Category: Sports News

Pacers overcome improbable 0-994 record in stunning Game 1 win over Knicks originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Indiana Pacers never quit.

That was evident on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden, when they defeated the New York Knicks in overtime to take Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

Jalen Brunson and the Knicks were relentless for the first 45 minutes of the game, building a 14-point lead (119-105) on their All-Star guard’s 3-pointer with 2:51 to play. Then, the impossible happened.

Tyrese Haliburton for 3. Aaron Nesmith for 3. A Pascal Siakam free throw. Three more triples for Nesmith. And an insane step-back bucket for Haliburton to force overtime.

In the extra period, Indy outscored New York 13-10 to walk away with a shocking Game 1 road win.

Just how improbable was that late 14-point comeback? According to Josh Dubow of The Associated Press, teams leading a playoff game by 14 or more points in the final 2:45 of the fourth quarter were 994-0 during the play-by-play era (since 1997).

Make that 994-1.

It doesn’t stop there, though.

The Pacers pointed out that since 1997, teams trailing by seven or more in the final 50 seconds of the fourth quarter or overtime in the playoffs are now 4-1,702. This year’s Pacers squad has three of those four wins, including Wednesday night.

Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press added that the Pacers’ 23 points in the final 3:14 of regulation is the most ever in a playoff game during the play-by-play era.

Indiana, now 9-2 in the postseason, hadn’t won a game in the East finals since 2004 after being swept by the eventual champion Boston Celtics last season.

The Pacers will look to keep the magic going on Friday night for Game 2, with the Knicks again hosting at Madison Square Garden before the series shifts to Gainbridge Fieldhouse for Game 3.

Warriors finally ready to answer Dub Nation's longtime plea originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Ever since Andrew Bogut and Zaza Pachulia were tucked into their retirement beds, the annual pleas of Dub Nation and numerous NBA analysts for the Warriors to get bigger and brawnier have been heard but gone unheeded.

More size? Why? People said we were small in 2022, and we won a championship.

Now that the Warriors have been bullied from the 2025 postseason, one year after missing the NBA playoffs entirely, there is internal concession to what had been disregarded. The front office, gazing into the offseason, has given itself the reality check needed to compete at the highest levels of the league.

“That’s always, I know, around here the buzz word is ‘size.’” general manager Mike Dunleavy said. “I’d love to have an ability to play bigger with Draymond [Green] and Jimmy [Butler III] in the frontcourt, and we can always go to our ace in the hole with Draymond at center, which we did basically from February 8 on.”

Green as a 6-foot-6 center and Butler as a 6-foot-7 forward, with Moses Moody as a 6-foot-5 forward, worked well enough as Golden State’s frontcourt to make an impressive late-season push winning 24 of its last 32 games.

As the stakes were raised, that group’s shortcomings, pun intended, were exposed. In the season finale, with a guaranteed playoff berth at stake, the Warriors were outrebounded 42-25 while getting roasted by the Los Angeles Clippers. Ivica Zubac, LA’s 7-foot center, grabbed 17 rebounds – three more than Golden State’s entire starting lineup.

The Warriors outrebounded opponents only three times in 13 postseason games (NBA play-in tournament included). Moreover, their defense invited penetration into the paint. The point-of-attack defense was poor, but there also was precious little deterrence at the rim.

Of the 49 field goals made by the Timberwolves in clinching Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals in Minnesota, 31 were dunks or layups. Their 13 3-pointers mattered, but feasting at the rim drove 62.8-percent shooting from the field that ended Golden State’s season.

“They shot 63 percent,” coach Steve Kerr said after Game 5, punctuating his comment with a revealing admission, “and we couldn’t stop them.”

The Wolves were too big, too aggressive and too athletic. Even as the Warriors beat Houston in seven games in the first round, their weaknesses gave the Rockets openings they couldn’t properly exploit.

The Warriors squeezed about all they could from Kevon Looney, 6-foot-9 and 240 pounds of infinite fortitude. He’s 29, but every step is a chore for his remodeled body.

So deficient was Golden State’s interior presence that Kerr installed 6-foot-9, 250-pound Trayce Jackson-Davis, previously out of the rotation, into the starting lineup against Minnesota. The move made sense, results were negligible.

The Warriors saw enough in the playoffs to know 7-foot rookie Quinten Post was overwhelmed by the brighter lights and elevated competition. He should improve, but his greatest asset, 3-point shooting, takes him away from the paint on offense.

“I thought Quinten had a great rookie season,” Kerr said. “He showed the impact he can make, and I think he’ll make a lot of improvement. He gives us positional size and shooting. Those are the kinds of things we need.”

Post and Jackson-Davis, both second-round picks in the last two drafts, are examples of the Warriors recognizing if not prioritizing their relative lack of size. They prioritized size in the 2020 draft, selecting James Wiseman, an athletic 7-footer who was traded 27 months later and has been dogged by injuries.

The Warriors now have sufficient data to show they’re no longer built to withstand size deficits – and that they have neither the athleticism nor shooting to offset it.

“You can get bigger, more athletic, more skilled in terms of shooting, passing, defending,” Dunleavy said. “We can improve in a lot of areas while at the same time knowing we’re shored up and good in some areas. We’ll look to do those things. For sure you can do that.

“We’ll look at trades. We’ll look at free agency.”

The NBA free-agent market is shallow in big men who might be affordable and fit Golden State’s win-now timeline, with Steven Adams, Clint Capela and Brook Lopez topping the list. Lopez, 37, is a solid defender whose shooting can space the floor. Neither Adams nor Capela, both 31, generate much offense.

Getting back into the championship picture means taking note of the four teams in the conference finals. All have a presence in the paint. The New York Knicks: Karl-Anthony Towns and Mitchell Robinson. The Indiana Pacers: Myles Turner, the league’s best floor spacer/rim protector. The Oklahoma City Thunder: Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren. The Timberwolves: Rudy Gobert and Julius Randle – and the luxury of a 6-foot-9 two-way wing in Jaden McDaniels.

Golden State’s current roster did not have solutions for these problems. What matters most is that it is acknowledged more explicitly than in the past.

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The Indiana Pacers overturned a 17-point deficit in the fourth quarter before beating the New York Knicks in overtime to win the opening game of their NBA Eastern Conference finals series 138-135.

Jalen Brunson ended the night with 41 points for the Knicks and helped them to lead 69-62 at half-time.

The hosts continued to pull away and were 14 points clear with two minutes and 51 seconds left to play.

However, Indiana scored six straight three-pointers - five by Aaron Nesmith - before Tyrese Haliburton forced overtime with a two-point shot on the buzzer.

Momentum remained with the Pacers in overtime as they recorded a famous victory at Madison Square Garden.

"I'm so proud of the resilience of this group, we've shown it all year. We've had to win in so many different, random, unique ways and we just kept going, kept fighting, and man, that's fun," Haliburton told TNT.

"We played a lot of games where it felt like the other team had control.

"It ain't over until it's over, until it hits zero. That's a hell of a win. But I really do think there's a lot for us to improve on."

Haliburton thought he had won the game in regulation time when attempting a three-pointer - even mimicking Hall of Famer Reggie Miller's infamous 'choke' celebration - but replays showed his toe was on the line and it only counted for two.

It is the fourth time the Pacers have won from being 15 points or more behind during the post-season.

"There's obviously a disappointment when you fall short," said Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau.

"We got to be ready for game two, and that's all you look at. So, the disappointment, we've got to turn that into more determination."

The second game of the best-of-seven series takes place in New York at 01:00 BST on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander - who led Oklahoma City Thunder to victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves in game one of the Western Conference finals - has been named as the NBA's Most Valuable Player for 2024-25.

Jalen Brunson was mostly brilliant for the first 47 minutes of Game 1.

He had 37 points on 15-for-22 shooting. His layup with 59 seconds to play gave New York a nine-point lead over the Indiana Pacers.

And then things deteriorated – quickly. There were plenty of defensive mistakes in the final six minutes on Wednesday night. There were missed free throws. Missed opportunities to rebound the ball.

But maybe more than anything else, the strangest part of the Knicks' collapse was Bunson’s role in it.

He had three turnovers in the final 5:30 of the game.

Brunson also made his free throws late and came up with a big basket in overtime. And he didn’t let Obi Toppin free for a put-back dunk in overtime; he didn’t fail to foul Toppin on one of Indiana’s final possessions.

He didn’t lose Andrew Nembhard as a cutter on a key play late in overtime.

But Brunson didn’t close the game cleanly. He’s been so good late in games that you expect him to be perfect in these situations. He was far from perfect on Wednesday.

Now, the Knicks will face the biggest test of their resolve to date on Friday night. They face a Pacers team that is brimming with confidence heading into Game 2. The Knicks have done well in challenging spots throughout these playoffs. But they haven’t faced a challenge like this yet.

Late Wednesday night, there was an understated confidence from the Knicks as they talked about the awful Game 1 loss and what lies ahead.

“The series just started. Just one game, just watch the film, learn from it and go from there,” OG Anunoby said.

“I feel like defensively we let off the gas, intensity and physically weren’t there,” Josh Hart said. “Offensively we were playing slower, a little stagnant. And looked like we were playing not to lose. We got to make sure we don’t make that mistake again.”

They’ll have another chance on Friday night at the Garden. All of a sudden, Game 2 is a must-win for the Knicks. If they make the same mistakes then that we saw in the important moments of Game 1, this Knicks season will end in disappointment.

The Knicks survived Jalen Brunson, the NBA’s best crunchtime player, being sent to the bench with foul trouble at the start of the fourth quarter to build a 17-point lead in the first four minutes without him.

It was the largest lead they held over the Indiana Pacers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden. New York took a few shots back from the visitors, but the advantage was back to 14 points with under three minutes to play.

The win probability for the Knicks at that point: 99.7 percent.

In the final 160 seconds of regulation, the game was tied. After the five minutes of overtime, which began with the Knicks taking a four-point lead, the Pacers' comeback was complete in the form of a 138-135 gut-punch for the home fans.

“We didn’t close the game out,” Josh Hart said. “I feel like our intensity dropped, we started playing slower, playing more into their hands. We let that one slip.”

“They can score the ball,” head coach Tom Thibodeau said. “You just can never let your guard down against them. No lead is safe.”

From there, the Knicks went 2-for-4 from the floor and 2-for-4 from the free-throw line while committing one turnover. The Pacers got hot: Aaron Nesmith made four consecutive threes and two free throws, Pascal Siakam went 1-for-2 at the line, all to put them in positon for Tyrese Haliburton, thanks to a very kind back iron, made the longest possible two-point shot with a toe on the line to send the game to overtime capping a 20-6 run.

After making the shot, Haliburton, emulating Reggie Miller, covered his throat. It would be in overtime when the Pacers finally went at the Knicks' throat, converting on 6-for-11 from the floor, and capping the comeback.

“The playoffs, when you win, it’s the best thing ever. When you lose, it’s the worst thing ever,” said Brunson, who finished with a game-high 43 points but was a minus-8 in 38 minutes.

Asked how he felt after scoring 20 points with five made threes in the fourth quarter, Nesmith said, “It’s unreal, it’s probably the best feeling in the world to me. I love it when that basket feels like an ocean, and anything you toss up, you feel like it's gonna go in. It's just so much fun.”

How was the Pacers guard able to get hot from behind the arc late in crunch time? “Got too much airspace,” the head coach said. “And some of it is transition, some of it is coming off pindowns, some of it is communication. Want to take a look at the film.”

Hart pointed the finger at a “lack of communication” in defending a guy who entered the night shooting 48.2 percent from three in 10 playoff games (up from his season average of 43.1 percent).

“Defensively, we let off the gas, the intensity and physicality wasn’t there,” Hart said, adding that on offense it “looked like we were playing not to lose.”

"We didn't do what we needed to do," Karl-Anthony Towns, who had 35 points and 12 rebounds and was the lone Knicks starter to have a positive plus-minus (nine) in 39 minutes, said.

Turnovers bite the hosts all night, including in overtime when the Knicks committed four of them. For the game, the total was 15, with Indiana profiting from them to the tune of 27 points. 

“The turnovers were costly and they converted them into easy buckets,” Thibodeau said. “They started off the game in a good rhythm and then we did a much better as the half went on. And then, down the stretch, we didn’t do what we needed to do.”

This story was almost a different one.

Thibodeau was asked about deciding to start the fourth quarter with Brunson in the game despite his four fouls, and he didn’t elaborate beyond saying it was a “coach’s decision.” 

And, who could blame the Knicks’ top man on the bench for sticking with his closer at the start of crunchtime with his team up by just three in a game the Knicks led for long stretches but never truly pulled away? 

While Brunson scored the quarter’s first four points for New York, he lasted just 1:55 before he was relegated to the bench with the lead down to two. 

The Knicks picked up their leader by going on a 14-0 run over the next 2:43 of game time – OG Anunoby had a quick five, Miles McBride added two from the line, Towns put in five straight, before Anunoby's layup forced a second Indiana timeout. New York won the Brunson-less five minutes of play by 11 points, and soon after he entered, it was his step-back three that gave them the 14-point lead with 2:51 to play.

“They made shots, we didn’t,”Anunoby said. “We made some mistakes, missed some free throws.”

Towns added: "We played 46 good minutes. Those two minutes is where we lost the game. And that's on all of us."

Pacers overcome improbable 0-994 record in stunning Game 1 win over Knicks originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Indiana Pacers never quit.

That was evident on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden, when they defeated the New York Knicks in overtime to take Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

Jalen Brunson and the Knicks were relentless for the first 45 minutes of the game, building a 14-point lead (119-105) on their All-Star guard’s 3-pointer with 2:51 to play. Then, the impossible happened.

Tyrese Haliburton for 3. Aaron Nesmith for 3. A Pascal Siakam free throw. Three more triples for Nesmith. And an insane step-back bucket for Haliburton to force overtime.

In the extra period, Indy outscored New York 13-10 to walk away with a shocking Game 1 road win.

Just how improbable was that late 14-point comeback? According to Josh Dubow of The Associated Press, teams leading a playoff game by 14 or more points in the final 2:45 of the fourth quarter were 994-0 during the play-by-play era (since 1997).

Make that 994-1.

It doesn’t stop there, though.

The Pacers pointed out that since 1997, teams trailing by seven or more in the final 50 seconds of the fourth quarter or overtime in the playoffs are now 4-1,702. This year’s Pacers squad has three of those four wins, including Wednesday night.

Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press added that the Pacers’ 23 points in the final 3:14 of regulation is the most ever in a playoff game during the play-by-play era.

Indiana, now 9-2 in the postseason, hadn’t won a game in the East finals since 2004 after being swept by the eventual champion Boston Celtics last season.

The Pacers will look to keep the magic going on Friday night for Game 2, with the Knicks again hosting at Madison Square Garden before the series shifts to Gainbridge Fieldhouse for Game 3.

When the Knicks and Pacers were set to meet in this year's Eastern Conference Finals, memories of the playoff battles between the two teams in the 1990s were harkened back to, and Tyrese Haliburton evoked that history in Wednesday night's thrilling Game 1 win for Indiana.

In the waning seconds of regulation, and the Pacers down two points, Haliburton controlled the ball and drove to the hoop, but Mitchell Robinson came to stop him. Haliburton retreated toward the three-point line and took a fadeaway-like jumper. The ball hit the back of the rim but bounced straight up in the air as the buzzer sounded before going through the bottom of the net

"I knew it's going in. But it felt like it got stuck up there, though," Haliburton said of the shot after the game. "When it went in, my eyes might have been deceiving me in the moment, but it felt good when it left my hands. I thought it was going to go in. The ball just felt like it was up there for eternity. But man, special moment."

When the shot went in, Haliburton was mobbed by his teammates as the Indiana star did the choke gesture made famous by Pacers legend Reggie Miller toward the Garden crowd.

Haliburton thought he had hit a three at the buzzer to steal Game 1, but his toe was on the line. The shot didn't win the game, but it sent it to overtime and gave Indiana a chance.

Haliburton was asked about the choke gesture after the game.

"In the moment, I wasn’t plotting on it or anything. Everybody wanted me to do it last year at some point, but it had to feel right. It felt right at the time," he said. "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."

Knicks fans know the infamous Reggie Miller "choke" game, where the sharpshooter scored 25 points in the fourth quarter in Game 4 of the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals. With the series tied 2-2, Miller capped his performance by hitting five three-pointers to rally past the Knicks.

After the Knicks blew their 17-point, fourth-quarter lead, the Pacers had the momentum going into the extra quarter. They would capitalize on New York's mistakes and pull out the 138-135 OT win to take a 1-0 series lead.

Haliburton finished with a team-high 31 points and his heroics helped the Pacers steal home-court advantage heading into Game 2 on Friday night.

It's just one game, but Haliburton understands the importance of the win while also putting it into perspective. When he was asked about the historical significance of the choke gesture in this Knicks-Pacers rivalry, Haliburton made it clear he knows this series isn't over. New York won Games 6 and 7 after Miller's choke and Haliburton wants to avoid that same fate.

"I've seen that 'Winning Time' doc probably like 50 times growing up, so I know that [the Pacers] didn't win the series. I would not like to repeat that," Haliburton said. "It’s just a historic moment and that was more him versus Spike [Lee], kind of the one-on-one. That felt like it was toward everybody... I think it’s really cool for me to make my own history and for this group to make their own history while also showing respect and love to the ones that came before us. Definitely a special moment and one I won’t forget."

The ghosts of Reggie Miller were alive and well at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night – and Tyrese Haliburton once again played the role of Garden villain to perfection.

Haliburton tied the game with a wild jumper at the buzzer in regulation, then helped Indiana complete an unprecedented 14-point comeback in the final reel to beat the New York Knicks 138-135 in overtime in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.

The Pacers now hold a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven-games series for a trip to the NBA finals after pulling off one of the most improbable finishes in playoff history.

New York led 119-105 with under three minutes remaining in regulation, seemingly in complete command. According to ESPN Research, their win probability was 99.7%. Jalen Brunson had returned from foul trouble and was attacking the goal with the bite, balance and GPS in the paint of a peak Allen Iverson. Karl-Anthony Towns was stretching the floor and punishing mismatches. A sold-out Garden crowd of 19,812 was in full throat and ready to spill outside into the rain-soaked celebrations that were already sweeping down Seventh Avenue. Instead, it was brought to a church-like hush as the Knicks unraveled completely, outscored 31-14 in the final 2:51 of regulation and overtime.

Aaron Nesmith sparked the Pacers’ comeback with a barrage of three-pointers, burying five in the final three and a half minutes of the fourth quarter. He finished with 30 points on 8-of-9 shooting from beyond the arc, including back-to-back makes and a pair of free throws after the Knicks fouled him intentionally so he couldn’t tie the game with another.

“It’s unreal,” said Nesmith, a fifth-year swingman who averaged 12.0 points per game in the regular season. “It’s probably the best feeling in the world for me. I love it when that basket feels like an ocean and anything you toss up, you feel like it’s going to go in. It’s so much fun.”

Even with Nesmith’s late heroics, Indiana still trailed by two in the final seconds. Haliburton recovered from a loose dribble, stepped back near the three-point line and launched a high-arcing jumper just before the horn. It bounced high off the back rim, hung in the air for what felt like an eternity before dropping through the cylinder. He sprinted to the sideline and flashed a choke gesture – a direct nod to Miller’s infamous 1994 taunt aimed at Spike Lee.

Video replay confirmed Haliburton’s toe was on the line. The basket counted for two, tying the game at 125 and forcing the five-minute extra frame.

Indiana’s Andrew Nembhard then came alive in a see-saw overtime with a three-pointer followed by two go-ahead layups – the second giving the Pacers a 136-135 lead with 26.7 seconds left. A deflected pass off Brunson’s fingertips turned the ball back over to Indiana, and former Knick Obi Toppin slammed home a breakaway dunk with 10.9 seconds remaining to seal the win, Indiana’s fourth comeback from 15 points or more down in these playoffs.

“I’m so proud of the resilience of this group, we’ve shown it all year,” Haliburton said. “We’ve had to win in so many different, random, unique ways and today we just kept going, kept fighting, and man, that’s fun.”

It wasn’t Miller’s eight points in 8.9 seconds to silence the Garden in the 1995 Eastern Conference semi-finals. It was somehow worse. And not just because Miller had a courtside seat for the carnage while commentating on the game for TNT.

Haliburton finished with 31 points and 11 assists. Nembhard added 15 points, including seven in overtime. Pascal Siakam scored 17, and Myles Turner contributed 14. The Pacers shot 57.1% from the field and 17-of-30 from deep, surviving New York’s fourth-quarter surge – including 14 unanswered points as Brunson sat with five fouls – and executing flawlessly down the stretch.

It was a collapse of historic proportions for New York, who appeared to have the game in hand after a 19-3 run midway through the fourth that opened a 111-94 lead. Since play-by-play tracking began in 1997-98, teams leading by 14 or more points with less than 2:45 remaining in regulation had been 994-0. The Knicks are now the one-in-a-thousand outlier.

The incandescent Brunson poured in 43 points and five assists but was hampered by foul trouble for much of the fourth quarter. Towns, who had struggled mightily from deep in the previous round against Boston, responded with 35 points and 12 rebounds, including 4-of-8 from three. OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges each added 16 points, and the Knicks shot a blistering 53% from the field – but spit the bit when it mattered most.

But the night belonged to Haliburton, who is no stranger to the role of Garden heel. Last year the 25-year-old led the Pacers to a one-sided Game 7 win that ended New York’s season in the second round, departing the arena in a hoodie depicting Miller’s notorious taunt.

“It’s a long series,” Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said. “We’re not going to get too excited about this. We’ve got things to clean up. They got things to clean up. Game 2 is going to be another war.”

The overtime classic on a soggy Wednesday night in Manhattan marked the first Eastern Conference finals game at Madison Square Garden in 25 years – and, fittingly, another installment in one of the NBA’s most storied playoff rivalries. The Knicks have now reached the conference finals four times since 1994. All four times, the opponent has been Indiana. New York won those meetings in 1994 and 1999. The Pacers answered in 2000 – and now again in 2024, with another early blow on enemy hardwood.

Game 2 is Friday night at the Garden. The Knicks will have to regroup fast. The Pacers, after stealing home court in spectacular fashion, are already writing the next chapter of a rivalry that refuses to fade.

“In the playoffs, when you win, it’s the best thing ever. When you lose, it’s the worst thing ever,” Brunson said. “The best way to deal with all that is to stay level-headed and making sure we have each other’s backs.”