‘Best defender in the NBA’: Holiday shuts down Haliburton in Game 1

‘Best defender in the NBA’: Holiday shuts down Haliburton in Game 1 originally appeared in NBC Sports Boston

Jrue Holiday has an NBA championship under his belt, and that experience was demonstrated in the Boston Celtics’ victory over the Indiana Pacers.n Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals at TD Garden on Tuesday night.

Holiday was an efficient scorer in the series opener. He scored 28 points on 10-of-16 shooting (4-of-8 from 3-point range), along with eight rebounds and seven assists in a team-leading 48 minutes.

But it was Holiday’s defensive impact that made the biggest difference in Boston’s 133-128 overtime victory.

The veteran point guard recorded three steals and played defense throughout the game, especially when facing the Pacers’ best player, Tyrese Haliburton.

Haliburton scored 25 points on 8-of-18 shooting, 10 assists and three rebounds. He had a very good game, but wasn’t very effective when Holiday was the primary defender.

How dominant defensively was Holiday at Haliburton? These numbers tell a compelling story:

!function()”use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(a)if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”])var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r=0;r[r].contentWindow===a.source)var i=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][t]+”px”;e[r].style.height=i))();

Haliburton tipped his cap to Holiday after the Indiana loss.

“He’s the best defender in the NBA. He’s been for a long time.” Haliburton said. “…It’s unfortunate. It’s frustrating, for sure. But it happens. We make mistakes, we’re human. I learned from it and I’ll be better in Game 2.”

The NBA released the 2023-24 All-Defensive First and Second Teams Tuesday, and Holiday was voted to the second team. It’s the sixth year in the last seven that Holiday has been elected to one of these teams. He was part of the first team in 2018, 2021 and 2023, and the second team in 2019, 2022 and 2024.

The Celtics have several quality defenders to throw at Haliburton in addition to Holiday. Derrick White is an option. He was also named to the All-Defensive Second Team on Tuesday. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown could also see a few more minutes defending Haliburton.

The Pacers have a fairly balanced offense – seven players scored more than 10 points in Game 1 – but the engine that drives the offense is Haliburton. He is a talented scorer and one of the best point guards in the league. Making his job as difficult as possible should be the Celtics’ top priority on the defensive end of the floor.