After boasting a 2-1 lead to begin the NBA Finals, the Indiana Pacers are now facing a win-or-go-home situation with their best player noticeably hampered. A strained right calf forced Tyrese Haliburton into his worst performance of the postseason in Game 5, and his situation isn’t looking much better for Game 6.
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This isn’t an ailment that heals in a matter of days, but Stephen A. Smith is still adamant that the star playmaker suits up in what could be the final game of his season. Considering Hali’s current status, it might not matter whether he plays or not.
Stephen A. was insistent that Haliburton find a way to play, but if he continues to hold the team back as he did in the previous contest, the Pacers shouldn’t hesitate to go in a different direction.
Haliburton shared in yesterday’s Finals presser that if this were the regular season, he’d be taking a week or two off to recover. But this isn’t the regular season, or even a first-round playoff matchup. It’s an NBA Finals game and a possible once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a franchise that has yet to win a championship.
“It’s do or die, you’re on the brink of elimination, there is no tomorrow. Absolutely, he should play, make no mistake about that, and give you what he has.” Smith said on First Take. But Smith also believes that Indiana has to improvise their strategy if Haliburton is playing anything like he did in Game 5.
“If it’s that kind of awful, impotent, pedestrian performance, then guess what, you got to pull him,” Stephen A. continued. “And you got to see that a bit earlier, especially if TJ McConnell is flowing the way he has been flowing.”
.@stephenasmith doesn’t believe the Pacers should sit Tyrese Haliburton in Game 6 of the NBA Finals.
“It’s do or die, you’re on the brink of elimination, there is no tomorrow. Absolutely he should play.” pic.twitter.com/N3fEE9d8D1
— First Take (@FirstTake) June 19, 2025
The longtime sports personality is confident in legendary head coach Rick Carlisle’s decision-making in this do-or-die matchup. He believes most of the onus falls on the Pacers’ bench leader, but also stressed that Haliburton will know what he is and isn’t capable of with his current injury.
“What I would say to Tyrese Haliburton is this. You know what you can do when you’re healthy. That means you know what you’re not doing when you’re not healthy,” Stephen A. explained. “And if you see your teammate flowing like that, there is absolutely, positively nothing wrong with you rolling over to the coach and whispering in his ear, ‘TJ is rolling.'”
Smith then alluded to a recent discussion with Kendrick Perkins, where the former big man reminisced on his time playing alongside Kevin Garnett in the Boston Celtics’ frontcourt. “Somebody would be rolling, and Doc Rivers would go to KG, and KG would say, ‘Coach, nah, he’s rolling right now. Roll with him.’ There’s nothing wrong with that, there’s no shame in that,” he added.
At this point in the series, the Pacers aren’t going to care how they win, just that they do. If the team can manage to pull out a victory, even if it means their star isn’t playing a featured role, Indiana will take that every day of the week. The Pacers will have to hope Hali can give them something, though, or the Thunder could be raising their first banner tonight.
