Nesmith's 3-point barrage, Haliburton's clutch shot rally Pacers in OT thriller

NEW YORK - The New York Knicks had a 14-point lead with less than four minutes left in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.




But the Indiana Pacers had Aaron Nesmith.




Nesmith's late three-point barrage, combined with some timely stops and another ice-in-his-veins shot by Tyrese Haliburton, sent the game into overtime and propelled the Pacers to another unlikely playoff win.




Final score: 138-135.




The game had everything: huge shots by Knicks stars Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns, offensive runs, putback dunks, timely assists and even a Reggie Miller choke by way of Haliburton.




But it all really started with sharp-shooting heroics from Nesmith, the Pacers do-it-all forward who draws the toughest defensive assignments and takes care of the dirty work.




Nesmith kept the Pacers in it just as it looked like Game 1 was getting away. When the Knicks took a 15-point lead with 4:55 left, Nesmith cut it to 12 with a three-pointer off an assist from Haliburton. It was his first of six three-pointers in the fourth quarter.




The Knicks, by the way, built their lead with star Jalen Brunson out of the game, as he'd been on the bench after picking up his fifth foul. New York turned a one-point lead into a 15-point deficit with their best scorer watching. Brunson reentered the game with a sizable lead as the Knicks worked to close things out.




With 3:44 left, Brunson sank a free throw to make it 116-102. According to ESPN Stats, the Knicks had a 99.8% win probability at that point.

Nesmith goes to work

Nesmith responded with a three-pointer to pull the Pacers within 11 at 116-105. Brunson's response? A long-range shot of his own to push the lead back to 14.




Haliburton sank a three and the Pacers finally got a defensive stop. Nesmith went on the attack again, burying a three-pointer to make it 119-111. After another defensive stop, Pascal Siakam drew a foul and hit one of two to shrink the lead to seven points.




Brunson countered with a layup to make it a nine-point game with just under a minute left. Nesmith hit another three to cut the lead to six at 121-115. After a Knicks score, Nesmith buried his fifth three of the stretch, pulling the Pacers within five at 123-118.

Indiana's defense again responded, and the Pacers maintained possession after a coach's challenge. The officials called Siakam for a foul as he and OG Anunoby battled for a contested rebound. The call broke the Pacers' way.




At this point, Nesmith was red-hot. He buried a ridiculous 30-foot shot to make it 123-121. He added a pair of free throws after Towns went one of two at the free throw line.




Anunoby also went one of two from the charity stripe, giving the Knicks a 125-123 lead with 7.1 seconds left.




It all set up another clutch shot from Haliburton, who drove into the lane, headed toward the top of the key and launched a step-back jumper. The ball bounced off the back of the rim, hung in the air for what seemed like forever and then went in as time expired.




That set up a jubilant celebration, with the Pacers rushing the court and Haliburton recreating Reggie Miller's iconic choke sign. Had the shot been a three, it would've won the game.




But Haliburton had a toe on the three-point line, so the shot was a two-pointer, which was confirmed after a review. It set up a wild overtime period in which the Pacers outscored the Knicks 13-10 to take Game 1 and a 1-0 series lead.

In OT, Andrew Nembhard was the key player, scoring seven points and finding Obi Toppin for an assist with 15.1 seconds left. Toppin's dunk was the last bucket of the game and represented the final points scored by either team.




Nesmith scored 20 points during his fourth-quarter offensive rampage. He finished the game with 30. Haliburton led Indiana with 31 points and 11 assists. Four other Pacers scored in double figures: Siakam (17), Nembhard (15), Myles Turner (14) and TJ McConnell (10).




Brunson led all scorers with 43 points. Towns added 35 points and 12 rebounds.




Game 2 is Friday night at Madison Square Garden.

Post-game reaction

"We certainly don't take anything like this for granted," said coach Rick Carlisle. "This is very difficult to do, but it's a 48-minute game. We always say Pacer basketball is 48 minutes, and tonight it was 53 minutes."




On Wednesday night, the Pacers needed every single point from Nesmith's offensive barrage.




"Double-A [Nesmith] works his tail off. Each shot that he made just kept giving us more confidence that we could really win this game," Haliburton said. "I think to do what he did today while also having to guard Jalen Brunson for probably 30 minutes is very difficult to do. What Aaron Nesmith did today can't be talked about enough."




"They were all very much needed," Carlisle said of Nesmith's late scoring run. "Aaron certainly got hot at the right time."




"I was just trying to win the basketball game," Nesmith said.




"It's unreal. It's probably the best feeling in the world for me. When that basket feels like an ocean and anything you toss up, you feel like it's going to go in, it's just so much fun," the normally low-key Nesmith said with a chuckle.




Carlisle initially thought Haliburton's shot was the game-winner. But even though it was a two, it kept the game alive.




"Look, we got to overtime, and that's good. We had five more minutes of life and found a way," Carlisle said.




Nesmith had a great view of Haliburton's clutch shot.




"I was right under the basket, so when he shot it, in all honesty, I was like, 'Oh, wow.' And then it bounced straight up and I just watched it and I was like, 'Oh, that's good.' And it went straight in. He's a special talent," Nesmith said.

As for "the choke," Haliburton conceded it would've been more effective if the shot had been a three. He doesn't plan on doing it again and said people had wanted him to reference Reggie Miller's infamous gesture since the Pacers-Knicks series last year.




"Honestly, when it went it in, I thought my eyes might have been deceiving me in a moment. But it felt good when it left my hands. I thought it was going to go in. The ball felt like it was up there for an eternity. [It was a] special moment."




The Pacers gained the early lead in the series, but they know the Knicks will rebound.




"We have great respect for these guys," Carlisle said. "They beat us two out of three during the season. I've been watching them plow through great teams [in the postseason]. It's Day 1 of 13 days."




He expects Madison Square Garden to be rocking.




"It was crazy out there," Carlisle said of Wednesday night's crowd. "The environment never disappoints here. It never disappoints here. At this time of the year, you want to go into the most hostile, the most difficult environments and test your mettle."



via: https://fox59.com/sports/pacers/nesmiths-3-point-barrage-haliburtons-clutch-shot-bury-knicks-in-ot-thriller/