Haliburton the ‘villain’ pacers seek two-game edge
Tyrese Haliburton has assured that New York Knicks fans will consider him a villain for the rest of his NBA career.
Haliburton’s choke sign that went wrong ended up part of an Indiana overtime victory, and now the Pacers take aim at a 2-0 series lead when they visit the Knicks on Friday night in the Eastern Conference finals.
New York held a 14-point lead with under three minutes left in regulation in Game 1 before disintegrating, while Indiana was heating up and rallying for a 138-135 overtime victory on Wednesday night.
“We’re not going to get too excited about this,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “We’ve got things to clean up. They got things to clean up. Game 2 is going to be another war.”
Haliburton gave the infamous choke sign toward the Knicks’ bench and the crowd—a la Reggie Miller against the Knicks in the 1994 postseason—and the Pacers celebrated wildly. But the officials ruled Haliburton’s foot was on the line, turning the shot into a two-pointer that put the game in overtime.
“Everybody wanted me to do it last year at some point, but it’s got to feel right,” said Haliburton, alluding to the Pacers beating the Knicks in seven games in last season’s Eastern Conference semifinals. “It felt right at the time—well, if I would’ve known it was a two, I would not have done it. So I think I might’ve wasted it.”
Saved by win
Haliburton, who had 31 points and 11 assists, was off the hook when the Pacers won the game in the extra session.
Jalen Brunson scored 43 points for the Knicks and Karl-Anthony Towns added 35, but few people will remember down the line that the two players combined to make 26 of 42 shots (61.9 percent) in Game 1.
“There’s a lot of things we did good and we put ourselves in position to win,” Towns said. “We played 46 good minutes. Those two minutes are where we lost the game (in regulation), and that’s on all of us.”
New York’s Josh Hart could feel the momentum slipping away in real time.
“Defensively, we let off the gas. The intensity and physicality weren’t there,” Hart said. “Offensively, we were playing slower, and more stagnant.
