Tyrese Haliburton Admits He's 'Frustrated' After Brutal Finals Loss

Tyrese Haliburton was trying desperately to lead the Pacers to a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals tonight. While his team came brutally close to securing the win, they ultimately failed to pull it off and missed a major opportunity to take full control of the series. Following the final buzzer, Haliburton gave his candid reaction as he revealed his mindset for Game 5.

"It's frustrating, of course, you want to win that game, especially a game at home where you have the lead late," said Haliburton in the post-game press conference. "But that's just not how the cookie crumbled today. Take a shower, watch film, see where we can get better, and be ready to go for Game 5. I feel like myself, personally, I can be a lot better for us as a group. We just gotta get more shots down the stretch. A 17-point fourth quarter after that offensive success we had in the game, I think shows we have to do a better job of moving the ball, and that starts with me."

The Pacers had a rhythm early on in the game and rode a 40-point second quarter to take the lead at halftime. The Thunder kept it relatively close, but Indiana had a four-point lead with three minutes to go, and they've been the best clutch team in the entire postseason so far. Tonight, they just couldn't get it going when they needed to, and Haliburton knows that major adjustments must be made before Game 5.

"We have to be ready to go in Game 5. We're going into a hostile environment, and we gotta be ready to play. For us to win, we're gonna have to win one down there, so we gotta be ready to go. We have a couple of days to sit on this, watch film, see where we can get better, but I'm excited about the challenge."

The Thunder have been the best team in the West all year, and they were projected by many experts to make the Finals this year. While they are young and inexperienced, their collection of talent, youth, and depth at all positions has made them a formidable playoff threat. Meanwhile, the Pacers have been underdogs the entire way through, and everyone has been betting against them to win the title this year.

Against all odds, the Pacers made the Finals, but the Thunder are the favorites, and we saw why tonight. Even when things aren't going great, they have a guy in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander who can step up whenever his team needs a bucket, and he saved them countless times tonight.

The Pacers will have to find a way to contain SGA if they want to regain control of the series, but it's going to take more than just that to win two more games. It's going to require a smart game plan and nearly perfect execution to pull off a series win, but Hali still has faith that his team can get it done.

He's used to being counted out, and he'll use people's doubts over these next few days to fuel his response in Game 5. More motivated than ever before, Haliburton is likely to deliver another monster performance for his team on Monday, and they'll need everything they can get from him to escape with a win in hostile territory.