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Tyrese Haliburton continues to outdo himself. Less than a week after becoming the third player in history, and the first in three decades, to register consecutive 20-point/20-assist games, Haliburton put up another historic stat line in Indiana’s win over the Bucks on Wednesday with 31 points, 12 assists, three blocks and zero turnovers.

Throw in five made 3-pointers, and Haliburton is now the first player in history to reach those single-game thresholds. His 76 assists against seven turnovers over his last five games is also an NBA record for ratio.

Tyrese Haliburton continues his HISTORIC run in the Pacers’ 5th-straight victory!

🔥 31 PTS, 12 AST, 5 3PM, 3 BLK, 0 TOV
🔥 1st player ever to reach those thresholds in a game
🔥 76 AST, 7 TOV during winning streak… first player ever with that many AST and that few TOV over 5… pic.twitter.com/MvV9lOi5I7

— NBA (@NBA) January 4, 2024
Take out the five made 3-pointers, and Haliburton is just the second player in history even to register 30 points, 10 assists and three blocks with zero turnovers, joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. This marks the third time this season that Haliburton has recorded at least 10 assists with zero turnovers, double the amount any other player has amassed.

The reigning Eastern Conference Player of the Week, Haliburton has carded 66 assists and four turnovers over his last four games. Do the math, and that is an absolutely absurd 16.5-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.

If the season ended today, Haliburton’s 12.7 assists per game would go down as the fourth-highest mark in history. He leads the league in assist points created and assisted 3-pointers, per PBP Stats. Haliburton has now recorded double-digit assists in 10 straight games and 27 of his 31 games this year.

Most importantly, the Pacers took down the Bucks … again. Including their In-Season Tournament win, the Pacers are now 4-1 this season against Milwaukee, with which a budding rivalry is clearly developing.

“I think we’re getting up for these games [vs. Milwaukee],” Haliburton said. “I think as a young group, when you play good teams, you want to be as prepared for them as you can. … It’s interesting, I’ve never played a team this many times this early [in the season]; I think we’ve handled it the right way. You know, the game in Milwaukee got a little chippy, and I thought we responded the right way. There were a lot of things said from both sides. We’ve handled it the right way.

“The good part about playing the Bucks five times already, we’ve got the Celtics three more times, those are two of the best teams in our conference, so just seeing where we stack up against those guys early has been interesting, and we just want to keep approaching these games the right way.”

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If you don’t recall the “chippy” game in Milwaukee that Haliburton is referring to, on Dec. 13 the Bucks got their one win against the Pacers this season, and Giannis Antetokounmpo scored a career-high/franchise-record 64 points. After the game, Giannis wanted the game ball. He thought the Pacers took it to spite him. He went chasing down the tunnel. He was furious.

Afterward, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle’s story was that Indiana had, indeed, taken the game ball at the buzzer, but it was the reserve ball — and not because the team was trying to steal it from Giannis, but because they wanted it for their rookie, Oscar Tshiebwe, who had scored his first NBA point in the game.

Giannis did end up with a ball afterward, retrieved by Bucks security, but he was skeptical that it was the actual game ball.

“I have a ball, but I don’t know if it’s the game ball. It doesn’t feel like a game ball to me,” Antetokounmpo said. “It feels like a brand-new ball. I can tell. I played 35 minutes today. I know how the game ball felt. The ball I have, which I’ll take and I’ll give it to my mom for sure, but I don’t know if it’s actually the game ball.”

So yeah, this is turning into a legitimate rivalry, and it is well within the realm of possibilities that the Pacers and Bucks eventually meet up in a first-round playoff series. Entering play on Thursday, the Pacers, who’ve won five straight after losing six of eight coming out of the IST, are the East’s No. 6 seed, while Milwaukee is No. 2.

espite making the conference finals last season and winning the inaugural In-Season Tournament last month, the Los Angeles Lakers appear to be a thoroughly mediocre team. After a 110-96 loss at home on Wednesday against a Miami Heat team missing Jimmy Butler, the Lakers are 17-18 on the season, with the No. 24-ranked offense in the NBA.

Los Angeles has lost eight of its last 10 games. It is 10th in the Western Conference, with the Golden State Warriors and Utah Jazz on its heels for the last spot in the play-in. This is not what the Lakers envisioned coming into the season.

“They threw a zone in, and they kind of just dared us to make shots, which we didn’t, and kind of took us out of a lot of things,” Anthony Davis told reporters after the Miami game. Davis then noted that they turned the ball over 10 times in the first quarter. “Kind of a recipe for disaster.”

The Lakers started Austin Reaves for the first time since Nov. 8, and they were without D’Angelo Russell (bruised tailbone), Rui Hachimura (calf strain) and Gabe Vincent (knee surgery). It was their third consecutive game with a new starting lineup, and there is “currently a deepening disconnect between [coach] Darvin Ham and the Lakers locker room,” according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania and Jovan Buha, citing six sources. Players have been frustrated with Ham’s lineup changes — most notably his decision on Dec. 23 to bring both Reaves and Russell off the bench — and are losing patience with the coach, per The Athletic.

Los Angeles’ 4-for-30 performance from 3-point range was the primary reason for Wednesday’s loss, but that’s not the whole story.

“It’s a little bit of everything right now,” Davis told reporters. “We’re not executing. That team played harder than us tonight, executed better than us tonight, more physical than us tonight. We got outworked tonight, so it’s a little bit of everything right now. If we keep on this trend, it’s not going to be good for us. So it’s kind of obvious that we gotta figure it out sooner than later.”

“We got outworked tonight… It’s a little bit of everything right now and if we keep on this trend, it’s not going to be good for us.” Anthony Davis pic.twitter.com/ur5F9Dv81f

— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) January 4, 2024
Los Angeles is tied for the 10th-highest turnover rate in the league through 35 games. It ranks 24th in 3-point percentage and, more worryingly, 29th in 3-pointers attempted per 100 possessions — only the Detroit Pistons take 3s at a lower volume. The spacing is bad, and it’s not like the Lakers are making up for it by getting extra possessions. They rank 28th in offensive rebounding percentage and have only been average when it comes to forcing turnovers.

The good news for Los Angeles is that 10 of its next 11 games are at Crypto.com Arena, including a “road” game against the Los Angeles Clippers. Next up are the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday.

“Every game for us, especially on this homestand, should be like a must-win for us,” Davis said.

Asked what the vibe is like in the locker room, Reaves told reporters, “Shitty. We’re losing. Anytime you lose, the vibe should be off. If I went in there and the vibe wasn’t off after the rough stretch that we’ve had, then I’d be concerned. That’s really it. I don’t expect for us to be happy with how we’ve played, so, until we’ve figured that out, the vibe should be off.”

LeBron James is having another All-NBA-caliber season, but scored a season-low 12 points on 6-for-18 shooting and missed all six of his 3-point attempts against the Heat. James left the arena without speaking to reporters.

It’s safe to say that the Indiana Pacers have had the Milwaukee Bucks’ number so far this season. The Pacers have defeated the Bucks in four of their five matchups, including handing the Bucks a 142-130 loss on Wednesday.

Following Wednesday’s contest, Antetokounmpo even admitted that he thinks about the consistent struggles against Indiana when he’s getting “freaky” at night.

Giannis on the Pacers beating them 4 times:

“You think about it. When you go home and sleep and wake up, you think about it. When you go back and work out, you think about it…. When you’re about to get freaky at night, you think about it.” pic.twitter.com/UWpi0WLbWB

— Nathan Marzion (@nathanmarzion) January 4, 2024
“You think about it. When you go home and sleep and wake up, you think about it,” Antetokounmpo said. “When you go back and work out, you think about it…. When you’re about to get freaky at night, you think about it.”

Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton has been getting the best of the Bucks this season and even trolled Bucks guard Damian Lillard by replicating his iconic “Dame Time” celebration during their In-Season Tournament win against Milwaukee. In addition, the Bucks and Pacers were also involved in the game ball fiasco earlier this season.

Haliburton has thrived when facing the Bucks throughout his NBA career. In nine games, the star guard is averaging 23.4 points, 10.4 assists and 5.6 assists, while averaging 27.0 points in his five games against the Bucks this season.

Ricky Rubio announced his retirement from the NBA on Thursday, shortly after agreeing to a buyout with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Rubio did not play at all this season after stepping away from the team to address his mental health in August. If he is to suit up again professionally in any capacity, all signs point to that happening in his native Spain, per Adrian Wojnarowski.

Rubio’s statement read, in part:

“July 30th was one of the toughest nights of my life. My mind went to a dark place. I kind of knew I was going on that direction, but I’ve never thought I wasn’t under control of the situation. The next day, I decided to stop my professional career.

“One day, when the time is right, I would love to share my full experience with you all so I can help support others going through similar situations. Until then, I would like to keep it private out of respect for my family and myself, as I’m still working on my mental health. But I’m proud to say I’m doing much better and getting better everyday.

“I wanted to post this message for you today because my NBA career has come to an end.”

The 33-year-old Rubio had been limited to just 67 games over the past two seasons due to a torn ACL, but his career seemed to be back on track after he returned at the end of last season and agreed to a three-year, $18 million deal with the Cavaliers in the summer. That all changed when Rubio informed the team he needed a mental health break. The Cavaliers supported Rubio over the past five months, but when it became clear that he did not intend to play in the NBA again, the two sides began discussing a buyout which was finalized on Thursday.

Rubio first burst onto the basketball scene as a teenage phenom in Spain, where he turned pro as a 14-year-old and made history as the youngest player to debut in Liga ACB. By 17 he was already a member of the Spanish national team and won a silver medal at the 2008 Olympics. When he checked into the gold medal game against Team USA’s “Redeem Team,” he became the youngest player to appear in an Olympic final.

A year later he declared himself eligible for the 2009 NBA draft and was selected No. 5 overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves. He spent the next two seasons playing with Barcelona, however, and did not make the jump to the NBA until 2011. Rubio was an immediate fan favorite thanks to his flashy playmaking, but his strong debut season was cut short by a torn ACL and he finished second in the Rookie of the Year voting.

Injuries would unfortunately become a theme for Rubio throughout his career. He missed nearly half of the 2012-13 season recovering from his ACL tear, then was limited to 22 games in 2014-15 because of an ankle injury that required surgery. In 2018, he made the playoffs for the first time in his career with the Utah Jazz, but a hamstring injury in the first round cut that run short. Then there was the second ACL tear in 2021, which occurred only a few weeks after he recorded his 5,000th career assist.

All told, Rubio appeared in 698 career games with the Timberwolves, Jazz, Phoenix Suns and Cavaliers, and averaged 10.8 points, 4.1 rebounds and 7.4 assists. His 19 assists on March 13, 2017 remain a Timberwolves franchise record, and his 5,160 assists are the third-most ever by an international player, behind only Steve Nash and Tony Parker.