A Knicks fan on the court riled up Tyrese Haliburton, just like Spike Lee did to Reggie Miller nearly 30 years earlier.
This one was even worse for the Knicks.
Fired up by the unknown heckler, Haliburton led Indiana to a 130-109 rout of the Knicks in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals Sunday at the Garden.
Then Haliburton donned a hoodie with a photo of Miller’s famous choke pose, just to troll the team he had just sent packing in the offseason.
Haliburton led the Pacers with 26 points, six assists and four rebounds. But spurred on by rowdy fans even before the alert, the All-Star leader came out white hot with 14 points in the first quarter to allow the Pacers to take a 39-27 lead, which they have just completed until ‘at 23 during an eruption.
“You like this?” Haliburton yelled at the fan after a three-pointer that gave Indiana a 34-22 lead with 2:03 left in the first.
“He was talking right before the game,” Haliburton said of the fan on the field. “He was speaking before the match. It seemed like whoever sat in that seat in all the shows had something to tell me. So once I started, I knew I was going to pick someone today to get started and it just so happened to be him.
“That got me going in the first quarter and we kept going. But I think it’s the game within the game, the fun of this environment.
The environment included a noisy, sold-out crowd of 19,812, one of which had unexpected consequences. Like Lee had done.
Even before Miller scored eight points in 8.9 seconds to beat the Knicks in Game 1 of the 1995 Eastern Conference semifinals, Lee had already sparked a rivalry with him.
The iconic filmmaker and Knicks superfan had taunted Miller during the previous season’s Eastern Conference Finals and lit a fire under the Pacer star.
Miller scored 25 fourth-quarter points in Game 5 while going back and forth with Lee, giving the latter his famous choke move.
At least the Knicks won the last two games of this series to reach the 1994 NBA Finals. But on Sunday, the Knicks were sent back into their offseason.
And they were sent there by a trailing Haliburton, wearing a funeral black hoodie with a huge photo of Miller’s infamous choke pose.
“Yeah, I mean, we text every day. I mean, he’s just been a good mentor to me. But I mean, I’m just wearing a hoodie; I like to be comfortable on the plane,” Haliburton said, tongue firmly in cheek. “I received this hoodie about two days ago; so I appreciate whoever gave it to me.
And the Pacers appreciated that the latest Knicks fan ignited one of their stars.
“Tyrese, Tyrese does what he does. The fans helped him (Sunday), talking to him,” ex-Knick Obi Toppin said of Haliburton. “So he did what he had to do and helped us get this one.”
New York Post
