Pacers Rick Carlisle: 'It's possible' Tyrese Haliburton, Myles Turner don't play again

INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle has spoken of the team's final games as an opportunity for younger players to take on greater responsibilities, and those players have had to shoulder those responsibilities because the Pacers' best players have been out.

All-Star point guard Tyrese Halliburton and veteran guard Buddy Hield have each missed the past two games with center Myles Turner missing the last three. In their place, the Pacers have used starting lineups with five players aged 24 or younger.

Hield returned to practice Wednesday after missing two games with illness and it seems likely he will be back on the floor soon. However, Carlisle acknowledged that there is a chance Haliburton and Turner don't play again this season.

"They'll be listed however they're listed game-to-game," Carlisle said after practice Thursday. "If you're asking if it's possible that they don't play anymore, yeah, it's possible. It's not impossible that one of them would play, but we're going game to game with it."

A right ankle sprain and left elbow soreness were listed as the reasons Haliburton was out Wednesday. Haliburton sprained the right ankle March 15 in practice, but he returned to play last Friday against the Celtics and posted a combined 39 points and 22 assists against Boston and Atlanta during a back-to-back and didn't appear to re-aggravate the injury. Haliburton sprained his left elbow Jan. 11 and missed 10 games, but returned Feb. 2 and the elbow hasn't appeared to be an issue since about a week later when he had his brace taken off.

Turner was listed as out with left ankle soreness Wednesday and with lower back soreness Saturday and Monday. Turner's back has been an issue for much of the season, going back to Jan. 11 when he was scratched from the lineup just before tip-off with back spasms.

At this point it makes little sense for the Pacers to put prominent players at risk with even minor injuries. They haven't been mathematically eliminated from postseason contention yet, but at 33-44 they are 3 1/2 games back of the 10th-place Bulls with just five games left on their schedule. Even overtaking the Bulls would only mean getting into the play-in round as the final seed, which would mean they would need to win two road games in a row just to earn a berth as the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs and a seven-game series against the East's No. 1 seed, most likely the Milwaukee Bucks.

Haliburton leads the Pacers with 20.7 points per game and ranks second in the league in assists with 10.4 per game. However, if he doesn't play again this season he'll finish the year with just 56 games played which would put him under the 70% threshold to be eligible to be considered among the official league leaders in statistical categories. Turner, who has played in 62 games, ranks second among the Pacers in scoring with 18.0 points per game and first in rebounding with 7.5 rebounds per game. Both of those figures are career highs.

Hield didn't miss a game until Monday when he said he woke up feeling sick at about 2 a.m.

"I had to go to the ER," Hield said. "My girl told me to go to the ER because I had a fever. We called the team doctors. I had a flu. I felt like I could have played, but they said they didn't want me to bring it to the guys and get them infected with it. You know how it is. One gets it and everybody gets it and it spreads. They didn't want me to be selfish in that way. It was the smart decision to sit out in that way. As much as I want to play all 82 games, it was the right thing to do."

Hield is third on the Pacers' roster with 16.9 points per game and second in the NBA with 271 total 3-pointers this season. He was back in practice on Wednesday and brought his usual juice.

"It's not the same around here without him," Carlisle said. "There's a certain energy that we lacked. There's a certain buzz as you can hear right now. There's certain things, rituals that he does on a game-to-game basis that you really notice when he's not there. He came in today, he's smiling, laughing, he's raring to go. It's great to have him back in the gym."

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Carlisle says Tyrese Haliburton, Myles Turner could be done for season