They have renamed 15 streets across New York in honor of the players who dragged the Knicks to this point, the crossroads of history.
But at the end of a bonkers night, after 25 years of waiting and a few short minutes of carnage, after a brief interruption from Mary J. Blige, a scarcely-believable finale and one nerve-shredding dose of overtime, it was Tyrese Haliburton, Aaron Nesmith and the Indiana Pacers who took a first step down another path signposted: Promised Land.
Where to even start with what unfolded inside Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night? How to make sense of the chaos in the closing stages of this opening game of the Eastern Conference Finals? How did the Knicks lose this? How do the Knicks recover from this?
New York had already served up some remarkable late drama in this postseason. Here, they stole defeat from victory with a quite astonishing collapse. Here, they choked, if you ask Haliburton, who stunned MSG with a last-gasp, game-tying score and then wrapped his hands around his neck.
Just as Hall of Famer Reggie Miller did. Three decades ago, while inspiring another Pacers comeback, he made a choke gesture at Spike Lee and wrote one of the many chapters of this remarkable rivalry. On the evidence of Game 1, the ninth Pacers-Knicks postseason series could be another classic.
The Knicks had this won. With 2:51 on the clock, they led by 14 points. With under a minute left, the cushion was nine and a party was breaking outside inside MSG. But Aaron Nesmith made three three-pointers in 29 seconds and then Haliburton made another on the buzzer. Or so he thought.
Tyrese Haliburton inspired a miraculous comeback against the New York Knicks at MSG
The Pacers guard tied the game before Indiana won Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals
Haliburton is mobbed by his teammates after rescuing his team in a dramatic finale
Jalen Brunson and the Knicks led by 14 points with just 2:51 on the clock on Wednesday night
Tracy Morgan, Timothee Chalamet and Ben Stiller were among the celebrities left in shock
The ball clattered into the rim and hung in the air for a moment. Long enough for cheers to be heard from the stands. Then the net rippled, the Pacers bench emptied and Haliburton taunted the crowd.
The Pacers had this won. Only for replays to show that Haliburton’s toenail was on the line. And so we headed for overtime and MSG was put through another few minutes of drama.
By the time Haliburton had his hands on the ball once more, with only milliseconds to go, this great arena had been gutted and silenced.
In the end, the Pacers escaped with a 138-135 victory that edges them closer to a second NBA Finals – and a first since 2000. For the Knicks, questions about how they let this slip will only relent once they right the wrong. They can’t put their fans through this again on Friday night, can they?
According to ESPN statistics, New York’s win probability was 99.8 percent late in the fourth quarter. Between 1998 and Wednesday night, teams who trailed a postseason game by nine or more points in the final minute of the fourth quarter – or overtime – were 0-1,414. Brutal.
Once again, no one could match Jalen Brunson’s haul (43 points). But he was on the bench for a 14-0 run in the fourth quarter that looked to have put New York out of sight. In just two-and-a-half minutes, Karl-Anthony Towns and OG Anunoby wrest this game into New York’s hands.
But we should have known. History told us that plenty more drama lay in wait. These teams met six times between 1993 and 2000, stitching together a rivalry that helped shape the modern-day NBA.
Karl-Anthony Towns, who scored 15 points in the first half, celebrates after adding to his tally
Toppin climbs for a dunk as the Knicks and Pacers looked to draw first blood in the series
Lee, Miller, eight points, nine seconds, one headbutt… it was a brutal, brilliant run. Their paths crossed again in 2013 and in last season’s conference semi-finals. The Pacers won that in seven and are 5-1 since 1995.
A quarter of a century ago, the last time these two met at this stage of the season, Rick Brunson was a benchwarmer for the Knicks. His son Jalen was only three. Haliburton, meanwhile, was barely three months old.
They are now two of the league’s finest talents and here they went toe-to-toe. It was Box Office stuff. Then Brunson took a seat and his teammates took over. New York, it seemed, would draw first blood, just as Oklahoma City had done out west, against the Timberwolves on Tuesday night.
The Pacers, it seemed, would have to come from behind as they go in search of a first NBA championship. The Knicks have been looking for their third since 1973.
But Haliburton warned them. He has inspired miraculous comebacks before and he relishes being villain of the piece. Knicks fans won’t easily forget his performance and his gesture.
Across the four major leagues, New York has been waiting a combined 100 seasons for one of its eight male powerhouses to land a new championship ring. Between them, the Knicks, Nets, Mets, Yankees, Rangers, Islanders, Jets and Giants have been firing blanks since February 2012.
But shortly after 6pm on Wednesday night, as the countdown to tip-off ticked under two hours, the crew at Madison Square Garden went through their final checks.
They tested the buzzer and the referees’ microphones and even the national anthem. All to the familiar beat of bouncing balls and squeaking sneakers, as players from both teams continued their own dry run.
Around the same time, the stands of this old arena began to sparkle. They had draped t-shirts over each of the 19,000 seats and they gifted every fan an LED bracelet too. All at once, they flashed orange and royal blue.
Miles McBride drives to the basket in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Wednesday
Knicks star Mitchell Robinson (R) is left on the floor after a collision with Obi Toppin (L)
It was a dazzling sight – even in an empty arena. It all felt a bit unnecessary, though. None of these 19,000 New Yorkers needed any gimmicks to help light the royal blue-touch paper. None needed telling what was at stake across these seven games. Permanent reminders of the past hang from the ceiling, after all.
World Champions 1972-73. Eastern Conference Champions 1988-99. For the first time in 25 years, the Knicks had a chance to improve the decor.
For a whole generation of fans, these are uncharted waters – hence the chaos after last week’s game-six win over the Celtics, when supporters poured on to the streets and hurled bras, scaled billboards and even threw the first shot of this seven-game showdown with Indiana.
One Pacers fan, wearing a Haliburton jersey, was caught up in the carnage and had a bag of trash hurled over him. The guard has offered to fly him out to Game 4. God knows what will happen between now and then.
