Tyrese Haliburton is the engine that makes the Pacers go.
In their second-round matchup, Donte DiVincenzo is the Knick tasked with shutting that motor off — or at least slowing it down.
“It’s gonna be huge,” Josh Hart said of DiVincenzo’s assignment on Haliburton. “So obviously Donte’s gonna have to be — his defense and being solid is going to be huge for us.”
No matchup will be more important for the Knicks than defending Haliburton.
“When Tyrese picks up the pace, he’s an engine unto himself,” Hart said.
Donte DiVincenzo will be tasked with guarding Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton. Robert Sabo for NY Post Indiana plays at a breakneck pace and leads the league in scoring, powered by Haliburton.
The point guard — a surprise addition to the injury report as questionable with lower back spasms, though expected to play — averaged 20.1 points and 10.9 assists in an All-Star campaign this season.
“[Haliburton] is a heck of a player,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “He’s an offense unto himself. And he can play obviously with the ball, but he plays off the ball extremely well, also.”
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The Pacers won the season series over the Knicks behind Haliburton’s 19.7 points and 13.3 assists. DiVincenzo will almost assuredly get the start guarding him as the Knicks aim to turn the tables in the series that really matters.
DiVincenzo was on Haliburton for 67 partial possessions over 13:13 in those matchups in the regular season. The Pacers guard handed out 11 assists and shot 8-for-13 against DiVincenzo as the primary defender, but was just 1-for-6 from deep.
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“It’s not about taking away things from him: It’s collectively outscoring them and limiting what they want to do,” DiVincenzo said. “You’re not going to take [him] away. He’s an All-Star for a reason. … You’re not going to go into a matchup and just say all right we’re going to take away X, Y, Z and you’re just going to take it away. They’re too good to do that. You just try to slow them down.”
Before DiVincenzo started breaking team records for 3-point shooting, he was seen as a tough perimeter defender. That part of his game got lost in the sniper narrative. After struggling early in the first-round series against the Sixers, he got the call on Tyrese Maxey in Game 6 and reminded everyone what he was capable of.
Maxey came into Game 6 averaging 32.4 points on 50 percent shooting and 42.9 percent from deep in the series, but DiVincenzo helped frustrate him to just 17 points on 6-for-18 from the floor and 1-for-6 from behind the arc in the closeout win.
Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Con “I was very locked in for that game, honestly. The series initially wasn’t going personally my way; but also it was that internal conversation of getting myself going guarding Tyrese and getting back to who I am,” said DiVincenzo, who’ll face a new, different challenge.
“It’s collectively what [Haliburton] wants to get to, and what do we want to take away? What do we want to live with throughout the series, and it’s gonna be a back-and-forth battle of that. … It’s competing. No matter what Tyrese likes to get to, if you compete hard enough on the ball, it takes some of that stuff away.”
