Nobody is stopping Tyrese Haliburton in the NBA in-season tournament.

Haliburton, after recording his first career triple-double in the quarterfinals, shined again Thursday afternoon in Las Vegas. The Indiana Pacers star lifted his team past the Milwaukee Bucks 128-119 in the eastern semifinals at T-Mobile Arena. The win landed the Pacers a spot in the championship game, where they’ll get a chance to compete for the first NBA Cup.

Haliburton dropped 27 points and had 15 assists while shooting 11-of-19 from the field. The former Iowa State star, after recording 13 assists in the quarterfinal win over the Boston Celtics, now has 28 assists without committing a turnover in his past two games. Haliburton has now averaged 26.5 points and 14 assists per game throughout the in-season tournament.

Tyrese Haliburton

PG - IND - #0

12/7/2023 v. MIL

27

Pts

7

Reb

15

Ast

0

Stl

36:32

Min

After an offensive outburst to make it to Las Vegas, the Pacers jumped up early again Thursday. They took a 12-point lead at halftime while largely shutting down the Bucks’ offense outside of Giannis Antetokounmpo in the first 24 minutes. Myles Turner had 16 of his 26 points in the first half, and Damian Lillard was held to just four points for Milwaukee.

Yet it was the third quarter where the Bucks finally flew ahead and took control of the game. They opened the second half on a massive 27-9 tear and seemed poised to run away with the game. Lillard dropped 14 of his 24 points during that stretch, which briefly had Milwaukee on pace to put up 50 points in the quarter.

The Bucks took a three-point lead into the fourth quarter and held Indiana to just 2-of-11 from the 3-point line in the third quarter.

The Pacers hung around early in the fourth quarter, however, and briefly took the lead after a wild Obi Toppin long-range reverse lob.

Though the two teams hung around each other for most of the period, Haliburton finally pushed the Pacers ahead in the final two minutes. After hitting a clutch layup, Haliburton rebounded his own 3-point miss and drilled a stepback contested bucket from behind the arc over Brook Lopez. That gave the Pacers an eight-point lead in the final minute and sealed the nine-point win.

Haliburton hit his best "Dame Time" impression after, too.

Turner added 10 rebounds for Indiana. Toppin finished with 14 points. The Pacers shot just shy of 50% from the field and still got the win despite shooting 7-of-33 from behind the arc.

Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 37 points and 10 rebounds. Lillard added 24 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, and Khris Middleton finished with 20 points.

With the win, the Pacers will now take on the Los Angeles Lakers in the in-season tournament championship Saturday night. LeBron James and the Lakers flew past the Pelicans 133-89 in their semifinals game on Thursday night.