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What the Haliburton!?! Pacers stun Cavs to take 2-0 series lead
🕑 Added 2025-05-07 19:26:29 +0000 UTCMy work at Basketball, She Wrote is typically paywalled. This video podcast with Samson Folk, discussing an all-time playoff sequence for the Pacers, is available as a free trial for everyone. If you're new here and want to support independent writing about actual basketball, please consider subscribing and/or sharing it around. Alright, onto the spoken and written words about the Pacers
By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper
For the second time in roughly a week, the Pacers barely mustered 15 points in the first quarter. Also, for the second time in roughly a week, the Pacers trailed by as many as 20 points. And yet, for the second time in roughly a week, Tyrese Haliburton and the Pacers beat the front-runner allegations, rallying in the final seconds to steal Game 2 and homecourt advantage with a series of clutch plays which can only be described in the aggregate as:
"What the Haliburton!?!"
Joining me to find the words for a game in which, yet again, there are no words is Samson Folk, as we breakdown the latest way that the Pacers went about finding a way while also going over the wide-ranging impact of Cleveland's face-guarding coverage against Haliburton, the possible reasons for Pascal Siakam's relatively muted performance, Bennedict Mathurin's quietly loud contributions and much, much more. Enjoy!
Here are the relevant timestamps:
0:00 - Introductions
2:16 - Contributing factors in the non-existent possession war to start the game
5:22 - Wide-ranging impact of Okoro face-guarding Haliburton + the various strategies that were attempted to combat the exaggerated coverage
14:53 - The Pacers cycling through defensive hacks against the force of nature that was Donovan Mitchell
20:55 - Pascal Siakam's odd game
24:02 - Bennedict Mathurin inserting himself into the action in contrast to Siakam
26:43 - Possible reasons for Siakam's odd game + how the injuries for Cleveland changed the context of the match-up
45:29 - No ref talk, please
49:00 - Brief aside on Samson's life playing sports in Saskatchewan
52:39 - Reacting to the series of improbable events that was one of the greatest sequences in Pacers history + remembering what it's like to be a fan again
1:04:54 - Oh btw, Nembhard stole the tip again
1:07:34 - The rise in anti-intellectualism and anti-earnestness (of course)
1:10:24 - Thank you and goodbye!
Comments
Binyan Li
calling it now: the Pacers will win the championship this year--with Sampson we can't lose, especially because his hair cannot be cut, maybe his sleeves, but that only makes him stronger
