Who’s Most to Blame for New York Knicks' All-Time Choke Job vs. Indiana Pacers?
With just over six minutes left in the fourth quarter of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the New York Knicks were up 17 on the Indiana Pacers. With 2:51 left, after New York had already coughed up some of that lead, Jalen Brunson hit a three that put his team up 14 and bumped its "win probability" to 99.7 percent.
But the Pacers were clearly looking at their 0.3 percent chance to win like Han Solo entering an asteroid field. In under three minutes, they outscored the Knicks 20-6, forced overtime and eventually won the game in that extra period.
It was their third almost unbelievable win of this postseason.
But they didn't pull off the miracle on their own. A comeback of that magnitude also takes a collapse, and the Knicks certainly had one.
Now, it's time to divvy up the blame pie. Below, you'll find who bears the most responsibility for Wednesday night.
5. Jalen Brunson
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The 2024-25 Clutch Player of the Year did manage to score 12 points in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter and overtime, but he also turned the ball over three times (and got pretty lucky on a couple other near giveaways).
As he's sometimes prone to do, Brunson looked more intent on drawing fouls than running the offense or looking to score. Two of his three turnovers were of that variety down the stretch. And the seven total that he finished the game with were a big part of Indiana winning the points-off-turnovers battle, 27-4.
Brunsons also committed five fouls prior to the aforementioned closing kick, which forced him to defend far more carefully down the stretch. To avoid that disqualifying sixth foul, he had to back off a few Pacers' scoring opportunities.
It may seem like shoveling any amount of blame on the guy who had 43 points on 15-of-25 shooting is unfair, but he wasn't able to close this game out like he has so many times before.
4. New York's Defense. All of it.
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Giving up 20 points in under three minutes feels borderline impossible. Even giving up 40 in 10 minutes is hard to imagine.
But the New York Knicks did both, and it was a team-wide effort to pull off those feats.
Aaron Nesmith hit five threes in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter and overtime.
On the first, Brunson got swallowed up by a screen (in part because he may have been trying to sell a foul), and Karl-Anthony Towns showed no help. On the next, Mikal Bridges started to go under a ball screen but just stopped altogether, giving Nesmith an open pull-up. Shortly after that, he simply found some open space on the weak side of a teammate's drive. With under a minute left, OG Anunoby and KAT didn't talk through a ball screen, and Nesmith drilled a triple from several feet beyond the line. And finally, with under 30 seconds to play, Josh Hart failed to get around a pin-down screen in the corner, and Nesmith hit the three to cut the lead to two.
As Draymond Green said during Inside the NBA, Mitchell Robinson probably should've switched on that last one. In fact, New York should've been much more willing to switch any screen Nesmith was involved with. The potential downside is a big man getting beat off the dribble, but the Knicks should've been more willing to live with that than with a 43.1 percent three-point shooter taking open jumpers.
If New York could've scrambled more aggressively on even two or three of those shots (or on any of the other possessions Indiana scored on), they almost certainly wouldn't have coughed up a lead this big.
3. Tyrese Haliburton
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Over the same 10-minute stretch we've been looking at, Tyrese Haliburton had eight points and four assists and was a plus-16.
And with his team down two on the final possession, he ran back a play from his first-round series against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Despite having the ball in the paint, Haliburton did a quick about-face, quickly dribbled out to the three-point line and launched a turnaround jumper. The bounce was reminiscent of Kawhi Leoanrd's legendary game-winner in 2019.
And though Haliburton's toe barely clipped the three-point line, his celebration/homage to Reggie Miller was still warranted.
He hit a ridiculous shot from 23 feet out, immediately after speed dribbling away from the hoop.
If there was a Clutch Player of the Playoffs, Haliburton would undoubtedly be the leader in the clubhouse, especially after Wednesday's heroics.
2. Karl-Anthony Towns and OG Anunoby
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Most major comebacks (or collapses) are feature a common issue for the losing team: missed free throws.
And for the Knicks, there are two culprits whose missed freebies gave a little more life to the hard-charging Pacers.
With 14.1 seconds left and New York up two, Karl-Anthony Towns headed to the line for two. He made the first and missed the second. New York intentionally fouled on the ensuing possession (the whole "foul up three" gambit), and Nesmith hit both free throws.
Then, after Indiana fouled OG Anunoby and sent him to the line, the second highest-paid Knick missed the first of two free throws.
That set up the miraculous Haliburton jumper that sent the game to overtime.
Had Towns, Anunoby or both simply made those free throws, New York would likely be up 1-0 in the series.
1. Aaron Nesmith
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As fun or easy as it may be to cast blame on the losing team, sometimes, you have to tip your cap to the opposition.
Yes, the Knicks could've defended him better down the stretch. A few more plays from Brunson would've gone a long way. Towns and Anunoby hitting their free throws almost certainly would've changed the outcome.
But Nesmith had to hit the shots available to him in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter and overtime, and that's exactly what he did.
During that stretch, he dropped 20 points. In the regular season, he only hit the 20-point mark five times.
This was a borderline out-of-body basketball experience, and Nesmith deserves credit for shooting his way through it and leading his team to a road victory.
