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New York Post
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
How Tyrese Haliburton celebrated Pacers' NBA Finals berth with girlfriend
It was a sweet celebration Saturday for Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton and girlfriend Jade Jones. Moments after the Pacers punched their ticket to the NBA Finals with a dominant 128-105 victory over the Knicks in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals, Jones embraced Haliburton on the floor at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis as the All-Star guard held the Bob Cousy Trophy. 'Proud is an understatement,' she gushed in an Instagram Story. 6 Tyrese Haliburton celebrates the Pacers' series-clinching win over the Knicks with girlfriend Jade Jones. Jade Jones/Instagram 6 Jade Jones modeled a Tyrese Haliburton-themed look for Game 6. Jade Jones/Instagram Haliburton, averaging 18.8 points this postseason, scored 21 on Saturday following a miserable eight-point outing Thursday in a Game 5 loss at Madison Square Garden. 'I can't put into words how special this group is,' the 25-year-old Haliburton said. That group includes teammate and Eastern Conference Finals MVP Pascal Siakam, who scored 31 points in Game 6. 6 Tyrese Haliburton and the Pacers knocked off the Knicks in six games. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post 6 The Pacers are making their first trip to the NBA Finals since 2000. Getty Images 'To be able to get to this level and having an opportunity to play for an NBA championship, that's amazing,' Siakam said postgame. The Pacers, making their first NBA Finals trip since 2000, will face the Thunder in Oklahoma City starting Thursday with Game 1. Follow The Post's coverage of the Knicks in the 2025 NBA Playoffs Sports+ subscribers: Sign up for Inside the Knicks to get daily newsletter coverage and join Expert Take for insider texts about the series. Jones, who has been dating Haliburton for six years, has been supporting the Pacers throughout the series. She took a savage dig at the Knicks in May following their epic Game 1 collapse. 'Finally got to see the ball drop in NYC,' she quipped on Instagram. 6 Tyrese Haliburton made the choke gesture after the Knicks' Game 1 collapse. Jason Szenes for New York Post 6 The two-time NBA All-Star with girlfriend Jade Jones. Jade Jones/Instagram The Knicks choked away their Game 1 lead within the final minutes of regulation on May 21. Haliburton, who helped take down the Knicks in last year's Eastern Conference semifinals, flashed a choke gesture after the Pacers climbed back into the game and swiped a 138-135 overtime win. The two-time NBA All-Star kept the jabs rolling Sunday, hitting back at Knicks superfan Ben Stiller for a comment made about his pregame accessory. 'Good thing he brought his duffel for the flight to NY,' Stiller wrote Saturday on X, to which Haliburton replied, 'Nah, was to pack y'all up.'
Indianapolis Star
3 days ago
- Sport
- Indianapolis Star
Inside Pacers' unconventional path back to NBA Finals: 'I think it's a new blueprint for the league'
INDIANAPOLIS – They made sure Myles Turner got the microphone first. Between the time the buzzer sounded on the Pacers' 125-108 series-clinching win over the Knicks in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals and the official trophy ceremony on TNT, Pacers radio network sideline reporter Pat Boylan got to interview a player as he always does for broadcast on the center court video boards after every Pacers win. Boylan picked the longest-tenured Pacer so Turner could start with his trademark call-and-response with the Gainbridge Fieldhouse faithful, who were overjoyed with their first berth in the NBA Finals since 2000. "INNN-DYYY" Turner sang out with even more bass and volume in his voice than usual. "AAAAA-NNNNAAAA" they hollered back loud enough Turner decided he had to do it a second time. When the Bob Cousy Trophy for the Eastern Conference Finals came out, the Pacers let the 6-11 Turner hold it high first. After handing the Larry Bird Trophy to Pascal Siakam as the Eastern Conference Finals MVP, TNT's Ernie Johnson called Turner in front of the group to speak to what it meant to finally go to the NBA Finals for the first time in his 10-year career. Because Turner more than anyone knew what it took for the Pacers to make it back for just the second time since they left the ABA for the NBA in 1976. He wasn't part of the last Pacers squad to reach back-to-back Eastern Conference Finals in 2013 and 2014, but he was there when the remaining pieces of that squad disintegrated and Paul George requested a trade. He was there for the Victor Oladipo-led resurgence, but then he was also there when Oladipo ruptured his quadriceps, an injury from which his career never fully recovered. Turner saw the ends of the coaching tenures of Frank Vogel, Nate McMillan and Nate Bjorkgren. And when the Pacers started making moves to overturn the roster toward the end of Rick Carlisle's first year, Turner began to think it was a matter of time before he was sent out the door. But instead the Pacers stuck with him and made him a pillar of their rebuild, and in the course of a little under three years turned a 25-win lottery team into an Eastern Conference champion. Turner noted to the crowd the Pacers want "four more" against the Oklahoma City Thunder with whom they begin NBA Finals in Game 1 on Thursday at Oklahoma City, but when the buzzer sounded he allowed himself to feel the wave of all the emotions that have defined his past decade. "It was nothing but joy, man," Turner said after spending time talking to everyone from the franchise's matriarch in Nancy Leonard to it's all-time greatest player in Reggie Miller to team trainers and massage therapists. "It was pure excitement, pure validation. All the years, all the hate, all the love, everything in between, bro, it just made so much sense in that moment." And in that moment, everything the Pacers have done since February of 2022 made sense as well. That was when they decided to flip the roster and start over, but they didn't take what has become the conventional approach of using a firesale to rip a team down to the studs and betting their entire future just on draft picks. They decided instead to trade one young rising star in Domantas Sabonis for another in point guard Tyrese Haliburton — with several other pieces of varying levels of importance also changing hands — and immediately made Haliburton their cornerstone and building the team in his image. With him in place they managed to dramatically accelerate their timeline by settling on an identity without having to wait for rookies to mature. "If you have the right player to build around, it can happen much faster than you think," Carlisle said. "Getting Tyrese made it very clear what our identity as a team needed to be. We needed to be a fast-paced team with shooting." They also needed to be a team with personalities that meshed because having Haliburton as the centerpiece meant building around hyperactivity and constant ball movement and unselfishness that could easily be derailed if personal agendas overtook the team concept. But every move they made seemed to only add to the team dynamic. That level of camaraderie was a big reason why now three-time All-Star Pascal Siakam had interest in being traded from the Raptors to the Pacers in the first place and why after the Raptors dealt him to Indiana in January of 2024, he happily re-signed last summer for four more years. "Every single person on this team is just an amazing person," Siakam said. "I mean, it's just a bunch of good guys. When you have that and everyone is committed to the work and there's no selfishness and it's all about winning, that's what you want to have. I think just for me seeing that, outside of the talent that we have, I know how connected we are and another thing is we're just resilient. We won't stop. We won't stop. And when there's bad games or whatever the case may be, we're still gonna be here." The Pacers' combination of connectivity and offensive firepower made them a tougher-than-expected out in 2022-23 when they won 35 games and it made them a league darling when they caught fire to start the 2023-24 season and earned a berth in the finals of the inaugural In-Season Tournament. But it became very clear — especially when they won a game over the Hawks 157-152 in group play of that tournament — they were relying too much on their offense to carry them. They finished last season as the No. 6 highest scoring team in NBA history and the highest-scoring team in the league's past 50 years with 123.3 points per game but they were near rock bottom in the league in the most important defensive categories through the early going. But a lineup change on Dec. 26 of that year announced an increased commitment to defense. The addition of Siakam in January gave them a long-armed big wing they desperately needed to deal with bigger and more athletic power forwards and over time they determined they could use full-court pressure and lean into their depth to make up for their lack of overall size and their lack of consistency in rebounding. After finishing 24th in the NBA last season in defensive rating they moved up to 14th this year with the seventh-best mark since Dec. 8 when they started 10-15. "Our defense is something we've been working on steadfastly for over a year and a half," Carlisle said. "I mean really. The year started last year with really a different set of rules. We were playing small and even faster. It wasn't a team that had great defenders but we've gotten better defenders. We've gotten bigger. We got Pascal and the guys co-signed on the importance of defense and everybody has participated in the growth." And in Game 6 it was their defense that was the driving force in their win. In Indiana's loss in Game 5, the Knicks made it difficult to create any sort of pace and offensive flow and the Pacers scored just 94 points, their lowest in this year's playoffs. But the Knicks couldn't make that happen again on Saturday as the Pacers caused 18 turnovers with 10 of them being steals. They turned those 18 turnovers into 34 points — a remarkable conversion rate — and they posted 25 fast-break points. Siakam scored 31 points in large part because he was running ahead of the play after some of those turnovers. Guard Andrew Nembhard — who was switched on to Knicks star guard Jalen Brunson early in the game — grabbed six steals on his own with his ball pressure. He posted 14 points and eight assists and was +25 in his time on the floor. "The buy-in from our whole group has been huge," Haliburton said. "Last year, all that was being said was that we couldn't win because we don't guard anybody and all we try to do is outscore people. I think we've taken such a big step on the defensive end as a group. I think Andrew, Aaron (Nesmith) and Myles kinda lead that and me and P (Siakam) are trying to follow their lead and get it going on that side of the ball and our bench guys just come in and bring more energy. The step we made on that side of the ball is why we're here." The league has already taken notice of the fact that in the Pacers and Thunder, there are two small market teams in the NBA Finals who built their squads through youth and cohesion and without much in the way of flashy free agent signings or blockbuster trades. Neither team is completely homegrown — Haliburton, Siakam and Oklahoma City MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander were all acquired in trades — but there's still been an organic nature to their roster construction and the quick creation of chemistry has helped both teams grow up quickly. "I think it's a new blueprint for the league, man," Turner said. "I think the years of the superteams and stacking, it's not as effective as it once was. Since I've been in the league, this NBA is very trendy. It just shifts. The new trend is what we're doing. OKC does the same thing. Young guys get out and run, defend and use the power of friendship is how they call it." The Pacers recognize, however, the front office and organization had to fight against the grain at times to believe their blueprint was the correct one. The Siakam trade last year didn't cost them much in the way of then-current players — they sent guard Bruce Brown and forward Jordan Nwora to Toronto — but they sent three first-round draft picks Toronto's way which sent a signal the Pacers intended to win immediately instead of waiting in hopes future assets would line up to create their championship window. That could have backfired if Siakam had decided to go elsewhere when his contract ran out. The Pacers also could have responded to last year's Eastern Conference Finals loss to the eventual NBA champion Boston Celtics — the closest team to a superteam in the Eastern Conference and perhaps in the NBA in the past two seasons — by making desperate moves to climb up to their level. Instead they mostly stood pat with their biggest additions since the Siakam trade mostly being depth centers Thomas Bryant and Tony Bradley, who were acquired after backups James Wiseman and Isaiah Jackson tore their Achilles tendons in the season's first week. "I'm thankful that our front office believed in this group, to keep us together, to not do a crazy roster turnover, to keep this group together," Haliburton said, "and see something in ourselves that 'experts' didn't see."
Irish Examiner
3 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Pacers beat Knicks to reach NBA Finals for the second time in franchise history
Pascal Siakam and Tyrese Haliburton made sure the Indiana Pacers gave their fans a celebration they waited 25 years to see again. Siakam had 31 points and Haliburton scored 11 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter, carrying the Pacers to a 125-108 victory over the New York Knicks on Saturday night for a 4-2 series win and their first trip to the NBA Finals since 2000. It's just the second time in franchise history that they'll play for the championship. The series begins on Thursday in Oklahoma City. 'Pascal and Tyrese put us on their backs and made sure we would not lose,' coach Rick Carlisle told the gold-clad crowd that was on its feet for the waning minutes and the postgame party. 'But our work has just begun.' Siakam won the Larry Bird Trophy as the Eastern Conference finals MVP. Bird is the only other coach to take the Pacers to the Finals. Haliburton finished with 13 assists and Obi Toppin added 18 points and six rebounds against his former team. OG Anunoby led the Knicks with 24 points. Karl-Anthony Towns had 22 points and 14 rebounds, while Jalen Brunson added 19 points as the Pacers' relentless ball pressure forced New York into 17 turnovers. 'There were stretches where we played very good defense and stretches where we didn't,' Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. 'I think once you dig into it and you look at is, was it our defense? Or was it our turnovers? I think it was probably a combination of both.' Whatever the explanation, the Knicks are headed home again courtesy of the Pacers. New York still hasn't played in the finals since 1999. It was a magical night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse — from the festive pregame atmosphere through the roaring ovation for the starters as they departed with 47.2 seconds to go to Reggie Miller's presentation of the Eastern Conference's Bob Cousy Trophy to Pacers owner Herb Simon on TNT's final NBA broadcast. Miller was one of the telecast's colour analysts. And yet, it was a tough, physical game that didn't always follow the Pacers' preferred style. Whether it was Towns limping after drawing a foul or Haliburton holding his jaw when he took a shot that knocked him to the ground, the tone was set early — and never really changed with so much at stake. Indiana finally broke open a close game by opening the second half on a 9-0 run, then extended their lead to 78-63 courtesy of three straight 3-pointers — two from Thomas Bryant and one from Andrew Nembhard. The run ignited the crowd, which included everyone from Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson to WNBA star Caitlin Clark to Timothee Chalamet to Kylie Jenner. But when the Knicks answered with eight straight to cut the deficit to 78-71, the Pacers responded with another 9-0 run to take their biggest lead of the game and the Knicks were forced to play catch-up the rest of the night. 'This is no time to be popping champagne,' said Carlisle, who won the 2011 title as coach of the Dallas Mavericks. 'When you get to this point of the season, it's two teams and it's one goal. So it becomes an all or nothing thing and we understand the magnitude of it.'
Indianapolis Star
3 days ago
- Sport
- Indianapolis Star
Doyel: Pacers' 'magical ride' has been a long time coming. Four more wins ends it with a first NBA title
INDIANAPOLIS – Cars are honking on Virginia Avenue and Maryland Street. Pedestrians are dancing on Delaware and Pennsylvania streets. They've just been sent out into the final moments of Saturday night by the Indiana Pacers' 125-108 victory against the New York Knicks — they're probably having a good time on New York Street, too, to say nothing of Washington and Illinois — a victory that put the Pacers into the NBA Finals for the second time in franchise history. 'In 49 states it's basketball,' Pacers coach Rick Carlisle is telling TNT's Ernie Johnson over the P.A. system, though he's really saying this for the benefit of the sold-out, gold-out crowd at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. And the crowd is starting to make noise, because it knows what's coming next. 'But this is Indiana!' Carlisle thunders, and now it's bedlam, and people are heading for the exits, to all those streets named after all those states where it's just, you know … basketball. But it's different here, and it's been too long. The Pacers of Slick Leonard and George McGinnis won three ABA titles in four years in the early 1970s, but the last time the Pacers reached the NBA Finals — the only time they reached the NBA Finals — it was 2000. Donnie Walsh built that team, Larry Bird coached it and Reggie Miller led it. Reggie was courtside for this one, calling the game for TNT. 'It was 25 years ago that the Pacers went to the NBA Finals for the first time,' Johnson had told the crowd before handing the mic to Carlisle, 'beating the New York Knicks in six games. Now it's happened again. And the guy that scored 34 points (in Game 6 of 2000), I think you just call him by one name.' This is a revival, the call-and-response part of the service, and the crowd knows its line: Reg-gie! Reg-gie! Reg-gie! 'So,' Johnson continues, 'we're going to have Reggie have the honors and hand the Bob Cousy Trophy to (Pacers owner) Herb Simon.' Reggie hands the trophy to Simon, a 2024 inductee into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, and Simon seems surprised by its weight. He's smiling, he's thrilled, but he's looking for someone else to hold the trophy. Let them have a turn. Myles Turner, the longest-tenured player on roster — the No. 11 overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft — is right there. He takes the trophy, hoists it over his head and looks absolutely, positively gleeful. The crowd knows its line here, too. The crowd roars. Pictures: IndyStar photographers find best moments from Pacers-Knicks in Game 6 Doyel in 2024: Herb Simon goes from Bronx to Hall of Fame. Mel should've been here too. These guys are greedy, man. Carlisle took out Tyrese Haliburton with 47 seconds left. He's letting the Pacers' franchise star — who started slow, without a point or a rebound in the first quarter, but finished with 21 points and six boards, to go with 13 assists — get some love from the crowd. Haliburton's also getting love from the bench, but when assistant coach Lloyd Pierce approaches for a hug, Haliburton has two words for him: 'Four more.' He's talking about the NBA Finals. The Pacers still have 47 seconds before they can put on the ballcaps calling themselves Eastern Conference champions, but already Haliburton is doing what he does on the court better than anyone ever has in a Pacers uniform: looking ahead. The Pacers follow his lead, too. A few minutes later, after the game ends — before Carlisle has his drop-the-mic moment and sends the crowd out into the states, er, streets — Pacers analyst Pat Boylan is on the court, inside the ropes, looking for a player to interview on the giant videoboard. He makes the sentimental choice. 'Myles Turner,' Boylan tells him, 'you're going to the NBA Finals. What's going through your mind right now?' Turner is beaming. Has he ever been happier? Maybe. But I've not seen it. Not until Herb Simon hands him the Bob Cousy Trophy, anyway, but that's a few minutes away. And right now, Turner has a message for the crowd, and his team. 'We got four more, baby,' he shouted. 'We got four more to bring it home.' Turner keeps going, stoking the crowd into a frenzy of hometown love. 'This team thrives on adversity,' he says. 'This city thrives on adversity. We're overlooked. We keep fighting. 'We don't quit, man. We don't quit in this city, baby.' Four more days. And then they can go about the business of winning those four more games. This game was never in doubt. Not in the classical sense. The Knicks scored the first bucket, and they led 22-20 late in the first quarter, but that was it. The rest of the game was an avalanche of the Pacers doing what they do best: Running, scoring, coming at the opponent in waves, getting points from players you'd expect — Pascal Siakam (31), Haliburton (21), Andrew Nembhard (14), Turner (11) and Aaron Nesmith (10) — and getting a boost from players you might not have seen coming. Former Knicks player Obi Toppin, for example, scored 18 points and added six rebounds and three blocked shots off the bench. And Thomas Bryant, who didn't play in two of the first five games this series, had 11 points — and was, frankly, the spark that got this rout rolling. It was Bryant's 3-pointer that erased the Knicks' final lead of the game, putting the Pacers ahead 23-22 late in the first quarter. And it was Bryant who sandwiched a pair of corner 3s around one from Nembhard in the third quarter as the Pacers expanded their 69-61 lead to 78-63. And this one was over. Pretty soon Nesmith is getting a pass from Nembhard and dunking. The Knicks are leaving T.J. McConnell alone for the second time behind the 3-point arc, and for the second time McConnell is all but shrugging before burying the 3-pointer. Now it's Haliburton with the ball in transition, a 2-on-1 fast break with Siakam on his right. Haliburton looks to Siakam, and the defense goes that way, but hang on. What? Haliburton is going to the rim and throwing it down with two hands? Yes he is. That finish is almost as startling as whatever becomes of the 2025 Indiana Pacers — four more, baby — when you consider where this franchise was just a few years ago. The Pacers averaged 31 victories from 2020-21 to 2022-23, losing enough to miss the playoffs all three years but winning just enough to miss out on a transformational player at the top of the lottery. Less than a year after the 2023 NBA draft lottery, the Pacers qualified for the 2024 Eastern Conference Finals. And here they are one year after that, heading to the 2025 NBA Finals. Afterward, to reporters in the postgame interview room, Carlisle is talking about those two players involved in that finish — about Haliburton and Siakam — to explain how the Pacers have been writing this one. "Getting Tyrese made it very clear what our identity as a team needed to be," Carlisle says of the team's trade in February 2022 that sent Domantas Sabonis to Sacramento for Haliburton and Buddy Hield. 'The Siakam trade (in January 2024) took things to another level." The Pacers have two All-Stars, Haliburton and Siakam, and three more starters capable of big nights. One game after the starting five was uncharacteristically quiet, combining for 37 points in that Game 5 loss to the Knicks in Madison Square Garden, all five starters reached double figures and combined for 87 points, total. That starting lineup, and a deep bench that gets occasional starring performances from McConnell, Toppin and Bennedict Mathurin — and quality minutes from Bryant, Ben Sheppard, Jarace Walker and Tony Bradley — has helped the Pacers set up an NBA Finals featuring the two hottest teams in the NBA. Fact: Since Jan. 1, only the Thunder have had a better record (53-13) than the Pacers (46-18). Insider: OKC Thunder vs Pacers in 2025 NBA Finals: Who has the edge? How to watch: Schedule, start date, time, TV channel for Pacers-Thunder in NBA Finals The Pacers have been getting better as the games get tougher, eliminating Milwaukee in five games in the first round, top-seeded Cleveland in five in the second round, and now the Knicks in six. Afterward, Carlisle is congratulating the Knicks on a fine season of their own, and almost feeling bad about having to end it. 'They caught a team that's been on a magical ride,' Carlisle told the crowd afterward. Wheels up, soon, for Oklahoma City. And the hunt for four more. Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Threads, or on BlueSky and Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar, or at Subscribe to the free weekly Doyel on Demand newsletter.
Hamilton Spectator
3 days ago
- Sport
- Hamilton Spectator
Pacers beat Knicks 125-108 in Game 6 to reach NBA Finals for the second time in franchise history
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Pascal Siakam and Tyrese Haliburton made sure the Indiana Pacers gave their fans a celebration they waited 25 years to see again. Siakam had 31 points and Haliburton scored 11 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter, carrying the Pacers to a 125-108 victory over the New York Knicks on Saturday night for a 4-2 series win and their first trip to the NBA Finals since 2000. It's just the second time in franchise history that they'll play for the championship. The series begins Thursday at Oklahoma City. 'Pascal and Tyrese put us on their backs and made sure we would not lose,' coach Rick Carlisle told the gold-clad crowd that was on its feet for the waning minutes and the postgame party. 'But our work has just begun.' Siakam won the Larry Bird Trophy as the Eastern Conference finals MVP. Bird is the only other coach to take the Pacers to the Finals. Haliburton finished with 13 assists and Obi Toppin added 18 points and six rebounds against his former team. OG Anunoby led the Knicks with 24 points. Karl-Anthony Towns had 22 points and 14 rebounds, while Jalen Brunson added 19 points as the Pacers' relentless ball pressure forced New York into 17 turnovers. 'There were stretches where we played very good defense and stretches where we didn't,' Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. 'I think once you dig into it and you look at is, was it our defense? Or was it our turnovers? I think it was probably a combination of both.' Whatever the explanation, the Knicks are headed home again courtesy of the Pacers. New York still hasn't played in the finals since 1999. It was a magical night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse — from the festive pregame atmosphere through the roaring ovation for the starters as they departed with 47.2 seconds to go to Reggie Miller's presentation of the Eastern Conference's Bob Cousy Trophy to Pacers owner Herb Simon on TNT's final NBA broadcast. Miller was one of the telecast's color analysts. And yet, it was a tough, physical game that didn't always follow the Pacers' preferred style. Whether it was Towns limping after drawing a foul or Haliburton holding his jaw when he took a shot that knocked him to the ground, the tone was set early — and never really changed with so much at stake. Indiana finally broke open a close game by opening the second half on a 9-0 run, then extended their lead to 78-63 courtesy of three straight 3-pointers — two from Thomas Bryant and one from Andrew Nembhard. The run ignited the crowd, which included everyone from Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson to WNBA star Caitlin Clark to Timothee Chalamet to Kylie Jenner. But when the Knicks answered with eight straight to cut the deficit to 78-71, the Pacers responded with another 9-0 run to take their biggest lead of the game and the Knicks were forced to play catch-up the rest of the night. 'This is no time to be popping champagne,' said Carlisle, who won the 2011 title as coach of the Dallas Mavericks. 'When you get to this point of the season, it's two teams and it's one goal. So it becomes an all or nothing thing and we understand the magnitude of it.' ___ AP NBA:
