The warmup T-shirt would have to wait.
With 10:15 left in the game and the Bulls close to overcoming a onetime 25-point deficit, guard Alex Caruso had some coaching to do as he was coming out of the game for a quick breather.
With one arm in his sleeve and the other free, he was signaling each of his teammates the defensive assignment from the bench, as well as yelling encouragement in their direction.
In his eyes, the Bulls needed to make a last stand.
Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton, however, had other ideas.
In one of the better individual performances of the NBA season, Haliburton scored 21 points and handed out 20 assists — and did so without committing a turnover — as the Pacers withstood the Bulls’ comeback to dominate late and win 120-104.
‘‘He made a couple of tough shots, but besides that he made a lot of great decisions and made the game easier for those guys,’’ Bulls coach Billy Donovan said of Haliburton’s performance. ‘‘You’re up in coverage because of [his] scoring, then he’s unselfish enough when the guy is rolling to either hit the roll or throwing it out [for a three-pointer].
‘‘There’s no question that when we got up by three [in the fourth quarter], he came back in the game and made some shots there that were big. But it was the spray-outs [passes] and stuff. That’s what he does, and he’s elite at that.’’
That doesn’t mean the Bulls (14-19) didn’t make Haliburton work for it.
After a free throw by Myles Turner with 7:03 left in the third quarter gave the Pacers a 25-point lead, it all the makings of a lost evening.
But enter second-year swingman Dalen Terry.
It wasn’t what Terry did offensively — he scored only one basket in that stint — but his defense, especially on Haliburton, was next-level. He wasn’t alone, either, as a Bulls defense that was missing for the first 31 minutes finally showed up and then some.
By the time the buzzer sounded to end the third quarter, the Bulls’ deficit was down to eight.
While the Bulls trying to run sprints with the Pacers in the first half proved to be a failure, the fourth quarter was a bit different. Yes, they continued to match the Pacers’ pace, but they also mixed in some physicality, getting to the basket and drawing fouls.
An example came with 8:57 left when forward Patrick Williams went hard to the hoop, made the basket and drew the foul. His free throw cut the Pacers’ lead to two, and guard Coby White erased the deficit by sinking a 32-foot three on the Bulls’ next possession.
‘‘We scored 60 points in the paint [on the night], so we got downhill and played really aggressively,’’ Donovan said. ‘‘We drew fouls. We were at the basket and were taking layups. That’s how we got back in the game.
‘‘I thought our physicality was much better midway through that third quarter.’’
Game on. Until it soon was turned off.
A three-pointer by Buddy Hield and two more by Haliburton enabled the Pacers to wipe out their brief deficit and put the Bulls on life support.
By the time Haliburton threw a perfect pass to teammate Bennedict Mathurin for the first 20-assist game of the season, it was over.
‘‘There were a lot of things we did to get back into the game and get the lead,’’ Donovan said. ‘‘We just didn’t do enough of it.’’
