Indiana Pacers: Tyrese Haliburton Gets Painfully Honest on Officiating Controversy in Game 2 Loss Vs. Knicks

For his part, Haliburton has decided to take a high-road approach. Instead of rueing missed calls and judgment errors by game officials, the 24-year-old instead focused on the things that he and his team can actually control:

“That’s not my job,” he said. “At the end of the day we got outplayed. We were right there to win the game. Would I like more consistency? Yeah. But let’s not pretend that’s the only reason we lost. We didn’t play good enough.”

That’s a painfully honest take from Haliburton. While he acknowledged the notion that the refs could do a better job, he has also made it abundantly clear that it’s the team who’s to blame for Wednesday’s deflating 130-121 loss.

Pacers Coach Calls Out Referees

Indiana head coach Rick Carlisle, however, was not as gracious as his star player. The veteran shot-caller could not help but call out the game officials as he pleaded for a more level playing ground:

You can be sure that Carlisle’s comments here will have some sort of impact on how the rest of the series is officiated. Whether this will favor the Pacers or not, however, is an altogether different matter.