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So sure, he thought, this chant would follow him on the road in Milwaukee -- a team Indiana has played 19 times over the past two seasons, including twice in the playoffs, which has led to some heated exchanges -- or, perhaps, New York -- after he antagonized the Knicks during last year''s playoffs. But Cleveland?
"I didn''t know we had beef," Haliburton said after the game.
Just two quarters later, Haliburton made the crowd regret the taunt -- and question its veracity.
Indiana had stormed back from a 20-point first-half deficit and erased a seven-point one in the final 50 seconds.
Trailing by two points late in the fourth quarter, Haliburton collected a rebound on his own missed free throw just outside the restricted area (in what the NBA would later acknowledge was a missed lane violation) and turned backward. Splitting a Ty Jerome-Donovan Mitchell double-team, he stumbled back toward the top of the key.
Jerome followed him, with Sam Merrill and Jarrett Allen lurking on Haliburton''s left and Max Strus on his right. He faked right, then crossed over left, momentarily disabling Jerome in front of him.
He stepped back and launched a 25-footer that rattled in with just 1.1 seconds remaining.
The crowd, stunned in disbelief, watched Haliburton skip around at midcourt with his hands cupped below his waist -- the reference was clear.
"Tyrese, he searches it out, in a sense, because it gets him going," Turner said. "There''s certain competitors I''ve seen in this league like that."
It was the second time this postseason Haliburton had shocked his opponent after an overtime winner in Game 5 of the Pacers'' first-round series against the Bucks. He beat two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo off the dribble for a layup to seal the series win in the final seconds.
The Pacers have now won three games this postseason despite trailing by seven or more points in the final minute. Only one other team in the play-by-play era (since 1998) has won even one such game -- the 2014 Thunder.
Only Haliburton and LeBron James (2018) have recorded multiple go-ahead field goals in the final two seconds in a single postseason in the play-by-play era.
"OVERRATE THAT," Haliburton tweeted after the first round and reiterated at the podium after his winner in Cleveland.
James himself added his take on X, stating "Where the lames who said he was overrated??!!" as well as other praise after the big shot.
"We expect Ty to make those shots," Mathurin said in the locker room after Game 2.
ON THE NIGHT Haliburton was traded from Sacramento to Indiana before the trade deadline in February 2022, he went to dinner with Pacers coach Rick Carlisle.
It was there that the veteran coach relayed his plans for his new guard -- how Indiana wanted to give Haliburton the ball with the freedom to run the offense on the floor. Carlisle asked him how comfortable he was making playcalls and remembers seeing Haliburton''s eyes light up.
"He was really enthusiastic about that," Carlisle said Thursday. "We had a couple of years where we were building and he had the opportunity to get in some of those situations, have success, go through some ups and downs and things like that."