By Jamal Collier and Tim MacMahon
The stage was set for Tyrese Haliburton`s game-winning shot during a replay review in the fourth quarter of Game 1 of the NBA Finals, with 22.8 seconds left on the clock.
The Pacers were waiting for the result of a challenge from coach Rick Carlisle. He was asking officials to review whether Pascal Siakam was fouled or had last touched the ball before going out of bounds.
Trailing by just one point, this was a crucial moment, and Carlisle wanted his team ready for either outcome. If the challenge succeeded, Indiana would get possession. If not, he instructed them to play defense, get a stop without fouling, and with the shot clock well ahead of the game clock, he emphasized there would be no more timeouts. Get the rebound and attack.
“Get the ball in Tyrese`s hands,” Carlisle stated after the game. “And look to make a play.”
First, the Pacers achieved the stop – a tough task against the reigning MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, but he missed a 15-foot fadeaway with Andrew Nembhard defending tightly. Aaron Nesmith secured a difficult rebound contested by Lu Dort. Nesmith quickly passed to Siakam, who found Obi Toppin, who then swung the ball to Haliburton just before half court with six seconds left.
What followed was one of the most significant clutch shots in NBA Finals history. Haliburton dribbled and jab-stepped along the sideline before moving back inside the arc, rising for a 21-foot jumper that secured the Game 1 victory for the Pacers in Oklahoma City with only 0.3 seconds remaining.
It might appear simple for Carlisle to trust Haliburton in such a situation, given the young star`s knack for hitting big shots in critical moments – Game 1 was his fourth game-winner or game-tying shot in the final seconds of these playoffs. However, this level of trust is the result of years of development.
The offensive freedom the Pacers enjoy stems from the relationship between Carlisle and Haliburton, a connection that began the night Indiana acquired Haliburton via trade in February 2022. But the foundation for this approach was also laid during Carlisle`s time with the Dallas Mavericks, starting in his first season in 2008-09 when he initially clashed with Hall of Fame point guard Jason Kidd, and continuing when he coached another emerging superstar, Luka Doncic.
“What I learned my first year in Dallas was to give J-Kidd the ball and get out of the way, let him run the show, let him run the team,” Carlisle explained before the NBA Finals. “Tyrese, very similar situation, but it didn`t take half a season to figure it out. The situation in Dallas with Luka was the same.”
“It`s pretty clear, when you have a player of that kind of magnitude, that kind of presence, that kind of knowledge, vision and depth, you got to let them do what they do.”
This philosophy has paid off for the Pacers, who took a 2-1 NBA Finals lead over the Oklahoma City Thunder with a 116-107 victory on Wednesday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Haliburton and Carlisle have been the key figures behind the Pacers` offense, which is scoring 116.7 points per 100 possessions in the postseason. Their fast-paced style and resilience have powered an unexpected playoff run through the Eastern Conference.
At the heart of it all is a coach who has adapted over the years and willingly handed control to his point guard.
“When he gave me that nod, that was like the ultimate respect,” Haliburton said after practice Tuesday. “That was the ultimate trust that I could get from anybody, because he is such a brilliant basketball mind. He`s been around such great guards, great players. For him to give me that confidence, I think has really taken my career to another level.”
The empowering of Kidd, which followed initial disagreements between the coach and point guard, can be seen as a turning point in Carlisle`s career.
Carlisle had a reputation for being highly controlling when he first arrived in Dallas. He was known to clash with players in his earlier coaching stint in Indiana from 2003 to 2007, when he coached players like Metta Sandiford-Artest, Stephen Jackson, and Jamaal Tinsley. That Pacers team won 61 games and reached the Eastern Conference finals in 2003-04, but they played a very structured style with Carlisle calling plays on almost every possession.
When Carlisle came to Dallas a few years later, he initially tried the same approach, even with the 35-year-old Kidd, a nine-time All-Star. It didn`t go smoothly.
“It wasn`t easy for [Carlisle] to let it go,” former NBA guard J.J. Barea, who played with the Mavs, told ESPN. “To be more free about it. But he knew for us to win he had to let it go. J-Kidd and him went to battle, but it worked out at the end.”
Kidd stressed the importance of a more free-flowing offense, arguing that a smart point guard controlling the game`s pace would create better rhythm than a coach directing every play from the sideline. Carlisle resisted for over half the season. It wasn`t until midway through the 2010-11 season, his third year coaching Kidd, that Carlisle truly gave his point guard full control. The Mavericks won the championship that season.
Carlisle didn`t wait nearly as long to give Doncic the offensive keys. That happened when Doncic was a teenager during his Rookie of the Year campaign in the 2018-19 season.
While the personal relationship between Carlisle and Doncic was often challenging, the coach-point guard partnership produced outstanding offensive results. In Doncic`s second season, the Mavericks set an NBA record for offensive efficiency, averaging 115.9 points per 100 possessions.
Carlisle designed an offensive system that suited Doncic, one significantly different from the system Kidd operated. Carlisle`s Mavericks played a heliocentric style with Doncic dominating the ball, emphasizing spacing with catch-and-shoot players as he repeatedly ran pick-and-rolls.
The Pacers, in contrast, are succeeding with Haliburton running a system fueled by fast play and off-ball movement.
“One thing you can say about Rick is he coaches his talent,” Haralabos Voulgaris, the Mavs director of quantitative research and development from 2018 to 2021, told ESPN. “His system is whatever maximizes the talent that he has. He understands that the game is changing and he has to always keep on changing and learning and adapting and growing.”
“It`s not many older coaches that have had that mentality, especially ones that had success when they were younger.”
Carlisle`s history with point guards hasn`t always been perfect. He clashed with Rajon Rondo a few years after Doncic`s rookie season. Rondo preferred a more deliberate pace, while Carlisle pushed for playing faster. This difficult relationship led to Rondo`s tenure in Dallas lasting just 46 games.
“It wasn`t a good fit for either of them,” Barea commented.
Carlisle was not a fan of the Mavericks` trade for Rondo, agreeing only because Dirk Nowitzki wanted it, and he didn`t view Rondo as a talent deserving of offensive control. He had no such reservations about Doncic – or Haliburton.
“When I see Haliburton playing for Rick, he`s free, man,” Barea said. “He looks so free out there. He looks like he`s enjoying the game. He`s playing at a great pace and with confidence. I think Rick got Haliburton`s confidence to be as high as it could be.”
The tension in Carlisle`s relationship with Doncic, which began early in Doncic`s rookie year, was a factor in the winningest coach in franchise history eventually resigning from the Mavericks job after the 2020-21 season. Carlisle and Haliburton, however, share a harmonious bond, one the veteran coach has actively nurtured.
“One of the things that`s nice to see is that [Carlisle] has a good relationship with the star players or all the players on his team, it seems like,” Voulgaris told ESPN. “Whereas in Dallas, that was probably not the case obviously. There`s some growth there.”
Meanwhile, the Pacers were searching for direction as a franchise when Carlisle left Dallas. They finished 34-38 in 2020-21 under coach Nate Bjorkgren. The opportunity to hire Carlisle for a second time came up, and they seized it. The team still lacked a clear identity, but the experienced coach had an idea of the ideal player to build an offense around.
Tyrese Haliburton could have been a Dallas Maverick.
The Mavericks had Haliburton ranked as the top player on their 2020 draft board, largely based on Voulgaris` analytics models. Sources told ESPN that the Mavericks offered their two selections, Nos. 18 and 31, along with occasional starter Jalen Brunson, to every team picking before No. 12, where Haliburton was eventually selected by the Sacramento Kings.
“We tried like hell to get him and move up, we just couldn`t do it,” Carlisle said before the Finals began. “When I tell you that Mark Cuban tried everything. When Mark puts his mind to something, he can usually figure something out.”
The Mavericks couldn`t find a trade partner, but Carlisle remained a fan of Haliburton`s game from afar as his career began.
Carlisle was hired by Indiana for the 2021-22 season, but his initial roster lacked the type of guard he felt he could rely on, causing him to fall back on his older coaching habits.
“Rick`s first year here, we had a game where he did that, he stopped us and called a play every single possession,” said Pacers center Myles Turner, the team`s longest-tenured player since 2015. “In the dawn of this new NBA, especially in the playoffs, that stuff doesn`t work.”
The Pacers were 19-37 on February 8, 2022, when they had the chance to acquire a player who could define their identity. The Sacramento Kings, having De`Aaron Fox, were looking to move one of their point guards and traded Haliburton to the Pacers for a package including Domantas Sabonis.
After the trade was finalized, Carlisle immediately began building a strong relationship with his new centerpiece. The night after the trade, he arranged dinner with Haliburton and the other acquired players, Buddy Hield and Tristan Thompson, at a steakhouse near Gainbridge Fieldhouse. For the remaining 26 games of that season, with the young Pacers team out of playoff contention, Carlisle allowed Haliburton ample opportunity to improvise and play freely.
“You saw so many glimpses of the creativity that Tyrese exhibits, the ability to make plays with just very basic structure,” Pacers general manager Chad Buchanan told ESPN in a phone interview. “He thrives in situations where there`s a little more freedom and a little less predictability.”
Going into training camp for the 2022-23 season, Carlisle informed Haliburton that he would no longer call plays. Carlisle was entrusting the offense to Haliburton, who was 22 years old at the time. He recalled seeing his young point guard`s eyes light up.
“I was surprised,” Haliburton remembered after practice. “Because I know what the conversation around coach [Carlisle] was, especially from point guards.”
Haliburton credits Carlisle with helping his career reach new heights.
It wasn`t just the offensive freedom that helped Haliburton make his first All-Star team the following season, averaging a double-double for the first time with a career-high 20.7 points and 10.4 assists in 2022-23. It was also the work off the court, such as teaching Haliburton how to analyze film effectively. Haliburton admitted that early in his career, he would mainly watch clips of his points, assists, or maybe missed shots. Now, he was learning to watch the entire game, looking for ways to improve his teammates.
“[Carlisle`s] just a basketball savant,” Haliburton said. “All that stuff is really important. Really took my career to another level.”
Haliburton points to those initial challenges during his early time in Indiana as factors that prepared him for success performing on the biggest stage of the NBA Playoffs. Crucially, the trust the organization showed in Haliburton significantly boosted his confidence on the court.
“They`re going to have some ups and downs,” Carlisle stated. “They`re going to make some mistakes. If they`re doing it consistent with how they`re seeing the game, the lessons learned will be more impactful.”
The lessons Carlisle learned earlier in his career have also paid off.
After a difficult start to his relationship with Doncic, Carlisle made a conscious effort to begin on the right foot immediately with his new superstar in Indiana.
“Everybody in our league from players to coaches and executives, we all evolve,” Buchanan said. “Rick has evolved just like we all have. He understands that Tyrese is one of those guys. He`s got a fun-loving, joyful personality that rubs off on everybody.”
“Tyrese is the kind of guy who you can build a culture around.”
It has worked in Indiana. The Pacers are back in the Finals for the first time in 25 years, following an Eastern Conference finals appearance last season. This represents one of the most successful two-year periods in team history. At its core are Carlisle and Haliburton, two basketball minds with mutual respect, thriving together to create playoff magic.
As Voulgaris put it: “Rick, at this stage of his career in particular, and Haliburton, just seem to be a perfect marriage.”
