in Haliburton’s career that he logged at least 34 minutes and failed to make a single field goal.
The Pacers, Carlisle said, discussed not letting Haliburton play in the second half. Haliburton vetoed those plans and played 17 minutes in the second half, leading the Pacers in rebounds and assists after intermission.
“I mean, it’s the NBA Finals. It’s the Finals, man,” Haliburton said after Game 5. “I’ve worked my whole life to be here and I want to be out there to compete. Help my teammates any way I can. I was not great tonight by any means, but it’s not really a thought of mine to not play here. If I can walk, then I want to play. They understand that. And it is what it is. Got to be ready to go for Game 6.”
The Pacers are scheduled to practice Wednesday, but their offense is not the same threat if Haliburton is unavailable, especially against OKC’s swarming defense.
“He’s a fighter. He’s been our rock all year,” Pacers forward Pascal Siakam said of Haliburton after Game 5. “He’s a big reason why we’re here. I don’t know exactly what’s wrong, but I know he’s fighting and he’s going to give us everything he’s got. We are a hundred percent behind him and we support him.
“I think one thing he showed, his resiliency. He showed that all year. I think that we can continue to count on him to keep fighting. I admire that from him, just because I know that it’s hard. We’ve got a couple of days. Take care of our bodies, rest well and be ready for Game 6.”
SERIES SCHEDULE A BLESSING
Regardless of the severity of Haliburton’s issue, it seems to be the sort of injury that if this were a back-to-back situation in December, he’d clearly be missing at least one game.
But these are the Finals, this is June, there no back-to-backs in the playoffs and when the league gets to the last series two-day breaks between games aren’t uncommon. Amen to that, the Pacers are probably saying right about now.
“The Finals, the NBA Finals, is one of the great stages in all of sports,” Carlisle said. “And so, it shouldn’t happen quickly and abruptly. It should happen at the right pace and the right tempo, and the space in between games does help player health. That’s a very important aspect of it.”
There was a one-day gap between games in this year’s Finals just once, separating Games 3 and 4 in Indianapolis. Everything else has seen a two-day gap, as will be the case going into Game 6 in Indy on Thursday night. And if the Pacers win to force a Game 7 back in Oklahoma City, that will be preceded by another two days off going into an ultimate game on Sunday night.
It should be noted that the Thunder don’t mind the schedule being drawn out, either.
“We recover,” Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault said. “The Finals are great because you get extra time in between the games. I think that’s huge in terms of rest and recovery at this time of the year. I think it’s good for the product. I think it’s a good thing and by the time the ball goes up in the air, everybody is going to be ready to play and everybody is going to be excited.”
Even those who aren’t dealing with an injury seem to be welcoming the two-day gaps between Finals games.
“It’s a lot of games. It’s tiring, for sure,” Thunder star and league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. “But every game is tiring. When you’re giving your all, every possession, you’re going to be tired. I don’t think I’m the only one out there that is tired.”
It wasn’t always like this.
The first NBA Finals were in 1947, before the league was called the NBA (it was the Basketball Association of America then) and before the title round was called the Finals (after being called the BAA Finals in the early years, it was called the NBA World Championship Series until the mid-1980s).
That first year, Philadelphia and Chicago played five games in seven days. It would be unthinkable to play at that pace now; the NBA, for much of the last decade, hasn’t even scheduled stretches like that in the regular season.
The Finals between Minneapolis and New York did the same thing – five games, seven days – in 1953. Boston and the Lakers played a five-game series in an eight-day span in 1965. Golden State and Washington played four games in eight days in 1975, with two cross-country flights in there as well. And this was long before charter flights became the rule in the NBA, too.
“We’re fortunate in this series. Travel is pretty reasonable. Not a long distance,” Carlisle said, evidently aware that this series has the shortest distance between the dueling cities – Oklahoma City and Indianapolis are separated by 688 miles by air – than any Finals matchup since 1956. “Not a long flight. I do believe it’s a better circumstance for the overall integrity of the competition.”
The two extra days gives everybody – Haliburton, coaches, everyone – more time to get ready. Daigneault, the father of kids ages 3 and 2, said it gives him more time to be a dad between games.
“I do twice as much parenting,” he said, “not twice as much work.”
Carlisle said coaches get more time to study film, though at this point in the series it’s pretty clear that the Thunder and Pacers know each other about as well as they can. And Haliburton will get another 24 hours of whatever scheme the Pacers’ medical staff draws up to try to get his leg good to go in Game 6.
“All these guys playing in this series on both sides. I think it’s pretty clear now that we’re going into the sixth game, and all attention and the crowd noise in both arenas, everything, this is a lifetime opportunity,” Carlisle said. “Not many guys are going to sit, even if they are a little banged up.”