When the Knicks and Pacers were set to meet in this year’s Eastern Conference Finals, memories of the playoff battles between the two teams in the 1990s were harkened back to, and Tyrese Haliburton evoked that history in Wednesday night’s thrilling Game 1 win for Indiana.
In the waning seconds of regulation, and the Pacers down two points, Haliburton controlled the ball and drove to the hoop, but Mitchell Robinson came to stop him. Haliburton retreated toward the three-point line and took a fadeaway-like jumper. The ball hit the back of the rim but bounced straight up in the air as the buzzer sounded before going through the bottom of the net
“I knew it’s going in. But it felt like it got stuck up there, though,” Haliburton said of the shot after the game. “When it went in, my eyes might have been deceiving me in the moment, but it felt good when it left my hands. I thought it was going to go in. The ball just felt like it was up there for eternity. But man, special moment.”
When the shot went in, Haliburton was mobbed by his teammates as the Indiana star did the choke gesture made famous by Pacers legend Reggie Miller toward the Garden crowd.
Haliburton thought he had hit a three at the buzzer to steal Game 1, but his toe was on the line. The shot didn’t win the game, but it sent it to overtime and gave Indiana a chance.
Haliburton was asked about the choke gesture after the game.
“In the moment, I wasn’t plotting on it or anything. Everybody wanted me to do it last year at some point but it had to feel right. It felt right at the time,” he said. “If I would’ve known it was a two, I would not have done it. I might have wasted it. If I do it again, people might say I’m aura-farming. I don’t plan on using it again.”
Knicks fans know the infamous Reggie Miller “choke” game, where the sharpshooter scored 25 points in the fourth quarter in Game 4 of the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals. With the series tied 2-2, Miller capped his performance by hitting five three-pointers to rally past the Knicks.
After the Knicks blew their 17-point, fourth-quarter lead, the Pacers had the momentum going into the extra quarter. They would capitalize on New York’s mistakes and pull out the 138-135 OT win to take a 1-0 series lead.
Haliburton finished with a team-high 31 points and his heroics helped the Pacers steal home-court advantage heading into Game 2 on Friday night.
It’s just one game, but Haliburton understands the importance of the win while also putting it into perspective. When he was asked about the historical significance of the choke gesture in this Knicks-Pacers rivalry, Haliburton made it clear he knows this series isn’t over. New York won Games 6 and 7 after Miller’s choke and Haliburton wants to avoid that same fate.
“I’ve seen that ‘Winning Time’ doc probably like 50 times growing up, so I know that [the Pacers] didn’t win the series. I would not like to repeat that,” Haliburton said. “It’s just a historic moment and that was more him versus Spike [Lee], kind of the one-on-one. That felt like it was toward everybody… I think it’s really cool for me to make my own history and for this group to make their own history while also showing respect and love to the ones that came before us. Definitely a special moment and one I won’t forget.”
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