Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton, playing through a right calf injury, endured an awful night in Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Monday.
Haliburton missed all six of his field-goal attempts while ending up with four points, seven rebounds and six assists in 34 minutes as the Pacers lost 120-109 to the host Oklahoma City Thunder.
Haliburton has no plans to miss Game 6 of the NBA Finals on Thursday in Indianapolis, when the Pacers will try to even the best-of-seven series.
“It’s the Finals,” the Indiana guard said after Game 5. “I’ve worked my whole life to be here and I want to be out there to compete, help my teammates any way I can.
“I was not great tonight by any means, but it’s not really a thought of mine to not play here. If I can walk, then I want to play.”
The calf ailment is in his right leg, the same leg on which Haliburton injured his ankle in a previous contest.
Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said of Haliburton, “He’s not 100 percent. It’s pretty clear. But I don’t think he’s going to miss the next game.
“We were concerned at halftime. He insisted on playing. I thought he made a lot of really good things happen in the second half. But he’s not 100 percent. There’s a lot of guys in this series that aren’t.”
Haliburton was averaging 17.8 points, 7.5 assists and six rebounds in the Finals prior to Monday. He delivered the dagger jump shot to sink the Thunder on their home court in Game 1 as the Pacers won 111-110.
Looking ahead to Thursday, Haliburton said of his team, “Everybody has to be prepared. It starts with me, and we’ve all got to be better. That’s just point blank, period.”