NBA fans hail Tyrese Haliburton's genius for game-winner over Pat Beverley: "Looked like midseason tourney Tyrese" 

Tyrese Haliburton had the NBA world on its feet with his first-ever playoffs game-winner to guide the Pacers to a 121-118 OT win over the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 3 at home. The Pacers took a 2-1 series lead, and the chances of securing a first-round series win over their budding rivals just shot up.

Haliburton had a mediocre shooting game after he went 8 of 22, which has been the story for most of the second half of the year for the All-Star. However, the excellent IQ display in the clutch earned NBA fans' respect for the Pacers superstar.

@Divvy.Bet on X, formerly Twitter, had flashbacks of Haliburton's masterclass during the NBA In-Season tournament:

"Looked like mid season tourney Tyrese tn," @Divvy.Bet wrote.

Meanwhile, @Br0nToLA23 didn't hesitate to call out Halburton's off-shooting night. However, the fan hailed the game-winner, saying:

"That FG was nasty but it don’t matter he still came up clutch and got the dub"

@LandOfPG sent a message to Haliburton's critics over his loss of form, writing:

"beat the “superstar trial expired” allegations"

More reactions followed as @UltraTV90 wrote:

"Cooked Damian Lillard"

"hali is definitely a star," added @dgsire.

@Fabulouslonzo wrote:

"He’s gonna be better version of CP3"

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Tyrese Haliburton's reaction to his game-winner

Tyrese Haliburton called his own number on the final play of the game to seal the Pacers' win. Haliburton rejected the screen to get the switch on Khris Middleton. Instead, he split the screen after spotting some space between Patrick Beverley, his primary defender and Middleton:

"I just knew I was shooting the ball, I told everybody to just give me the ball, let's go win the game," Haliburton said.

It was a bold decision after the streaky series he had on offense. Haliburton had nine points in Game 1 on 4-of-7 shooting. He had 12 on 4-of-10 shooting in Game 2. Game 3 wasn't looking good, either. Haliburton was 7-of-21 before he hit the game-winning shot. He missed all but one of his 12 3-point attempts.

Nevertheless, he dug into his ability as a superstar to make the most decisive play, and it proved to be the right call. Tyrese Haliburton had the Bucks' defense scrambling on that play, as they may have anticipated him not to take the final shot or reject the screen and split the pick and roll.

The shot quality was also not that great as the Bucks had three defenders collapsing on him while he had Myles Turner open in the corner, who was 4-of-10 on 3s, and Andrew Nembhard on the baseline drive.