NBA fans have rarely seen a run of playoff heroics quite as special as what Tyrese Haliburton has done to consistently lift the Indiana Pacers. That was true in the first round, thereafter in the subsequent rounds, and it was certainly true in Game 1 of the NBA Finals as the Pacers guard sunk a pull-up jumper in the final second of Game 1 against the Oklahoma City Thunder with what proved to be the game-winning bucket, erasing home-field advantage in OKC right off the bat. It was not more of the same in Game 2, however, after getting a world of praise in recent days.

Everyone was quick, and rightfully so, to give Haliburton his flowers. He's been one of the most clutch stars we've ever seen both in this playoff run for the Pacers and, quietly, overall. Whenever the moment has been big, he's risen to the occasion. And yet, among all the credit he was getting, ESPN analyst and hot take artist Stephen A Smith wasn't ready to fully buy in.

During an episode of First Take after the Game 1 winner, Smith was quick to say he's one of the most clutch players in the playoffs that we've seen, but he wouldn't call him a "superstar" still, doubling down on a previous take.

After what we saw in Game 2 and with Smith's logic, the ESPN analyst looks like he might be onto something.

When you look at the overall final numbers for Haliburton in the Pacers' eventual Game 2 loss, it looks fine for the Indiana guard. He finished with a team-high 17 points to go with six assists and three rebounds on 7-of-13 shooting from the field and 3-of-8 shooting from 3-point range. However, context is everything.

More than half of Haliburton's scoring in the 123-107 loss came in the fourth quarter. While that might sound clutch, that's also when the game was pretty much out of reach for the Pacers. Now, Indiana has been a comeback artist throughout the postseason, but the Thunder never let off the gas. Frankly, it looked more like Haliburton was stat-padding after entering the final period trailing by 19 points.

To Smith's point of a "superstar" being a player that can be the go-to guy for 48 minutes night-in and night-out, Haliburton definitely didn't deliver that in Game 2. And yet, let's not start saying that the First Take star is necessarily all the way right at this point. There's still a lot of series left.

Let's be sure that we're not calling Stephen A Smith a bastion of basketball truth after one game in the NBA Finals. After all, Haliburton has been the lifeblood of the Pacers to spearhead Indiana's unlikely run through the postseason. He's averaged 18.5 points, 9.5 assists and 5.9 rebounds per game while leading the team in minutes at 35.5 per night. He's been the workhorse doing it all from the backcourt.

That's before you get into the clutch moments in which the Pacers have clearly looked to him to be that exact go-to guy that Smith was describing. The playbook in those moments has looked much more like "Let Hali Cook" than any type of X's and O's drawn up on the dry-erase board. That means something in this conversation as well.

Maybe the Thunder still win the title and leave Haliburton and the Pacers falling just short. Even if that does play out as such, if the Pacers guard can continue doing what he's basically accomplished throughout aside from Game 2 of the Finals, though, Smith will have to evaluate the tier that he considers Haliburton part of.