In Orson Scott Card's sci-fi novel Ender's Game, much of the action centers around the "Battle Room", a zero-gravity arena where teams of military recruits duel head-to-head in mock space battles. To win, a team must either eliminate every member of the opposing side using blaster fire, or successfully pass through the gate on their opponent's side of the field. Through the events of the story, the novel's titular character ends up as a commander of his own 40-man team at an absurdly early point in his career.
Not only is he remarkably young and tested, but his team, or 'army' in the parlance of the book, is primarily composed of either brand new or under-performing recruits that he has never worked with before. And yet, the newly-formed 'Dragon Army' goes undefeated, changing the way many other commanders strategize. A popular example of this is how he changes Dragon Army's perspective early on of how the Battle Room is structured: while every other army had a horizontal view of the arena, Ender's took advantage of the zero-gravity environment provided to visualize instead that they were battling from the high ground.
And to briefly switch sci-fi franchises: as any Star Wars fan knows, it's impossible to lose from the high ground. Thus, Dragon Army's mantra for the rest of the arc was born: 'The enemy's gate is down'.
And if you look a little closer, that has everything to do with the success of the Indiana Pacers.
It comes to no surprise that regardless of how the Finals turn out, Tyrese Haliburton is already the biggest winner of the 2025 Playoffs, particularly if you're looking just towards the Eastern Conference. In just one postseason run, Hali has vaulted himself to not just Indy's brightest star since Reggie Miller, but to be one of, if not the, greatest clutch performers of all time.
And yet there are those who don't see it -- and who have decent argument(s) as to why Indiana's golden child is yet to reach true superstar status.
In short, the dude doesn't score. In fact, his 18.6 points per game average is the lowest it's been in three seasons, as are his 9.2 assists per game. And in these playoffs, it hasn't gone unnoticed. For better or for worse, Haliburton's heroics have put him at the center of any hot seat propped up in the wake of Indiana's stumbling short of a title. After Game 2 of the 2025 Finals, Shakeia Taylor of The Athletic made the astute point that Haliburton's 17 points were largely meaningless. 5 points and a 4:3 AST/TO going into the fourth isn't the follow-up anyone wants after hitting a buzzer beating game-winner just a game prior. And disappearing is the worst thing that a superstar can do.
Tyrese Haliburton works differently
The past 15 years have fundamentally changed how most, if not all, NBA fans see the point guard position. From Derrick Rose's MVP campaign onward (notice how Kyrie and John Wall entered the league around that point as well), the stereotype of a high-scoring team leader has leaked into the point guard position. And for them, a performance like Tyrese's in Game 2 would, and should, be alarming.
But Tyrese Haliburton, and his Pacers, don't operate like most modern point guards or teams, respectively. Instead, the more apt comparison for Tyrese is if you took a taller, more efficient Trae Young, or a more athletic and aggressive Steve Nash, and put him on the 2015 Hawks. You know, the team who didn't have a single player average more than 17 points per game, and yet became just the sixth ever to trot out four All-Stars in a single season. And if not for the greatest basketball player of all time, they likely would've been on the receiving end of 2015 Steph Curry's buzzsaw.
All this to say, Tyrese's game, and the Pacers', doesn't work the way that you want most superstars and Finals teams to. Don't misunderstand me: he is Indiana's face, engine, and floor general. But Tyrese's leadership isn't as a one-stop hub for scoring, and his generation of points happens through many unexpected fronts. He's scored under 15 points at least twice in every single series up through the Finals! But most casual fans probably forgot that. They also have likely forgotten Pascal Siakam is actually Indy's leading scorer, and honestly, that he was on the Pacers in the first place.
My point in bringing up Ender's Game is this: to think of Tyrese Haliburton's game like you would any other superstar's is wrong, and a mistake most teams have made. Because while he has basically trademarked the clutch shot, Indiana's strength lies in their multiple ways to kill any team on any night. Andrew Nembhard is the one who keyed Indiana's iconic Game 1 comeback against New York, and he was the team's 7th-leading scorer going into the postseason! Indiana's roster doesn't just go 10 deep: they go 8 deep on high-end starters, and most times, prefer to not know what they themselves are going to do from possession to possession.
USA Today featured a quote given by Tyrese Haliburton to Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star that puts their offense best: "organized chaos". In an NBA ruled by iso and pick-and-roll motion initiated by its biggest stars, the Indiana Pacers feature instead a constantly-shifting mass of ball movement with minimized dribbling, mostly akin to the 2014 Spurs and their 'beautiful game'. They supplemented their 3rd all-time offensive rating from 2024 with a little more emphasis on defense, and became more dangerous in transition, with brutal movement to punish opponents' mistakes (pour one out for the Knicks).
The Pacers aren't playing basketball -- they're playing soccer, for better or for worse. And Rick Carlisle is Ender Wiggin, the mad genius with an eye for underrated, humble greatness. And if Tyrese Haliburton went full iso scorer like most of the media is begging him to, he'd be destroying what makes the Pacers so different, and so great. As to how far this philosophy can get them, who's to say. But team basketball has gotten to the top of the mountain before -- it just doesn't sell as many jerseys.
The Pacers aren't your typical basketball team, and Tyrese Haliburton isn't your typical superstar. They are Dragon Army, and the enemy's gate is down.