Tyrese Haliburton is quickly etching himself into the lore of the Knicks and Pacers rivalry, and added to that during Game 7.
The Pacers point guard finished the first half with a game-high 16 points and was jawing with the fans courtside at Madison Square Garden.
The ESPN cameras caught Haliburton yelling and pointing at the fans as he walked towards the Pacers’ bench after the Knicks called a timeout with 2:03 left in the first quarter and the Pacers leading 34-22.
“You like that s–t,” he appeared to say to the fans.
The back-and-forth between Haliburton and the fans had a throwback vibe to the days when Reggie Miller was public enemy No. 1 at Madison Square Garden.
Haliburton was seen talking trash to a fan after he hit a 3-pointer and was walking back up the court with 3:57 left in the first quarter.
The same fans could be seen trying to talk trash after several other shots that dropped from Haliburton and it eventually led to the moment after the Knicks called a timeout.
With a minute left on the clock, Haliburton hit another trey for his 14th point of the quarter and he could be seen pointing once again to the fans.
All of this comes with the Knicks and Pacers season on the line with the winner of Game 7 advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals while the other’s season will come to an end.
Sunday’s do-or-die game had already had a chippy tone to it after the benches cleared moments earlier.
Donte DiVincenzo shoved Pascal Siakam out of the lane after he was standing in the way as DiVincenzo was trying to line up for a shot from the charity stripe.
Isaiah Hartenstein then got into Siakam’s face in defense of his teammate and other players started to get involved to the point where both benches had found themselves on the court.
