Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton (0) drives to the hoop past New York Knicks forward Mikal Bridges (25) during the fourth quarter of Game 4. Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images

Three takeaways from Knicks-Pacers Game 4: Tyrese Haliburton makes history in win

By Andrew Wright | Last updated May 28, 2025 8:01 AM ET

Game 4 of the New York Knicks-Indiana Pacers series has wrapped up, and it finished with the lower-seeded team taking a convincing 3-1 series lead.

Here are three takeaways from Indiana's 130-121 win over New York.

Tyrese Haliburton stole the show ... again

With his dad in attendance for Game 4, Haliburton made history with an outstanding performance.

He finished with 32 points, 12 rebounds, 15 assists and zero turnovers. He is the first player in playoff history to finish with 30/10/15 and no turnovers.

The league's "most overrated player" is stepping up on the brightest stage and is headed toward taking the Pacers to the NBA Finals.

Tyrese Haliburton is the first player in NBA history to drop 30/15/10 with 0 turnovers in a playoff game.

THE DIFFERENCE. pic.twitter.com/lqRJu2c9iO
— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) May 28, 2025

Tom Thibodeau should go back to 40+ starter minutes

The Knicks head coach has caught a lot of slack about playing his starters for extended minutes, but it now appears that has been the best way to do things.

The only starter to log 40-plus minutes was OG Anunoby, not Jalen Brunson or Karl-Anthony Towns (37 minutes each).

With New York now facing a 3-1 deficit, it appears that Thibodeau will have to revert to playing each starter over 40 minutes in each game for the remainder of the series.

Indiana's bench scoring was outstanding

The Pacers dominated the bench scoring, as they outscored the Knicks bench 36-21.

Twenty of those 36 bench points were scored by Benedict Mathurin, his highest point total since he scored 23 in Game 3 of the second round against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

With another night of excellent bench scoring on Thursday, Indiana will be headed to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2000.

Bennedict Mathurin gets the and-1 pic.twitter.com/OecVIwudM5
— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) May 28, 2025

Andrew Wright

Andrew "Dew" Wright graduated from Charleston Southern University with a degree in Communication Studies. He is a lifelong Chicago Cubs and Washington Commanders fan.

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