Haliburton and Pacers stun Knicks with epic comeback in Game 1 of East finals
The ghosts of Reggie Miller were alive and well at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night – and Tyrese Haliburton once again played the role of Garden villain to perfection,Haliburton helped Indiana complete an unprecedented 14-point comeback in the final reel, tying the game with a wild jumper at the buzzer in regulation, to beat the New York Knicks 138-135 in overtime in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals,The Pacers now hold a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven-games series for a trip to the NBA finals after pulling off one of the most improbable finishes in playoff history,New York led 119-105 with under three minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, seemingly in complete command,According to ESPN Research, their win probability was 99.
7%,Jalen Brunson had returned from foul trouble and was attacking the goal with the bite, balance and GPS in the paint of a peak Allen Iverson,Karl-Anthony Towns was stretching the floor and punishing mismatches,A sold-out Garden crowd of 19,812 was in full throat and primed to spill outside into the rain-soaked celebrations that were already popping off along Seventh Avenue,Instead, it was brought to a church-like hush as the Knicks unraveled completely, outscored 31-14 in the final 2:51 of regulation and overtime.
Aaron Nesmith sparked the Pacers’ fightback with a barrage of three-pointers, burying five in the final three and a half minutes of the fourth quarter.He finished with 30 points on 8-of-9 shooting from beyond the arc, including back-to-back makes and a pair of free throws after the Knicks fouled him intentionally so he couldn’t tie the game with another.“It’s unreal,” said Nesmith, a fifth-year swingman who averaged 12.0 points per game in the regular season.“It’s probably the best feeling in the world for me.
I love it when that basket feels like an ocean and anything you toss up, you feel like it’s going to go in.It’s so much fun.”Even with Nesmith’s late heroics, Indiana still trailed by a pair in the final seconds.Haliburton recovered from a loose dribble, stepped back near the three-point line and launched a high-arcing jumper right before the horn.It bounced high off the back rim, hung in the air for what felt like an eternity before dropping cleanly through the cylinder.
He immediately sprinted to the celebrity-dotted sideline near midcourt and flashed a choke gesture, a direct nod to Miller’s infamous 1994 taunt aimed at Spike Lee.Video replay confirmed Haliburton’s toe was on the line.The basket counted for two, tying the game at 125 and forcing the five-minute extra frame.Indiana’s Andrew Nembhard then came alive in a back-and-forth overtime period with a three-pointer followed by two go-ahead layups, the second giving the Pacers a 136-135 lead with 26.7 seconds left.
A deflected pass off Brunson’s fingertips turned the ball back over to Indiana, and former Knick Obi Toppin slammed home a breakaway dunk with 10,9 seconds remaining to seal the win, the Pacers’ fourth comeback from 15 points or more down in these playoffs,“I’m so proud of the resilience of this group, we’ve shown it all year,” Haliburton said,“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,”It wasn’t Miller’s eight points in 8.
9 seconds to silence the Garden in the 1995 Eastern Conference semi-finals.It was somehow worse.And not just because Miller had a courtside seat for the carnage while commentating on the game for TNT.“Defensively, we let off the gas.The intensity and physicality weren’t there,” the Knicks’ Josh Hart confessed.
“Offensively, we were playing slower, and more stagnant.It looked like we were playing not to lose.”Haliburton finished with 31 points and 11 assists.Nembhard added 15 points, including seven in overtime.Pascal Siakam scored 17, and Myles Turner contributed 14.
The Pacers shot 57.1% from the field and 17-of-30 from deep, surviving New York’s fourth-quarter surge – including 14 unanswered points as Brunson sat with five fouls – and executing flawlessly down the stretch.It was a collapse of historic proportions for New York, who appeared to have the game in hand after a 19-3 run midway through the fourth that opened a 111-94 lead.Since play-by-play tracking began in 1997-98, teams leading by 14 or more points with less than 2:45 remaining in regulation had been 994-0.The Knicks are now the one-in-a-thousand outlier.
The incandescent Brunson poured in 43 points and five assists but was hampered by foul trouble for much of the fourth quarter.Towns, who had struggled mightily from deep in the previous round against Boston, responded with 35 points and 12 rebounds, including 4-of-8 from three.OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges each added 16 points while the Knicks shot a blistering 53% from the field – only to spit the bit when it mattered most.Instead the night belonged to Haliburton, who is no stranger to the role of Garden heel.Last year the 25-year-old led the Pacers to a one-sided Game 7 win that ended New York’s season in the second round, departing the arena in a hoodie depicting Miller’s notorious gesture.
But the visitors were quick to put Wednesday’s stunner behind them.“It’s a long series,” Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said.“We’re not going to get too excited about this.We’ve got things to clean up.They got things to clean up.
Game 2 is going to be another war,”The overtime classic on a soggy Wednesday night in Manhattan marked the first Eastern Conference finals game at Madison Square Garden in 25 years – and, fittingly, another white-knuckle installment in one of the NBA’s most storied playoff rivalries,The Knicks have now reached the conference finals four times since 1994,All four times, the opponent has been Indiana,New York won those meetings in 1994 and 1999.
The Pacers answered in 2000 – and now again in 2024, with another devastating blow on enemy hardwood,They say everything old is new again: Knicks v Hicks is back,Game 2 is Friday night at the Garden,New York will have to regroup fast,The Pacers, after stealing home-court advantage in spectacular fashion, are already penning the next chapter of a rivalry that refuses to fade.
“In the playoffs, when you win, it’s the best thing ever.When you lose, it’s the worst thing ever,” Brunson said.“The best way to deal with all that is to stay level-headed and making sure we have each other’s backs.”
Arena: if you liked Rocky, you’ll love Rocky with monsters
There are two questions you need to ask before deciding to watch the 1989 sci-fi action film Arena. One: did you enjoy Rocky? And two: what if Rocky fought a giant space armadillo? Because Arena is for those of us who saw Sylvester Stallone’s tale of a pugilist underdog and liked it well enough – but felt it needed more monsters.Two people who definitely thought this were the director, Peter Manoogian, and the B-movie impresario Charles Band, whose Empire International Pictures made a raft of other terrific horror and sci-fi throughout the 80s including Re-Animator, From Beyond and the underrated Trancers.Like all good sports movies, Arena’s story is one of a protagonist up against the odds. In this case: Steve Armstrong (Paul Satterfield), a diner chef aboard an intergalactic space station with a knack for fisticuffs and strong sense of social justice
From ‘convict stain’ to badge of honour: Tasmania’s early criminals inspire celebrated musical
In 1802 Martha Hayes was transported from England to what was then called Van Diemen’s Land, accompanying her convict mother. The teenager was the first white female to set foot in the new colony and, having become pregnant on the voyage, she gave birth to the first white child – a baby girl – on the island we now call Lutruwita/Tasmania.While that child had a convict grandmother, her father was Lt John Bowen, a colonial administrator who led the first white settlement at Risdon Cove.Martha’s story is symbolic of so many Tasmanian family trees post-colonisation: part-convict, part-free settler or colonial master. It’s one of 17 brought to life in the musical theatre show Vandemonian Lags, co-written by the musician Mick Thomas of Weddings, Parties, Anything fame and his film-maker brother Steve
‘We wanted Torvill and Dean skating in the video!’ How we made Godley & Creme’s Cry
‘Machines were revolutionising recording. We were told to lay down a 20-second backing track, a guide vocal – then go and play table tennis’Lol Creme and I left 10cc at the height of the success because we felt things were starting to become repetitive. We came from an art school background and we were thinking visually. Even at that stage, there were two film-makers waiting to come out.We made a short video to promote our single An Englishman in New York, and thought the medium was brilliant
Margaret Atwood’s 10 best books – ranked!
After more than 30 years, Atwood caved to pleas to write a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale. Not since Harry Potter had a publication caused such a sensation: computers were hacked in search of the manuscript and advance copies were kept under lock and key. With classic Atwood timing, the novel coincided with the phenomenal success of the TV adaptation of the original – not to mention the arrival of Trump at the White House. The Testaments won Atwood her second Booker prize, shared (controversially) with Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other.A world ravaged by a deadly global pandemic? Atwood got there first in her dystopian MaddAddam trilogy, which also includes The Year of the Flood (2009) and MaddAddam (2013)
I’m addicted to watching brides dance to Beyoncé. They’ve taught me the true meaning of love
On 6 October 2016, the Canadian pop singer and reality star Melissa Molinaro posted her video “MELISSA MOLINARO WEDDING PERFORMANCE” and shifted the course of my life for ever.The video, which has been viewed 33m times, opens with Molinaro strutting into a wedding venue straight out of a Selling Sunset finale. Her brand new husband perches on a single chair, like a king awaiting his (sexy) jester. The dance starts sensually, with two backup dancers adorned in peach leotards. All three vow their commitment to one husband through hair flicks and quick snaps
My cultural awakening: a Pulp song made me realise I was in love with my best friend
The first time Gordon and I kissed I thought we’d made a terrible mistake. It was 1995, we were both 20 years old, and we were drinking at our university bar in Leicester. We had formed a friendship over the previous three years, but I had never considered Gordon in a romantic light. He was a goth at the time, which I thought was very cool, and he had this fruity, posh voice – whereas I was a timid girl from south London with a terrible perm. I remember Gordon leaning in to give me this very innocent, tentative kiss, but it caught me off guard
Australia approves new drug to treat early Alzheimer’s disease
Heavy periods affect school attendance and exam scores, study in England finds
Shabana Mahmood considers chemical castration for serious sex offenders
Extra cancer scans for women with dense breasts could save 700 lives a year – UK study
‘It’s all people wanted to talk about’: How Labour U-turned on winter fuel payment cut
More community sentences in England and Wales could be ‘catastrophic’, warns watchdog