Tyrese Haliburton went nuclear to clinch a Pacers win Friday night after a fan started talking trash to him late in the third quarter.
After hitting his third straight 3-pointer in a span of just 57 seconds to push the Pacers lead to 10 with under three minutes to go, Haliburton yelled back at the Cavaliers fan sitting courtside, “This is your fault. You did this.”
Haliburton had struggled with his shot for most of the contest having been questionable before the game with a stomach bug but with the Cavaliers at the free-throw line a Cleveland fan started jawing at Haliburton while he was talking to a referee.
“I needed some external motivation to get myself going. I won’t say verbatim what he said,” Haliburton said when asked about it after the game. “He basically told me to stop whining … every three from there just needed to talk to him to get myself going.”
Needless to say, Haliburton didn’t take it kindly and turned the heckler’s words into the extra boost he needed. After the back and forth he channeled his inner Reggie Miller and quickly went down the court on the next two possessions and hit consecutive pull-up 3-pointers without hesitation, immediately looking back at him after both.
Once Cleveland took a timeout, he let the fan know he was to blame for the scoring outburst and that he should have kept his mouth shut.
Haliburton finished with 21 points (11 in the fourth quarter), 13 assists, and 8 rebounds in the game. He was just 1 for 4 from deep and 4 for 13 from the floor before the fan decided to yell something to the Pacers star.
Haliburton didn’t address the fan in the televised post-game interview but was humble about his performance prior to that moment.
More coverage here from the Pacers win over the Cavaliers to move to 2-0 on the season.
iPacers 
[…] After every shot, Haliburton looked to the same person sitting courtside, pointing to him, telling him to “talk that shit.” Reggie Miller would be proud. Haliburton took a page out of the Pacer legend’s book on how to break the hearts of Knicks fans and wrote his very own chapter at the Garden. It wasn’t the first time this season Haliburton found motivation from a fan. […]
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