Tyrese Haliburton could only watch from the sidelines, as the Boston Celtics swept his Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Haliburton suffered a hamstring injury in Game 2, which led to him missing the rest of the series and it made the 24-year-old understand the importance of health in the playoffs.

“It’s been really frustrating,” Haliburton said during his exit interview. “It’s been trash, honestly. You work so hard to get somewhere and something happens that’s kind of out of your control. Obviously, that’s frustrating  for me 

“But what I’ve understood more than anything is that usually in the playoffs, the healthier team wins,” Haliburton continued. “They’re a hell of a team. Boston’s a great team. But obviously very frustrating for me and how I was playing at the time and how we were playing as a group.”

Health has indeed dictated the outcome in the playoffs so many times over the years. The Pacers themselves benefited from some breaks in the earlier rounds of this postseason.

Indiana faced a Milwaukee Bucks team in the first round that was without Giannis Antetokounmpo. Damian Lillard also missed a couple of games and the Bucks ended up losing in six.

Then in the second round, the Pacers played the New York Knicks, who were ravaged by injuries. Julius Randle and Bojan Bogdanovic missed the entire series, Mitchell Robinson played just one game, and OG Anunoby played three. Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart also played through injuries as the Knicks lost in seven.