Why Knicks Vs. Pacers Game 1 Did Not Disappoint

In what was one of, if not the best game of this year’s playoffs thus far, the Indiana Pacers mounted an extremely improbable comeback over the New York Knicks and stole game 1. It was almost as if God himself was guiding every Pacers shot in the 4th quarter into the rim with his touch. Indiana has been no stranger to snatching victory from the jaws of defeat during this postseason, and last night was just their latest basketball miracle.

To put it into context just how miraculous this Pacers comeback was, they scored 23 points in the final 3:14 of regulation, which is the most in the final 3:14 of regulation of a playoff game in the play-by-play era, according to Tim Reynolds. NBA teams were 0-970 in the playoffs over the last 27 years when trailing by 14+ points with under 2:50 left in regulation and with their win last night, Indiana became the first team to win under such conditions, according to Keerthika Uthayakumar. Indiana quite literally did multiple things that have never been done before in order to pull out this win, so let’s dive into how they stole this victory.

The headlines will go to Tyrese Haliburton and his recreation of Reggie Miller’s iconic choking celebration but the true catalyst of Indiana’s comeback was Aaron Nesmith. Nesmith recorded 20 points in the fourth quarter, which included going 6 of 7 from behind the arc. Some of the three pointers that Nesmith was taking and making were nothing short of incredible.

To Indiana’s credit, they continued to feed the hot hand, and trusted Nesmith wholeheartedly to continue making the shots he did. Pascal Siakam recognized that Karl Anthony Towns was matched up on Nesmith here, and also saw that OG Anunoby was deep. So Siakam pitched it to Nesmith, easily jammed Towns up on a screen, and with Anunoby being so deep it allowed Nesmith to walk right into a deep three and sink it.

Continuing to feed the hot hand, Indiana ran Nesmith off a pin down screen on the wing, and with the way Nesmith was shooting, Josh Hart felt compelled to close out as hard as possible which caused him to lose his balance after Nesmith attacked his closeout. Nesmith then sank an incredibly difficult movement three to bring the Pacers within two points.

After some brutal missed free throws by New York, Indiana got the ball back with the chance to tie or take the lead. Haliburton, who had been outstanding thus far in the game, and in these playoffs, blew past Mikal Bridges which forced Mitchell Robinson to slide over and switch onto him. Haliburton then proceeded to run back behind the three point line and fire up a shot that bounced off the rim, hung in the air for what seemed like forever, and eventually dropped in to tie the game. Nobody on the Knicks could seem to contain Haliburton and he was able to score from every level of the floor, and this shot was no different.

With the game headed into overtime, the game was still up for grabs, but Indiana ultimately snatched the game away. Indiana hunted Jalen Brunson relentlessly in overtime, and the rewards they reaped were worthwhile.

Indiana had Andrew Nembard bring the ball up the floor in order for them to attack Brunson immediately. Indiana emptied a side out in order to give Nembhard as much space to work with as possible. With a ball screen from Nesmtih forcing Brunson to switch onto the ball, Nembard wasted no time driving on Brunson and ultimately getting the layup to fall.

Here, Haliburton forces Brunson to switch onto him, which then causes Hart to be caught ball watching which led to Nembhard slipping backdoor for the wide open layup. The Knicks energy seemed to be down during the final period of the game, the defense was lousy, the effort on the glass wasn’t there anymore either, and Indiana had no problem taking advantage of that.

Indiana ran a great SLOB(Sideline Out of Bounds Play) that freed up Obi Toppin for a dunk that extended their lead to 3. Rick Carlisle had Haliburton stand in the backcourt, Siakam stand high above the key, and Nesmith spaced on the weak-side wing. With this play design, there was nobody in the paint for New York, and the distance they would have to travel to help made it difficult to do so. Carlisle had Haliburton run off a screen from Siakam to occupy their defenders. With Nembhard inbounding the ball, he got it right back from Toppin, who set the screen and then slipped behind Robinson and had the lane for the open dunk.

Although this game was lost in an improbable way, it will force New York to reflect on themselves. Although New York was able to score seemingly at will, their defense was also giving up an exorbitant amount of points, and this level of defense is not tenable for an entire series. The Knicks starting lineup had a defensive rating of 167.4, and gave up 77 points while they were on the floor, per Tommy Beer. Towns as the full time rim protector has never been good, and New York seriously needs to consider running with Robinson in the starting lineup, in order to keep Towns out of these disadvantageous situations. Haliburton was able to have his way with the Knicks defense frequently because they were playing Towns in a deep drop, allowing Haliburton to walk into threes, or get to the middle of the floor easily.

There is still plenty of basketball left to play in this series, and if game 1 was any indicator, this series will be incredible.