Last week Tyrese Haliburton was Player of the Week. He's pushing for even more.
Haliburton had 15 assists — and zero turnovers — in Indiana's win over the Brooklyn Nets, 128-117. It's his fourth straight game with 14 or more assists and his eighth double-digit assist game in the last nine contests. Haliburton is leading the NBA in assists by a wide margin over second-place Trae Young (11.1 per game to 9.1).
What sets Haliburton apart is both the volume and the quality of his assists. He's also ahead in assist points created, a stat that tracks exactly how many points a player's passes lead to. Haliburton is creating 29.6 points per game with assists, along with his 19.9 points per game as a scorer. The reason it's so high is that Haliburton has a knack for getting his teammates good looks from three-point range. Indiana has gone from 16th in the league in three-pointers to third, and a big part of that is Haliburton's court vision.
Tyrese Haliburton has 57 AST (only 13 tov) in his last 4 games.
— Lucas Burns (@nba_indepth) November 26, 2022
the aerial assists are just a Hali staple at this point – i’m also enjoying the live dribble dimes with the left
some of his best finds during this stretch pic.twitter.com/BLrJbu0AKE
He's not simply putting up empty stats, either. Haliburton's Pacers are 11-7 and fourth in the Eastern Conference. Many assumed they'd be tanking this season after trading away Malcolm Brogdon this summer. He wasn't the only veteran they jettisoned in 2022, dealing Caris Levert to Cleveland and All-Star Domantas Sabonis to Sacramento in the trade that brought them Haliburton. Now the Pacers are competing despite eight of their nine highest minutes-per-game players are 26 or younger, with 30-year-old Buddy Hield as the old man of the team.
If his prolific dishing continues, Haliburton is on pace to become only the second Pacer to make the All-Star team before his 23rd birthday, after Paul George. And Indiana may have turned their rebuilding effort into a one-year reload.
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