Rick Carlisle paid tribute to Tyrese Haliburton after the Indiana Pacers talisman suffered a serious injury early on in Sunday’s NBA Finals defeat to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Haliburton went down in the first quarter of Game 7, which the Thunder ultimately won 103-91 on the back of a superb performance from the NBA MVP

It was a cruel blow for the Pacers, the postseason’s surprise package, with Haliburton having been crucial to their run through the playoffs.

The Pacers confirmed Haliburton, who had made three 3-pointers before his injury, had suffered a lower leg issue. His father, John Haliburton, told ABC/ESPN that it was an Achilles problem.

“What happened with Tyrese – just all of our hearts dropped,” said Pacers coach Carlisle.

“But he will be back. I don’t have any medical information about what may or may not have happened, but he’ll be back, in time. I believe he’ll make a full recovery.

“He authored one of the great individual playoff runs in the history of the NBA, with dramatic play after dramatic play, which is someone no one has ever seen, and he did it as one of 17 [players].

“That’s the beautiful thing about him, as great a player as he is, it’s always a team thing. Our hearts go out to him.

“I have no idea about a diagnosis. He was in the locker room – he was very much part of a group that believed they could do this.”

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the @okcthunder is the first player in NBA history to:

win the scoring title
win MVP
win Finals MVP
win multiple Game 7s

...all in the same season. pic.twitter.com/ZjxyDfYAiV

— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) June 23, 2025

The Pacers – who were hunting their first NBA championship – led by one point heading into halftime, but Carlisle conceded that the Thunder got the better of Indiana in the third quarter.

He was nevertheless thrilled with the heart and desire shown by his team as they fought until the bitter end.

“We needed to come out of the locker room and be better in the first five minutes of the third quarter – we just weren’t out,” he said.

“They made some great plays, we got off to a slow start and that quarter was the killer.

“The fourth quarter, the effort our guys poured into the quarter to win it by one point, was epic, and symbolic of what this team stands for, what basketball in Indiana stands for and there was no surrender. It was all defiant fight, until the end.

“I told these guys coming into this, there’s no feel-good scenario when you get to the Finals and aren’t able to get it done. On the other hand, this team has given the whole Pacer nation something to be proud of.”