Pacers News: Tyrese Haliburton Agrees With Starters Being Benched vs Heat

Indiana Pacers star guard Tyrese Haliburton agreed that he and the rest of the starting five should have been benched against the Miami Heat.

Nov 15, 2024; Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton (0) in the first half against the Miami Heat at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images / Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images

Last night, the Indiana Pacers faced a surprising loss against a Miami Heat team that was missing All-Star small forward Jimmy Butler.

In almost every quarter, the Heat outplayed Indiana, eventually finding victory with a final score of 124-111.

This was largely because of disappointing performances from every member of the Pacers' starting five, especially when it came to defense. This led to head coach Rick Carlisle benching all five of them and utlizing the bench, who almost got Indiana back into the game.

"Ugly game," Carlisle said, per Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star. "A lot of ugly stretches. Pretty clear that I didn't have these guys ready to play. Put the responsibility on me. I've got to do a better job of getting these guys prepared. It was embarrassing. There were two stretches where our fans booed, and rightly so. I was ashamed to hear that, but they were right."

This may have seemed like a particularly harsh move, but there were a lot of people who agreed with the decision, including star guard Tyrese Haliburton.

"It's just the repercussions of not doing your job," Haliburton said. "They had to try that second group and they were awesome, so we have to play as hard as that second group."

When it came to analyze what exactly went wrong, Haliburton was even more harsh that Carlisle.

"I thought we were doing a lot of dumb (expletive) on both ends of the ball," Haliburton said. "Defensive lapses. Bad shots, bad turnovers. We started playing the game the right way early. The ball was moving, hopping. Then we had some dumb turnovers and bad shots. We let that dictate our defense a little bit. We didn't get enough shots. That's a bad combo."

Haliburton went on to say that there was poor communication all around and that the team just didn't give a good effort, an opinion echoed by Carlisle.

"Poor effort," Carlisle said. "I think we showed five transition clips at halftime where we just simply were not playing hard enough. Miami is a polished, veteran team that is desperate right now. They're under .500 and they're trying to fight their way out of that. They're a team that can make you look bad. And they did."

The Pacers will have a chance to get revenge on the Heat in a rematch on Sunday.

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