NBA Notes: Pacers, Tyrese Haliburton, Celtics, Mavericks

“It’s fine,” he said, via Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files. “It’s fine. Obviously a little sore. They said they were going to ramp up the physicality. They did. We’re not crying. It’s just playoff basketball.”

Indiana leads the series, 2-0, with Games 3 and 4 at home, starting with Game 3 on Friday (7:30 p.m. EST).

Per Ricardo Klein of ESPN: “Haliburton appeared to injure his left wrist after jamming it at about 8:26 in the second quarter when he was hit hard on a box out on defense. After that possession, he was seen holding his left hand and speaking with the team trainer on the sidelines once the game stopped for free throws.

“After the game, he was asked about his wrist, but no update was offered, and no X-ray results were mentioned.”

Haliburton scored 19 points in Game 2, shooting 7-of-11 from the field, including the 3-pointer that won it at the buzzer.

Celtics

Coach Joe Mazzulla said the Celtics are in an 0-2 hole for a number of reasons, indicating it’s not any one big thing.

“I think any time you blow two 20-point leads you can always go to a bunch of things as to why that happens within a game,” Mazzulla said, via Jay King of The Athletic. “I think there are so many factors that go into it and each game was different. I thought in (Game 2), you start the second quarter, to me you can even take it a step further. To me, the bonus foul we had when it was 46-30 is just as impactful as getting it from 16 (points) to nine ending the first half.

“But then again, we got it to 20 (later) but just those types of plays are what give teams life, whether it’s malicious from the standpoint of, you know, did we have good intentions and not execute or did we have poor intentions. And I think more along the lines of Game 2 we had good intentions, we just didn’t execute.”

Mazzulla also cited some untimely turnovers. Not that any are ever really timely.

“You go up 20 and we have a transition turnover, we have a tip dunk that we don’t get and then we miss two open looks,” he said. “So we just have to be better at executing in those situations when we’re in that moment and having an understanding that we’re playing against a great team and they’re obviously going to make their runs. We need to manage those with proper execution, proper situational defense throughout the entire game.”

Mavericks

• The Mavericks are expected to largely retain their core but face key offseason decisions, including navigating a tight payroll situation while potentially pursuing a point guard to fill in during Kyrie Irving’s absence, wrote Yossi Gozlan of Third Apron.
• In case you missed it, the Mavs are overhauling their health and performance staff for the third straight offseason, with general manager Nico Harrison dismissing head athletic trainer Dionne Calhoun and athletic performance director Keith Belton, among others, as ESPN reported.