New York – Imagine such an unlikely loss that one of the kind has never occurred before. A breathtaking loss that it silenced the city that never sleeps.
New York Knicks fans have seen everything. But they have never seen this.
This has been made evident since the horrible walk inside Madison Square Garden in the streets of Manhattan while hundreds of fans have dropped out of the stairs like zombies, the only noise from the grinding of wet shoes as they touched the steps. Some eyes are still large. A little red. Not a soul with anything to say. New Yorkers have remained speechless. New York.
“Why is it so calm?” The star of Indiana Pacers, Tyrese Haliburton, shouted when he was the victory returned to the locker room.
For what? The unimaginable had occurred.
In the first game of the Eastern Conference final on Wednesday evening, New York led by 14 points with 2:51 to play. People were heading for outings after Jalen Brunson crossed the net. Some people had already gone. Then things have become weird. Not yet worrying, but weird. With 58 seconds remaining in regulation, Brunson put the Knicks to 9 with a lay-up. Admittedly, it was the game. The roars of those who remain inside Madison Square Garden suggested that at least.
Then the discomfort started to slip.
A three -point ball after a 3 -point ball by the Pacers reduced the gap. Aaron Nesmith of Indiana did not do what no player before him did and broke six 3 in the fourth quarter of an eliminatory match, three in the last minute. In a few seconds, the Knicks found themselves on the defensive. The Indiana ball, New York leading by 2 and Haliburton with another chance of being a heel.
The pacers goalkeeper dribbling the terrain, crossed and sinks into painting as if he is content with many overtime. Then, in a fraction of a second, Haliburton decided to dribble back to hoist a prayer and go for the victory. The ball hit the back of the rim and climbed into the heavens. It was almost as if Haliburton asked the basketball gods to bless the ball with a kiss, because he returned and dropped through the net with grace. It would have been a 3-point if the size of the Indiana Star Guard shoe was a smaller half-stall. Instead, it was a pointer in 2. over time.
From there, the Pacers, just as they did in each team this playoff series, survived New York 138-135. However, more specifically, the Knicks have lost historically.
Per Elias Sports, no team of nine points or more in the last minute of the regulation or overtime had won an eliminatory match since 1998. The record was 0-1,414. Now, it is 1-1,414. In addition, since 1997, no team has lost an eliminatory match leading to 14 or more with 2:50 to play in payment or extension. The main team was 977-0 on Wednesday. Now it’s 977-1.
“We did not do what we had to do; if not, we would be here to speak of a completely different ball game,” said Karl-Anthony Towns of New York. “There are a lot of things we have done good, to put ourselves in position to win. It’s about … and I said it several times, running and discipline for 48 minutes.
“We have played 46 good minutes. These last two minutes are where we lost the match. It’s on all of us.”
New York made its bones in the playoffs by doing what Indiana did in match 1. All the playoffs, it was the Knicks who ripped the souls of their opponents with heroic end of games. New York did it several times against the Strait pistons. He did it again and again against the Celtics of Boston-Champion in defense. It was always New York who would play his best basketball when things would have tightened.
So whether it is the chances of catching up with the knicks or simply a dose of their own medication, they lost and they could have done it differently.
For 46 minutes, New York was fairly clear in its defensive covers. In the last two minutes of regulation and most overtime, this was not the case. The Knicks did not go up to the screen level in their cover of Pick-And-Roll, which allowed Nesmith to enter training shots and to light the unlikely victory for Indiana. In the most critical moments of the game, the knicks were beaten on cuts. They did not control the glass, which helped them to set up at 14 years old. They did not get bigger when the coach wanted them to do it, allowing Indiana to remove a game of games out of limits.
For 48 minutes, New York did a good job to take care of basketball. In overtime, this is not the case. The Knicks finished the match with 15 reversals, and three came in the last 150 seconds of overtime, with New York with one or down by one. The Knicks offensive stagnated at the end of the match. He missed free throws. He precipitated the shots he did not need. It was as if he played with similar arrogance that Boston showed by leading Big at the end of games 1 and 2 of the last series, and we all know how these games ended.
The Knicks played with their food. Indiana has torn off the table of the table.
“Our intensity has dropped,” said Josh Hart. “We started playing more slowly. We played more in their hands. We let that slide. Now we just have to make sure that tomorrow we enter and watch a film where we have to get better. Friday.”
If you need a silver lining of match 1, New York was the best basketball team for most of the competition. The pace of Indiana did not seem to disturb the Knicks until the end, when the team’s collective head was running. Indiana could not prevent Brunnson (43 points) and the cities (35 points) from scoring until the match was at stake. New York was going to have to dominate the glass to win this series, and that did it until the Pacers feel blood in the water.
Oh, and one more thing: when Haliburton struck the shot that sent the match in overtime, which he thought was a 3 -point pointer to win him, he wrapped his hands around his neck. People around these parts know what it was referring to. If you do not do it, it was an ode to the legend of the Pacers Reggie Miller, who did the same thing towards Spike Lee in match 5 of the semi-finals of the Eastern Conference in 1995. The Indiana won a miraculous return victory that night, and Miller scored 25 of his 39 points in the fourth quarter.
People forget that New York has won this series.
Perhaps the story will repeat itself and this result will only be a little comic relief in the trip of the Knicks to the NBA final. Or maybe it is the type of loss that breaks the mind of a team. We have seen the valiant efforts from New York to do this to his opponents this qualifying series.
We will discover it on Friday.
“Obviously, it’s not a good feeling, but there is a lot of basketball to play,” said Brunson. “We can’t sulk. We just have to get better.”
(Photo of Josh Hart: Sarah Stier / Getty Images)
