The Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks met up for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Wednesday night, and the game did not disappoint. Just like they have done all throughout the playoffs so far, the Pacers proved that they are among the most resilient teams in the NBA as they stole a victory in Madison Square Garden to take a 1-0 series lead and get a little bit closer to achieving their NBA Finals dreams.
With less than three minutes left in regulation, the Knicks had a 14-point lead over the Pacers, and it looked like victory was inevitable. However, after late-game heroics (mostly from Aaron Nesmith), Indiana had the ball with just seconds remaining in the game and were only down by two. In a bit of a miraculous shot, Tyrese Haliburton made a deep shot as time expired.
Initially, it looked like a three-point field goal to give the Pacers the win. However, in a fashion very similar to Kevin Durant's infamous shot against the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2021 NBA Playoffs, Haliburton's foot was on the line, meaning the game was headed to overtime.
This could have been a disaster for the Pacers--to have an amazing comeback fall short because of Haliburton's shoe size. Fortunately for him and the team, the Pacers won in overtime. In a night filled with chaos, it seemed that Indiana was destined to win this game. And now that they have, they are just three wins away from making their first NBA FInals appearance in over two decades.
Tyrese Haliburton is continuing to do what he is best at
The Pacers have become one of the most clutch teams in the NBA, and a lot of that is because of Haliburton. When he has the ball in his hands late in the game, the Wisconsin native knows how to take over. He did it multiple times in the regular season and the playoffs, and he did it again on Wednesday.
Indiana and the Knicks match up well against one another. In theory, each game is capable of going down to the wire, and the winner of these games could simply just be determined by who has the ball last.
Though the Pacers are a clutch team, so are the Knicks. More specifically, Jalen Brunson was arguably the most clutch player in the entire league in the regular season, having hit 16 go-ahead or game-tying field goals within the last two minutes of the game. This is a legitimate trend that the Pacers must watch out for the rest of the way. Regardless, it did not matter in Game 1 as Indiana got the last laugh. How they will carry this momentum over remains to be seen. Either way, Pacers fans just got another reason to believe this may finally be the year, even if Haliburton's shoes wanted to write a different story.