‘It means a lot to be back out here’: Tyrese Haliburton tears up after starring late in Pacers’ win over Pelicans

The moment that Tyrese Haliburton had spent the last 16 months waiting for came on Wednesday night, with his Indiana Pacers coming down to the wire on the road against the New Orleans Pelicans in their first game of the 2026-27 NBA season.

And after everything he’d gone through to get back here — the surgery to repair his ruptured Achilles tendon, the grueling rehab complicated by a nasty case of shingles, day after day of waiting and straining and striving after being laid low just as he reached for the brass ring — Haliburton damn sure wasn’t going to let it pass him by.

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With the score knotted at 118 and a minute and a half remaining in regulation in New Orleans, Haliburton brought the ball into the frontcourt, took a ball screen from teammate Pascal Siakam, and stared down Pelicans forward Zion Williamson high above the 3-point arc. He crouched, lingered, tensed. He sold Williamson on a right-hand in-and-out dribble before hesitating and crossing back to his left, pushing off that surgically repaired right leg as he created enough space to drive to the middle of the floor.

Haliburton got his shoulders even with the recovering Williamson, absorbed the contact in the lane and leaned left, lofting a floater with his off-hand. It rattled home. The bucket, plus the foul, and as he sat up on the deck at the Smoothie King Center, the All-NBA point guard roared, letting 486 days’ worth of pent-up emotion and frustration out for all to see.

The and-one free-throw gave the Pacers a three-point lead with 1:23 to go. The Pelicans would have two chances to tie the game and force overtime — a top-of-the-key 3-pointer by second-year guard Jeremiah Fears, and a left-corner try by Williamson after an offensive rebound — but neither found the bottom of the net, allowing Indiana to finish off a 123-120 win.

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After missing seven of his first 11 field-goal attempts through three quarters, Haliburton came alive in the fourth, scoring 13 points on perfect 4-for-4 shooting in the final frame to help the Pacers come back in a game the Pelicans had largely controlled in the previous two quarters. Time…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/it-means-a-lot-to-be-back-out-here-tyrese-haliburton-tears-up-after-starring-late-in-pacers-win-over-pelicans-035653732.html

Author : Dan Devine

Publish date : 2026-10-22 03:54:00

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