CLEVELAND — Tyrese Haliburton hardly resembled the player whose peers have deemed him overrated.
The dynamic Indiana point guard scored 22 points — including a go-ahead 3-pointer midway through the fourth quarter — had 13 assists and made crucial defensive plays that propelled the Pacers to a 121-112 victory over the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday night in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
“We’re definitely the heavy underdog, but we’re trying to control what we can,” said Haliburton, who was voted the NBA’s most overrated player in a recent anonymous player survey by The Athletic. “It gives us a lot of momentum for sure, but this is the best team in our conference. They don’t lose much.”
About the only thing Haliburton didn’t do well was shoot 3-pointers. On a night when the fourth-seeded Pacers were 19 of 36 from beyond the arc, Haliburton was 2 of 6. But the second one ended up being decisive.
The Cavs went ahead 102-101 on a free throw by Max Strus before Haliburton’s 3 ignited a 15-4 run.
Andrew Nembhard scored 23 points and made two of his five 3-pointers during the four-minute stretch when the Pacers pulled away.
“We had an exceptionally good shot-making night, but the key word is aggression. We’ve got to be in attack mode to beat this team,” Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said.
All five Indiana starters scored in double figures. Aaron Nesmith and Pascal Siakam had 17 points apiece.
Haliburton’s standout defensive plays included blocking a 3-point attempt by Strus with 2:12 left and converting it into a layup for a 10-point lead. His assists led to 34 points, including eight 3-pointers.
Donovan Mitchell led Cleveland with 33 points and broke Michael Jordan’s NBA playoff record with his eighth straight game of at least 30 points in a series opener.
Evan Mobley added 20 points and 10 rebounds for the Cavaliers, who were without point guard Darius Garland for the third straight playoff game due to a sprained left big toe.
Besides struggling with Indiana’s pace, Cleveland was done in by poor 3-point shooting. The Cavs were second in the NBA during the regular season with 15.9 3s per game, but went 9 of 38. The 23.7% rate was their second-worst of the season.
“We missed a lot of good looks, and then when you miss shots, that’s when they get going in transition,” said Mitchell, who was 1 of 11 on 3-pointers. “The biggest thing is, when the shots aren’t falling, how do you respond? But when a team like this runs like that, it makes it tough.”
Cleveland rarely trailed in its first-round sweep of the Miami Heat that included a 55-point victory in Game 4.
Coach Kenny Atkinson was worried about Indiana’s pace coming into the series. He’s hoping his team can find ways to control the flow during Game 2 on Tuesday night.
“I don’t feel like we had the rhythm of the game. We have to move forward,” Atkinson said. “The positive is we got accustomed to how they were playing. We’ll figure out the 3-point shooting.”
Indiana had a 12-point lead in the third quarter before Cleveland rallied. The Cavs grabbed the lead in the fourth, but couldn’t hang on and close it out.
“I thought we did a good job when that ‘Cavalanche’ was on the way. We did a great job of weathering that,” Haliburton said.
