Could the Indiana Pacers, after entering the calendar year under .500, be the third seed in the Eastern Conference? Since January 1, the Pacers are 17-6 with the league’s seventh-best net rating, and they’re only 4.5 games behind the New York Knicks for the third seed.
Until January 1, star point guard Tyrese Haliburton was extremely inconsistent, shooting just 43.2% from the field and 34.5% from beyond the arc. But since then, he, too, has regained some of his All-Star form, averaging 19.5 points and 8.9 assists per game on blistering 51-45-86 shooting splits.
Indiana will hope to keep the good times rolling tonight when it travels to face the Miami Heat at 8 p.m. ET.
On DraftKings Sportsbook, the Pacers are four-point favorites and the total is set for 224. Below, I’ve highlighted my prop bet centered around Haliburton.
Best Tyrese Haliburton Prop Bet on DraftKings Sportsbook
Tyrese Haliburton U21.5 Points + Rebounds (-105)
Since dealing Jimmy Butler for Andrew Wiggins at the trade deadline, Miami has been pretty mediocre, winning just two of its seven games with Wiggins on the roster. Across that span, the Heat’s vaunted defensive identity hasn’t really held, as they’ve been just the 19th-best defense in the league since the trade deadline. But they’ve also played incredibly slowly — just 95.1 possessions per game — so their counting stats are pretty solid. Since the trade deadline, Miami has allowed the 10th-fewest points and 11th-fewest rebounds per game.
Haliburton has picked up his scoring in recent games, averaging 22.6 points and 10.1 assists per game since the trade deadline on incredible 55-49-100 shooting splits, and he’s seen a significant jump in his scoring without a corresponding usage spike. At some point, though, the hot shooting has to slip, and it might be tonight against the man nicknamed “Off Night”, Davion Mitchell. The Heat have held Haliburton to 21 or fewer combined points and rebounds in two of the teams’ previous three matchups this season.
