The Indiana Pacers will be under severe pressure tonight when they host the Boston Celtics at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Their two-game road trip to Boston ended in two losses, leaving the Pacers with no choice but to defend home court to save the series. As if the odds weren’t stacked against them already, the Pacers may have to play Game 3 without their centerpiece Tyrese Haliburton.
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This is the play in the 3rd quarter where Tyrese Haliburton appeared to suffer a leg injury.
He left the game and was ruled OUT for the remainder of Game 2 vs. the Celtics pic.twitter.com/7jbacfe7Nl
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) May 24, 2024
The Pacers’ All-NBA guard suffered a leg injury in the third quarter of his team’s Game 2 loss against the Celtics and had to sit out the rest of the contest. The injury was diagnosed to be left hamstring soreness, which Indiana would consider positive news, given the alternatives could’ve ruled him out of the series and potentially the playoffs.
However, the recent update doesn’t seem very promising.
Haliburton has been listed as ‘questionable’ for Game 3 in the NBA’s latest injury report, which means he’ll undergo a fitness test during the pre-game warmups before getting the green light to suit up. The guard will likely play unless the soreness makes him immobile.
The Pacers star probably won’t move as freely as he’d have wanted to in a must-win game. Regardless, the Indiana side will probably play Haliburton albeit for restricted minutes. The 24-year-old’s presence on the court is the morale boost the Pacers will desperately need to avoid a sweep at home in the next two games.
Can the Pacers beat the Celtics without Haliburton?
The Pacers have had a decent amount of practice playing without Tyrese Haliburton this season. The guard missed 13 games during the regular season, out of which Indiana won seven games. Four of their seven wins were against good teams like the Phoenix Suns, Miami Heat, Philadelphia 76ers, and the Sacramento Kings.
They also played one of their five regular-season games against the Boston Celtics without their star guard. But that didn’t end well for them.
Boston thrashed Indiana 155-104, their second-biggest margin of victory this season and the second-most points they’ve scored in a game in franchise history.
It’s unlikely that it’d end any other way in Game 3 if the guard fails the fitness test and has to watch his team from the sidelines. The Pacers desperately need Haliburton to play to stand a chance of upstaging the Celtics in the series.
