Tyrese Haliburton has assured that New York Knicks fans will consider him a villain for the rest of his NBA career.
Haliburton’s choke sign that went wrong ended up part of an Indiana overtime victory and now the Pacers take aim at a 2-0 series lead when they visit the Knicks on Friday night in the Eastern Conference finals.
New York held a 14-point lead with under three minutes left in regulation in Game 1 before disintegrating, while Indiana was heating up and rallying for a 138-135 overtime victory on Wednesday night.
“We’re not going to get too excited about this,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “We’ve got things to clean up. They got things to clean up. Game 2 is going to be another war.”
Game 1 was at least a high-platoon battle, particularly down the stretch.
Jalen Brunson’s 3-pointer gave the Knicks a 119-105 lead with 2:51 left in the fourth quarter. But instead of waving the white flag, the Pacers took over.
Aaron Nesmith was hotter than lava with four treys and his final one — which was his sixth of the fourth quarter — moved Indiana within 123-121 with 22 seconds remaining.
“I didn’t really realize what I was doing in the moment,” said Nesmith, who was 8 of 9 from distance while scoring 30 points.
The Pacers were again within two in the final seconds when Haliburton rushed back to the 3-point line and put up a jumper that bounced high off the rim and landed through the net as time expired.
Haliburton gave the infamous choke sign toward the Knicks’ bench and the crowd – a la Reggie Miller against the Knicks in the 1994 postseason — and the Pacers celebrated wildly. But the officials ruled Haliburton’s foot was on the line, turning the shot into a two-pointer that put the game in overtime.
“Everybody wanted me to do it last year at some point, but it’s got to feel right,” said Haliburton, alluding to the Pacers beating the Knicks in seven games in last season’s Eastern Conference semifinals. “It felt right at the time — well, if I would’ve known it was a two, I would not have done it. So I think I might’ve wasted it.”
Haliburton, who had 31 points and 11 assists, was off the hook when the Pacers won the game in the extra session.
Brunson scored 43 points for the Knicks and Karl-Anthony Towns added 35 but few people will remember down the line that the two players combined to make 26 of 42 shots (61.9 percent) in Game 1.
“There’s a lot of things we did good and we put ourselves in position to win,” Towns said. “We played 46 good minutes. Those two minutes are where we lost the game (in regulation), and that’s on all of us.”
New York’s Josh Hart could feel the momentum slipping away in real time.
“Defensively, we let off the gas. The intensity and physicality weren’t there,” Hart said. “Offensively, we were playing slower, and more stagnant. It looked like we were playing not to lose.”
Game 2 now feels like a must-win for the Knicks as they do not want to be down 0-2 when the series moves to Indianapolis.
“The series just started,” New York’s OG Anunoby said. “Just one game, just watch the film, learn from it and go from there.”
The film session will surely focus on corralling Nesmith, who matched his overall NBA scoring high with the 30-point effort and set a career standard with the eight treys. His regular-season high of seven 3-pointers also came against the Knicks on Dec. 30, 2023.
“Once he hits one, you’ve got to be on high alert,” Brunson said. “I’ve got to do a better job of finding him.”
–Field Level Media
