Daily Tribune‘We played a lot of games where it felt like the other team had control.’
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TYRESE Haliburton (middle) and the Indiana Pacers celebrate after pulling off a come-from-behind win over the New York Knicks in overtime, 138-135, in Game 1 of their NBA Eastern Conference best-of-seven finals series.
Photograph courtesy of Indiana Pacers
NEW YORK (AFP) — The Indiana Pacers pulled off an extraordinary fourth-quarter comeback to beat the New York Knicks, 138-135, in overtime in Game 1 of the National Basketball Association (NBA) Eastern Conference finals on Wednesday.
The Knicks, playing in the conference finals for the first time in 25 years, had been in charge of the contest at Madison Square Garden and led by 14 points with 2:51 left in the game before the Pacers suddenly came alive.
In stunning fashion, Indiana sank six straight three-pointers down the stretch, five of them from Aaron Nesmith.
The Pacers were an inch away from winning the game in regulation when, with the final play of the fourth quarter, Tyrese Haliburton backed out of the three-point arc and his shot while back-pedaling hit the rim and bounced in.
The Pacers, who were 17 points down at one stage in the fourth, celebrated what they thought was a famous victory.
But the video replay showed that Haliburton’s foot was on the three-point line and the shot was downgraded to a two-point shot, meaning the game went to overtime.
The stunned Knicks regrouped and led by a point with 35.2 seconds of overtime remaining when Jalen Brunson made a driving, floating jump shot.
But a lay-up from Andrew Nembhard and then a six-foot dunk from Obi Toppin secured a thrilling win for the Pacers.
Haliburton topscored for the Pacers with 31 points and 11 assists while Nesmith ended with 30 points on 8-from-9 three-point shooting.
“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 today we just kept going, kept fighting, and man, that’s fun,” Haliburton told broadcasters TNT.
The win was the Pacer’s fourth comeback from 15 points or more down during the post-season.
“We played a lot of games where it felt like the other team had control,” Haliburton said.
