Donte DiVincenzo and Tyrese Haliburton (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
After taking an early 2-0 lead in the series, the Knicks got hammered in the next two games thanks to a fired-up Tyrese Haliburton. While he did the talking with his performance in games 3 and 4, he also smacked his opponents verbally as well.

In leaked audio footage that surfaced on social media, Tyrese Haliburton is seen trash-talking the Knicks players with every movement he makes. After slipping past Donte DiVincenzo during game 3 for a 3, Haliburton taunted the Knicks guard by saying, “You can’t f*ck with me.” He also carried it on in game 4 as he again bamboozled DiVincenzo for a 3 and proceeded to say, “Can’t guard me. No, no!”

Haliburton dropped 20 points in the 121-89 win in game 4 and 35 in game 3. His 6 rebounds and 5 assists from 8-15 shooting helped the Pacers level the series before going into game 5 at TD Garden.

Tyrese Haliburton Wary of TD Garden Visit

The series’ opening two games didn’t go well for the Indiana side. The following games were overshadowed by the controversies surrounding the officiating stemming from the previous games. In this scenario, Game 4 was a must-win for the Pacers as they were desperate to avoid going down a 1-3 hole heading to New York.

After the game, Tyrese Haliburton’s words conveyed the exact urgency as he said, “I think we all just communicated, just not being so amped that the score was what it was. Just understand that at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how much you win or lose by; it’s a win or a loss – that’s all that really matters.”

“All we did was win a game and handle our business at home truthfully. And now going back to the Garden where we lost two—felt like we should’ve gotten a win there—so we gotta be prepared to go 48 minutes when we get there,” said a cautious Haliburton.

After the 24-year-old’s trash-talking in the two games at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the NY crowd will be eagerly waiting for the Pacers to show up on Tuesday for game 5 of the series as they would like to give Haliburton a dose of his own medicine.