Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton out for Game 3 with hamstring injury: Sources

INDIANAPOLIS — Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton will not play in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals Saturday, league sources said, due to a re-injured left hamstring he suffered in Thursday’s loss to the Boston Celtics.

Haliburton underwent an MRI on Saturday that showed a strain and he’s considered day to day. A league source said he’s feeling better than he was Thursday and he was hoping to play Saturday, but doctors made the call to keep him out of Game 3. Haliburton suffered a similar injury to the same leg in January and missed 10 games.

Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton is expected to miss Game 3 tonight vs. Boston due to a re-injured left hamstring, sources tell me and @joevardon. pic.twitter.com/sT4ibVl4zA

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) May 25, 2024

The Celtics lead the series, 2-0. Indiana blew a late lead in Game 1 but was beaten handily in Game 2 after Haliburton was removed for good late in the third quarter. He left with 10 points and eight assists in 28 minutes, and a sore chest. Boston’s Jaylen Brown hit him while trying to get a rebound in the first half of Game 2, which caused Haliburton to get imaging on his chest at halftime.

Haliburton, a third-team All-NBA selection this year, has averaged 18.7 points and 8.2 assists in the playoffs. The Pacers went 6-4 without him during that stretch in January, but the playoffs, and specifically the mighty Celtics, are a different beast altogether.

Indiana can ill afford to lose Saturday, as no NBA team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in a playoff series.

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(Photo: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)