The Pacers were trailing three points begins the Bucks on Tuesday night, but with only seconds until the final buzzer, Tyrese Haliburton created a 4-point play that earned his team the way. Once the game was over, the point guard described what happened as “a football play.”
The former All-Star ran toward the left sideline after taking a handoff-style inbound pass, then elevated over Giannis Antetokounmpo while releasing a three-point shot, that dropped inside the rim, just as the referees had signalled a foul that would take him to the free throw line.
“It’s like a football play,” Haliburton said, after beating Milwaukee 115-114. “It was great to see it work. The first time we ever ran the play in training camp two years ago, I made the shot the same way. I haven’t got the ball since. I usually hate running the play.”
According to Tyrese, he wasn’t even thinking about stepping out of bounds before releasing the dagger. “I’ve shot that shot enough to know where I am on the court,” Haliburton assured. “It’s just a matter of getting it off. Just rose up. I jumped higher than I normally do. It just went in.”
Believe it or not, this was just the fifth time a team converts a four-point play while being down by three points in the final 10 seconds of the game, since the 1997-98 season. Instead of taking in all the praise, the guard revealed that his coach Rick Carlisle is great at drawing up plays.
“An amazing sequence of events,” said the Indiana coach, who admitted that assistant Jenny Boucek created the play and assistant Mike Weinar helped out. “What a play, and Reggie [Miller] was in the building. They’ll be talking about Tyrese’s shot for a lot of years.”
It was almost impossible not to think of Pacers icon Reggie Miller during the last-second play, as he spend his entire Hall of Famer career in Indiana. “There’s definitely a lot of Reggie moments in this building,” Haliburton expressed. “I’m just trying to make my own.”
