Tyrese Haliburton suffers right lower leg injury, exits Game 7
OKLAHOMA CITY — After eight months and 105 games, the Indiana Pacers’ hopes and dreams of the 2025 NBA championship wound up hanging on the muscles and tendons in guard Tyrese Haliburton’s slender right calf.
The load proved too much, the Pacers’ quest over for all practical purposes when Haliburton’s already aching calf gave out with five minutes left in the first quarter of Game 7 of the Finals Sunday night at Paycom Center.
Per ESPN’s Shams Charania, Haliburton suffered a torn right Achilles.
Tied at 16-16 when their point guard and on-court leader went down, the Pacers got outscored 87-75 the rest of the way to lose to the Oklahoma City Thunder, 103-91.
For OKC, it was their first NBA championship in the 17 years the franchise has played in its current market. Indiana was seeking its first title since merging into the league from the American Basketball Association in 1976.
Haliburton got hurt after what looked like an inspired start for him and his team. He had drained three 3-pointers to make the raucous OKC crowd a little nervous. He looked in control again on the left wing when he stepped back with his right foot to begin a move against defender Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Except Haliburton collapsed forward on his next step, his right leg failing him as he landed face down. The Pacers guard appeared to know immediately his night was over, slapping the floor repeatedly while wailing “No! No!” He was surrounded by teammates, and Gilgeous-Alexander leaned in to check on his rival.
“What happened with Tyrese, all of our hearts dropped,” said Indiana coach Rick Carlisle. “But he will be back. I don’t have any medical information about what may or may not have happened, but he’ll be back in time, and I believe he’ll make a full recovery.”
Said Gilgeous-Alexander: “I couldn’t imagine playing the biggest game of my life and something like that happening. It’s not fair. I just felt so bad for him. Just asked if he was OK … Obviously, he wasn’t.”
Though he went down with an injury in Game 7, Tyrese Haliburton proves that it's possible 'to win different ways' in the modern NBA.
Haliburton was helped back to the visitors’ locker room without putting weight on that leg. The Pacers termed it simply a “right lower leg injury” in announcing he would not return to the game.
Haliburton’s reported Achilles injury marks the third of this postseason, following Damian Lillard of Milwaukee in the first round against Indiana and Boston’s Jayson Tatum in the semifinals vs. New York. Back in the 2019 Finals, Golden State’s Kevin Durant suffered an Achilles tear against Toronto.
It’s a devastating injury for an athlete, one with a recovery and rehab timeline after surgery that can cost a player an entire season.
Haliburton had complained of ankle soreness after Game 2 of the series and suffered what was termed a strain in Game 5 attempting a move similar to Sunday’s. The Pacers and the media maintained a virtual vigil over Haliburton’s availability for Game 6 before he was cleared to play a couple hours before tipoff.
The outlook was good, too, after Indiana blew out OKC to force a Game 7. Haliburton was solid, scoring 14 points and most importantly playing only 23 minutes. Another 72 hours of treatment and recovery suggested he would be healthier, though Carlisle told Haliburton he and the team’s training staff would be constantly monitoring him in the finale.
“There’s going to be a lot of eye contact,” Carlisle said. “There’s going to be a lot of communication. You know, we’ll do whatever is best for him and for the team.”
There hardly was time for a lot of anything, though. Haliburton lasted barely half a quarter. After that, it was on the rest of the Pacers to hang tough for as long as they could.
“When it happened, I think a lot of us were shaken up,” said backup point guard T.J. McConnell. “It’s hard to [set that aside] when you see your guy go down like that and have to move on right away and finish the game, especially when it’s that early.
“We came back at halftime, and we were all giving him a hug and telling him we support him and we’ll continue to support him throughout his rehab process.”
In the tradition of philosopher Immanuel Kant, the Pacers show the world what champions look like, even in defeat.
It wouldn’t be fair to the Thunder to suggest that Haliburton’s injury was the reason OKC won. Indiana was the underdog as the Finals began, was a No. 4 seed taking on the NBA’s winningest team, and was considered a long shot again Sunday in Game 7.
Still, Indiana losing its most valuable player – an All-NBA Third Team selection for the second consecutive year and the author of so many astounding comebacks in this postseason – with 43 minutes to go was a challenge too great. The Pacers managed to lead at halftime 48-47, but it seemed only a matter of time before the adrenaline would wane. And the bottom would drop out.
That crumble came as the second half began. The Thunder used a 9-3 spurt out of the break to open some space, then another 9-0 run to lead 65-56. If not for a torrid stretch in which McConnell scored 10 consecutive points, OKC would have pulled away even sooner.
As it was, the new champions got their lead into double digits before the quarter ended and pushed it to 22, 90-68, a few minutes into the fourth.
Haliburton did what he could, cheering on his teammates from the back and sticking ’til the bitter end to greet them in the locker room while leaning on a pair of crutches.
“That’s just who Ty is,” McConnell said. “To go down like that and be selfless and just continuing to cheer for us, and even though he can’t play, I think that just speaks volumes. … One of the greatest human beings I’ve come in contact with.”
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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
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