"Just all of our hearts dropped" - Rick Carlisle on the moment Tyrese Haliburton went down in Game 7

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"Just all of our hearts dropped" - Rick Carlisle on the moment Tyrese Haliburton went down in Game 7 originally appeared on Basketball Network.
Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton started Game 7 like he would have one of those special nights. Playing with a calf strain since the fifth game of the series, Haliburton knocked down three out of his first four three-point shots as the Pacers stood toe-to-toe with the mighty Oklahoma City Thunder team playing on their home floor.
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Midway through the first quarter, with the score tied 16-16, Haliburton went down with a leg injury, and many fear it is an Achilles tear. Without their floor general the rest of the way, the Pacers gave it their all. But after Indiana took a 48-47 lead at the half, Oklahoma City ran over them in the third quarter. It went on to win the game and clinch their first championship.
After the game, Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle talked about losing Haliburton in the first quarter of Game 7.
"What happened with Tyrese was…just all of our hearts dropped. But he will be back. I don't have any medical information about what happened, but he will be back in time," said Carlisle.
An incredible postseason by Haliburton
While Pascal Siakam led the Pacers in scoring and won Eastern Conference Finals honors, there was no question that Haliburton was the motor that ran the Indiana offense. Sure, he had bad games in the Finals, but in the must-win Game 6, Haliburton inspired his teammates with a 14-point, 23-minute performance.
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Haliburton also won the Pacers Game 1 with his game-winning jumper with 0.3 seconds left in the game. That was Hali's fourth game-winner in the current postseason; he's had one in each series they played. Playing for all the marbles in Game 7, it seemed like he had one final act left. Unfortunately, it ended in injury.
"He authored one of the great individual playoff runs in the history of the NBA, with dramatic play after dramatic play. It was just something that no one's ever seen and did it as one of 17. That's the beautiful thing about him. As great a player as he is, it's always a team thing. And so our hearts go out to him. But so proud of everyone," added Carlisle.
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Obi was thinking about the injury the whole game
But while Carlisle refused to blame the Pacers' Game 7 loss on Hali's injury, forward Obi Toppin admitted that the team needed their best player in the year's most important game. He also said that Haliburton's injury threw him off his game.
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"We needed Ty out there and he's been good for us all year. And for him to go down at the beginning of a game like that, it sucked the soul out of us. I ain't going to say out of everybody. But I don't feel that I played well because I was thinking about it the whole day, and I felt like it was my fault," he said.
Toppin, who averaged 11.0 points per game in the series and scored 20 in Game 6, took just four shots and grabbed only two rebounds, both series lows, while going scoreless in 21 minutes of action.
While he only spoke for himself, it wouldn't be surprising if the team members felt the same way. Indiana shot an abysmal 31.4 percent from the floor in Game 7, with only T.J. McConnell shooting over 50 percent from the floor.
Indy can be proud of the fight they put in in the series and Game 7. However, injuries are part of the game, but the timing of Haliburton's was brutal — both for him and the Pacers. After a postseason run filled with game-winners, inspiring performances, and leadership that elevated the entire locker room, it ended not with a bang, but with silence on the floor and concern in every teammate's eyes.
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Related: Dwyane Wade shares why he became a big Tyrese Haliburton fan: "It's time to go to that next level in the series"
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jun 23, 2025, where it first appeared.