Rick Carlisle takes us behind the scenes after Tyrese Haliburton tore his Achilles: "You guys can imagine what it might be like"

Yahoo

19-07-2025

Rick Carlisle takes us behind the scenes after Tyrese Haliburton tore his Achilles: "You guys can imagine what it might be like" originally appeared on Basketball Network.
If you're an NBA player or a coach, it's rare that you get to play Game 7 in the Finals and that's exactly what Rick Carlisle was a part of just less than a month ago.
His Indiana Pacers had a postseason for the ages as the fourth seed in the East with a 50-32 record. Not even Indiana fans probably thought that their team could get to the Finals, let alone be a game away from winning it all.
The Pacers were right there in a back-and-forth series against the Oklahoma City Thunder. It was like a heavyweight boxing fight with two very talented teams trading blows each game. It all came down to the last game and everyone was excited to see if Tyrese Haliburton can manufacture another miracle.
Furious start by Haliburton
Hali has been one of the biggest stories of the postseason, making clutch moments every single game. Even in the Finals, his buzzer-beater to win Game 1 was heard around the world. He got slowed down a little bit by a calf injury during the series, but there's no way he's going to miss Game 7 and boy, he played like a man possesed.
Tyrese started the championship deciding game by hitting three threes in the first five minutes of the game, pushing his team in front and talking trash along the way.
That start had all the makings of a historic performance until a heartbreak happened. Hali went for a drive just a moments later when his calf shook and everyone knew what happened after seeing the slow-mo. His Achilles popped and we didn't even need to wait for the conformation of the tear.
Carlisle talked about that moment on the "Green Light with Chris Long," taking us behind the scenes after that kind of shock.
"In that moment, it's so difficult. You guys can imagine what it might be like," Carlisle started his explanation before continuing.
"That series was a tough series and you have to give Oklahoma a lot of credit. They were favored in every game in that series and that's real pressure. And we were just attacking and trying to give ourselves a chance in the end. In Game 7, Tyrese hit three threes...they called the timeout and we had them on their heels. That was the start that we needed...but then, the injury happened."
Rick said his guys were still in battle after that shock, but the third-quarter rally by the Pacers.
"The dynamics of the game changed, but [Andrew] Nembhard hit a three to give us a one-point lead going into halftime and then, it's 24 minutes [left]. We came out and they hit us with a tough third quarter and we were just unable to get back into it," he pointed out.The game was over the moment Haliburton went down
While the Pacers certainly battled after the shock of witnessing their best player going down, the truth is the game was over at that moment.
While they hung around until the half time on pure grit, inspiration and determination, Hali makes everything go with Indiana, especially offensively as he's the team's main ball handler and responsible for pushing the pace.
We'll never know what would've happened if he never got hurt and that might go down as one of the biggest what-if moments in NBA history.This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 16, 2025, where it first appeared.