Indiana Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle spoke about the constant progress that Tyrese Haliburton has made since returning from left hamstring injury management after Friday’s 123-111 road win vs. the Golden State Warriors (26 points/2 rebounds/11 assists/4 steals/3 blocks/9-18 FG/4-8 3-PT/4-5 FT/+25 +/-).
(via Indiana Pacers):
Reporter: “With Tyrese, obviously this is the guy that you got used to seeing your entire time in Indiana with him. You’ve seen everything in this league, so you know that a guy like that is going to get back to where he was. But how, if at all, did you try to have an impact on him during this stretch where he struggled? Whether it’s schematically, off the court talking to him? Overall, just how have you seen him try to navigate the tough stretch?”
Carlisle: “Well, there’s a lot of communication that goes on. The comeback from a hamstring is a climb, it’s a gradual climb. Even when you get back to where you’re completely pain and soreness free, you still don’t have your training camp conditioning base. So it’s taken a little while to build that back up, but he’s making constant progress. They may not be huge leaps, but he’s making progress. Big difference right now between how he’s moving and how he was moving two-and-a-half, three weeks ago. So, that’s the big thing. He’s a guy that has a brilliant mind for the game, is extremely resourceful. During a lot of this period, he’s been talking about ways to get other guys involved and to help the team as he’s trying to get back to where he needed to be. So, he’s getting close.”
Reporter: “He talked the other day about a lot of it being mental from a confidence standpoint and just the way he approaches the game, especially a guy like that where when he gets hot, nobody’s stopping him. How has he navigated that part? He hit a shot late tonight that could have sealed it, and it seemed like he was pretty frustrated with himself, even on a good night. Are you seeing the confidence go up and down a little bit?”
Carlisle: “It’s not a confidence thing, it’s a process thing. And for me, it was just a matter of time. In recent games, the ball’s been going in more. And so, as that happens, it’s going to energize a player. So you gotta ride that momentum, and we gotta make sure that his body is fresh. This has been a testament to the strength of his will as a player to go through all this, so it just raises my level of admiration for him both as a player and as a human being.”
