{"id":924821,"date":"2026-10-08T03:46:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T03:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/924821\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T03:46:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T03:46:22","slug":"indiana-pacers-tyrese-haliburton-scoresseven-points-in-first-nba-game-action-in-more-than-16-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/924821\/","title":{"rendered":"Indiana Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton scoresseven points in first NBA game action in more than 16 months"},"content":{"rendered":"

AMES, Iowa — Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton<\/a> said he felt like he was playing too fast during Indiana\u2019s 123-112 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a> in their preseason opener at Iowa State on Wednesday night, Haliburton\u2019s first game in more than 16 months.<\/p>\n

He scored seven points on 3 of 8 shooting with six assists, one steal and two blocks during his 16 minutes of action.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the first game, but it\u2019s got to slow down,\u201d Haliburton said Wednesday night. \u201cThere was just a lot of adrenaline. I was hyped to be out there, excited, but I just got to slow down a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haliburton compared himself to a rookie after the game, but he took solace in the fact that although his body was moving too fast, he felt like he could read the floor at his usual speed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll happen with time,\u201d he said. \u201cThe only way to really replicate that is game reps against other guys. And that\u2019s what that was. So really excited about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a ton of improvement that there is to be made on my end and on our team\u2019s end, but just excited to be back on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n

It had been more than 400 days since Haliburton\u2019s last NBA game, when he tore his Achilles during Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals. He struggled to sleep last night, but he said that had more to do with the anticipation of playing his first game back at Iowa State, where he played for two years in college from 2018-20.<\/p>\n

The Pacers had initially scheduled this game for the 2025 preseason, but with Haliburton sidelined last season, the game got pushed back one year.<\/p>\n

Haliburton wanted to replicate a college atmosphere on Wednesday night, so he bought out the student section at both ends of the arena, so seats were available to students on a first come, first serve basis, prompting a line that wrapped around the block of the arena hours before tip-off. The fans at the front of the line said they began lining up at 11 p.m. the night prior.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the loudest preseason game I\u2019ve ever been a part of,\u201d Haliburton said. \u201cBut had a lot of fun, a lot of special memories I\u2019ve made here and that just adds to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haliburton played all of his 16 minutes during the first half, but fans inside Hilton Coliseum wanted more of the Pacers\u2019 star.<\/p>\n

With Haliburton sitting on the bench during the fourth quarter, fans began to chant \u201cWe want Hali.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haliburton responded by pointing to his feet. His basketball shoes had been left in the locker room and was wearing white sandals and socks, a signal that he was done for the night.<\/p>\n

\u201cPut your shoes on,\u201d the next chant began. Haliburton laughed after the game and said he wasn\u2019t tempted.<\/p>\n

\u201cHell no,\u201d Haliburton said after the game with a laugh. \u201cI appreciate that the students wanted that as they should, but we have a process.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AMES, Iowa — Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton said he felt like he was playing too fast during Indiana\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":924822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,98724,459,82,317997],"class_list":["post-924821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-indiana-pacers-sports-basketball-team-team-statscom-11","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-tyrese-haliburton-sports-basketball-player-player-statscom-1132825"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=924821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/924822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=924821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=924821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=924821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}