Let me take you back to October 28 and a quote from Tyrese Haliburton following Indiana’s third game against the Philadelphia 76ers, one of many bad losses that have plagued the team. Amidst three straight poor performances to start the season, Haliburton stated, “At the moment, it sucks. God willing, I’m sure the sun will come up tomorrow. We have another game tomorrow. Seventy-nine more. It sucks, and to act like I’m not going to replay it for the rest of the evening is probably not true. But, like I said, 79 more. The sun is going to come up tomorrow, and we’re gonna get another chance to compete. That’s the beautiful part about it.”

Lately, it seems that not only is the sun coming up every morning but Number Zero is starting to consistently rise to the occasion once again as well.

But true to his initial quote, the first 15 games of the 2024-25 season were not kind to Tyrese Haliburton. After a summer with Team USA and appearances at Paris Fashion Week and WWE SmackDown, Haliburton returned to the court with a point to prove against doubters who called the team’s run to the conference finals and his MVP-level play through the first few months of last season a fluke.

Unfortunately, he didn’t do much to dispel those takes. Through the first 15 games, Haliburton’s 15.3 points per game average on 37.5/28.4/82% shooting splits were pretty poor. Still, this did not tell the whole story, as the individual performances were even more alarming once separated from the bigger picture. Haliburton had five games of scoring under 15 points, including a scoreless outing in Indiana’s second game of the season, a national TV affair against the New York Knicks. Haliburton only shot 50% or better from the field four times and shot below 30% from deep nine times, including a 0/7 outing against New York, an 0/4 outing against Charlotte, and a 1/9 outing against Detroit. The shots weren’t falling and Haliburton didn’t look like right.

In the first 15 games, Haliburton shot 29.9% on pull-up shots, 32.4% on catch-and-shoot opportunities, and 50.9% on drives. Haliburton took 2.6 three-point attempts per game with defenders 4-6 feet away from him and only shot 23.1% on those attempts. With defenders 6 feet or more away from him, equating to a wide-open shot, Haliburton took 4.5 attempts from deep per game and only shot 31.3%. This season, the average three-point percentage by a point guard is 35.3%. This meant Tyrese Haliburton was a worse shooter on strictly wide-open threes than the average NBA point guard on three-point attempts in general.

Now, let’s talk about the last nine games because even Stevie Wonder could see the improved performance from Tyrese Haliburton.

In the last nine games, Haliburton has upped his scoring average by almost seven whole points, as he has averaged 22 points per game on 48.9/41.8/92.3 shooting splits, which is more reminiscent of the pre-injury Haliburton, who was slicing and dicing defenses and pulling up from deep at will. Through these nine games, Haliburton has only scored under 17 points once and has scored over 20 points more often than not. Additionally, he has shot over 50% from the field five out of nine times and only has two games shooting below 37% from deep.

In the last nine games, Haliburton’s pull-up efficiency has improved to 45.9%, his catch-and-shoot percentage has improved to 37.5%, and his driving efficiency has improved by almost 20%, currently sitting at 69.7% in his last 20 games. Additionally, Haliburton is scoring 1.5 more points on drives, 0.6 more points on catch-and-shoots, and a whopping 5.4 more points on pull-up shots, leading to an effective field goal percentage increase from 45.4% to 62.6%, and a true shooting increase from 50% to 65.8%.

As for the three-point breakdown, Haliburton has taken 3.4 three-pointers per game with defenders 4-6 feet away from him and has made them at a far-improved 35.5% clip. As for how he is shooting from deep with defenders 6+ feet away, it is almost as if he is a different player, as he is taking 5.9 wide-open threes per game and draining them at a 49.1% clip. For what it’s worth, these numbers are comparable to, if not better than, Haliburton’s pre-injury numbers from the 2023-24 season, where he shot 37.8% from deep with defenders 4-6 feet away and “only” 42.2% with defenders 6+ feet away.

Perhaps Haliburton’s biggest crutch this season has been his inability to perform on the road, as his away stats were so far removed from his home stats that fans started speculating whether it was the quality of his mattress in hotels and how they affected his back issues. However, that issue seems to be fixing itself recently, as he has averaged 23 points over his last three road games, including 30 points against Toronto and 23 points against Chicago, which gave the Pacers their first road win in over a month.

Against the Bulls, he was skipping and talking trash to fans sitting courtside—two signs that he’s feeling very much like himself as skipping was a common sight early last season and he had a memorable exchange with New York courtside fans in Game 7 last year.

Despite Indiana’s recent struggles, fans can rest assured knowing their superstar is as close to returning to full form as ever. For the Pacers to turn their season around, they need consistent play from Tyrese Haliburton, as he is the engine that keeps them running through thick and thin. The more fantastic performances Number Zero turns in, the higher chance Indiana has of making something out of this abysmal start and picking up where they left off last season.