The Knicks could only seemingly watch as their fourth-quarter lead dwindled steadily from 17 with 6:26 left to 13 with three minutes left, but were still very much in the driver’s seat.
With 52 seconds remaining, their lead was still at nine at 121-112 — less than a minute separating them from a 1-0 Eastern Conference Finals lead.
Indiana’s Aaron Nesmith hit two 3-pointers in 17 seconds to cut New York’s lead to five at 123-118. With 22.1 ticks to go, his third straight three-ball made it a two-point game.
Dueling free-throws had the Knicks up 125-123 with 7.1 seconds left, but Tyrese Haliburton summoned the ghost of Reggie Miller, knocking down a long two-pointer that hit back iron, bounced as high as the top of the shot clock, and fell through the cup to force overtime.
After the pesky Pacers guard hit Miller’s famous choke sign from 30 years ago, his side outscored the Knicks 13-10 in overtime to stun Madison Square Garden.
“Defensively, we let off the gas,” Knicks’ wing Josh Hart admitted. “Offensively, we were playing slower and more stagnant. It looked like we were playing not to lose.”
In theory, just one defensive stop could have clinched Game 1 for New York. The Pacers hit their final seven shots in regulation, six of them being 3-pointers.
“We played 46 good minutes. Those two minutes is where we lost the game, and that’s on all of us,” Karl-Anthony Towns, who missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer well short in the final seconds of overtime after Jalen Brunson airballed his attempt, said. “We all have to be better. We all have to step up to the plate.”
This is the third time this postseason the Pacers pulled off a remarkable last-minute comeback.
They trailed by seven with 33.3 seconds in overtime in Game 5 of the first round against the Milwaukee Bucks and scored eight straight points to clinch the series.
In Game 2 of the second round against the No. 1-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers, they scored eight straight points in the final 48 seconds of regulation to win 120-119.
“They can score the ball. Nesmith got loose, Haliburton hit big shots,” head coach Tom Thibodeau said. “You just can never let your guard down against them. No lead is safe.”
Stressing the quick turnaround, Thibodeau has to help his Knicks flush Wednesday night’s result in a hurry with Game 2 tipping off on Friday night from Madison Square Garden.
