With the Knicks up 14 points with less than three minutes to go, the New York faithful had the “The World’s Most Famous Arena” buzzing.
That was until, Aaron Nesmith and Tyrese Haliburton helped the Indiana Pacers pull off the unthinkable.
The Indiana duo helped lead the Pacers to a miracle comeback, downing the Knicks 138-135 in overtime to take Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden.
The 25-year-old Nesmith, a former first round pick of the Boston Celtics, caught fire from long range, knocking down five 3-pointers in the final three minutes of regulation to keep Indiana in the game.
The barrage from deep had the Knicks on their heels despite a presumably safe lead.
With the Pacers down two and the clock ticking down to the final seconds, Haliburton did what he had done before in these playoffs: be the hero.
The 25-year-old chucked up a long jumper at the buzzer, which took the friendliest of high bounces and magically went in.
As the Garden crowd was left stunned in what was thought to be a game-winning triple, Haliburton made a choke signal to the crowd, like Pacers legend and Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Reggie Miller did to Academy Award-winning filmmaker and Knicks superfan Spike Lee while leading an Indiana comeback in a playoff game in 1994.
After a review though, refs ruled it a two-pointer which forced OT; from there, the Pacers remained in control and secured the victory.
Haliburton finished with 31 points and 11 assists while Nesmith added 30 points on 8-of-9 from downtown.
It was the third time the Pacers have pulled off a miraculous comeback in this year’s playoffs. According to Indiana, since the 1996-97 season, only four teams that trailed by seven or more in the final 50 seconds of regulation or overtime in 1,706 playoff games ended up winning – with Indiana accounting for three of those in this postseason alone.
The first win came against the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round after trailing by seven with less than a minute to go in overtime and the second was against the East No. 1 seed Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round, who led by seven with 46 seconds remaining in regulation.
Even more impressive, the Pacers are the first team in the last 27 postseasons that have won a game when down by 14 in the final 2:50 of the fourth quarter in 971 attempts, according to the team.
Knicks star Jalen Brunson scored a game-high 43 points and applauded the Pacers for their no-quit attitude.
“Give them a lot of credit, they closed the game out like they’ve been doing all playoffs. Just not really good on our part,” Brunson said postgame.
‘It felt right at the time’
Haliburton said after the game that he had seen the 2010 documentary “Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks” many times growing up and he knew the Pacers didn’t end up winning that series following the infamous Miller choke gesture.
Besides not “wanting to repeat that,” Haliburton expressed a little regret for doing it on a non game-winning shot.
“It felt right at the time,” Haliburton told reporters. “If I would’ve known it was a two, I would not have done it. I might have wasted it. If I do it again, people might say I’m aura-farming. I don’t plan on using it again.”
Indiana head coach Rick Carlisle said “players can do what they want” when asked if he wished Haliburton did not do the gesture.
“It’s an emotional thing, it’s not a big deal. We got to go out there – place is unlikely to be any louder than it was tonight,” Carlisle said. “I mean it was crazy out there. The environment never disappoints here. This time of year, you want to go into the most hostile, the most difficult environments and test your mental … It’s not a big deal to me.”
The two teams have a long, storied rivalry dating back to the 1990s when the teams sported the likes of Patrick Ewing, John Starks, Charles Oakley, Antonio and Dale Davis and Rik Smits. They met last year in the second round with Indiana eliminating the Knicks on the road in Game 7.
Despite that, Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns downplayed the “historical similarities” between this game and the past games with Haliburton’s choke gesture.
“It’s our job to make history. We’re not here to repeat history, we’re here to make history. So that doesn’t pop into my mind. I only think about the present and what we can do right now so we can make our own history,” Towns, who finished with 35 points and 12 rebounds said.
Game 2 is on Friday night in New York.
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