Pacers News: Tyrese Haliburton Looking to Find Joy of Basketball Again

Matt Levine | 2 Hours Ago

Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images

The Indiana Pacers season start hasn't gone exactly the way that anyone would have planned. They have struggled to find any form of consistency from game to game and it's had problems arise.

One of the bigger issues for Indiana has been the struggles of star guard Tyrese Haliburton. Haliburton was expected to take another step forward this season after helping to lead the Pacers to the Eastern Conference Finals a year ago.

But instead, he has been incredibly inconsistent in his game. Haliburton has struggled to shoot the ball well and it's made life tough for the Pacers to win games.

To his credit, he broke out of a slump against the New Orleans Pelicans earlier this week, dropping 34 points, three rebounds, 13 assists, and three steals. It was a massive win for the Pacers and was a sigh of relief for their star guard.

"It feels good to win," Haliburton said. "At the end of the day, I think that's all that really matters. I think my individual performance and how I view that, I mean, if we're winning, I really don't care. I've been frustrated with myself because I feel like the games we've been losing, if I was myself, then we would be winning. I care more about us winning than what my numbers are looking like necessarily. But obviously, it feels good to see the ball go in."

Haliburton even spoke about how he has had to find the joy in basketball again as he deals with the shooting issues.

"What I have to do is keep my joy for the game of basketball," Haliburton said. "Everybody wants to say, 'Be happy, have fun.' Well, that's hard to do when you're not playing well or you're losing. But I think it's differentiating the difference between happiness and joy. I've always had a joy for the game of basketball and a love and appreciation for what I do in this game my whole life. I think I just got caught in getting frustrated with myself and this kinda creeping into, like, job territory and that weighing on me. I think it's just been big for me to keep that joy and that love and passion for the game of basketball because I genuinely do love what I do. I love this organization. I love my teammates."

For Indiana to do anything of substance this season, they will need Haliburton to snap out of his shooting woes. For the year, he has averaged 16.8 points, 3.4 rebounds, 8.8 assists, and 1.3 steals per game.

If the performance against the Pelicans was any indication of a turnaround, the Pacers will take the hope and run with it.

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