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INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton looked and sounded more like himself Monday night.
He made one 3-pointer after another, found open teammates with nifty passes and, yes, was smiling again. Celebrating a second-straight win certainly helped matters, too.
For the usually unflappable two-time All-Star, the bounce back game came as he finally started letting go of his pent-up frustration by speaking freely about what he’s learned over the first two months of this NBA season – and why he needs to stop blaming his early season struggles for Indiana’s slow start.
“Everybody wants to say be happy, have fun. That’s hard to do when you’re not playing well or you’re losing,” Haliburton said after the 114-110 victory over New Orleans. “But differentiating the difference between happiness and joy – I’ve always had a joy for the game of basketball and love and appreciation for what I do. So I think I just got caught in becoming frustrated with myself and this kind of creeped into like job territory, you know what I mean? That’s not me.”
Haliburton has displayed an unusual edginess since training camp began in late September.
On media day, he talked about disproving the critics who claimed last season’s run was more about luck than skill. He also found motivation in being deep on the bench during the U.S. Olympic basketball team’s gold-medal winning run.
He thought it could propel himself and his team to even greater successes.
Instead, a series of injuries have severely thinned the Pacers once-deep roster, Haliburton’s shots stopped falling, the losses piled up and suddenly the straight-talking guy who inspired so many with his beaming, trademark smile didn’t look or sound like himself.
Others noticed.
“I’ve got people sending me clips of how I’ve looked in the media and how I looked on the court and my body language sucks, my attitude sucks,” Haliburton said. “It’s hard to get out of what’s going on if you’re that way. I’ve been told my whole life to control what I can control and I can’t control if the ball goes in every time. But I can control my…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/pacers-tyrese-haliburton-tries-rediscover-005428806.html
Author : NBC Sports
Publish date : 2024-11-27 00:54:00
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