Tyrese Haliburton credits Stephen Curry for NBA Finals success with Pacers
Tyrese Haliburton credited his NBA Finals prowess to an surprising personality: Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry, who guided the team to four titles.
Haliburton's trainer, Drew Hanlen, reportedly showed decade's worth of Curry's defense strategy footage to help the Indiana Pacers point guard understand the Oklahoma City Thunder's game-play. It seems that this ploy may be panning out well for the Pacers who now carry a 2-1 lead in this year's NBA Finals following their 116-107 score win in Game 3 of the series.
Haliburton's scores in the Finals so far which read as a 17.7 points average, 7.7 assists, and 7.3 rebounds in three games against the Thunder is owed in large measure to the footage he studied of Curry bashing defenders from San Antonio to Boston.
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In a light-hearted 115-109 win against the Detroit Pistons in December, Haliburton jokingly blamed his beyond-the-arc struggles on ill-fated advice given by Curry. 'Honestly speaking, I'm probably going to blame Steph. Because he convinced me to try out pre-game naps, because I told him I don't nap, and he told me to try it out and text him after the game and see the result. So he'll be getting a text from me shortly. No more pre-game naps for Tyrese,' he said in an interview soon after.
Curry's influence on young talent ranging from Anthony Edwards to Haliburton has had an undoubtable impact on their court vision and ability to defend against the most ferocious teams.
Considering how Haliburton grew up idolizing Curry during his days in college at Davidson, the ability to reach out to him for personal advice at this moment probably comes as a welcome surprise to the Pacers player.
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