The Book of Nesmith

A play-by-play game diary of the Pacers' history-making fourth quarter

The Indiana Pacers did it once more, snatching Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals from the New York Knicks with a ludicrous comeback after being down double-digits with just moments left.

The stats are bonkers. Here are a few fun ones:

Per ESPN, the Knicks had a 99.7% win probability with three minutes left and a 98.8% win chance with less than a minute left.

Since the 1997 season, teams trailing by seven or more points in the final 50 seconds in the fourth quarter or overtime are 4-1,702. The Pacers have three of those wins, all of which have come in these playoffs.

The Pacers set a record by scoring 23 points in the final 3:14 of regulation of a playoff game.

Tyrese Haliburton is now 5-for-6 on tying or go-ahead shots in the last two minutes of games in these playoffs.

Still, the next morning, I can’t believe what just happened. An epic comeback with few intentional fouls or turnovers? How is that possible??

I’ve got too many thoughts and feelings for a coherent thesis statement, so let’s relive the moments with a game diary. I promise it’ll be fun (unless you’re a Knicks fan, in which case, hopefully it’s cathartic, at least?).

The scene

We’re live from Madison Square Garden. Jalen Brunson steps to the free-throw line with 3:44 left in the fourth quarter of Wednesday’s Game 1 between the Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks. Bounce, bounce, in goes the first freebie, putting New York up 116-102. What happened from that point on defies description — but I’m gonna try anyway.

3:14

Brunson misses the second free throw. The Knicks then have an excellent defensive possession, using up nearly the entire shot clock before forcing a missed three from Obi Toppin off a nifty touch pass from Ben Sheppard. However, Karl-Anthony Towns knocks it out of bounds in the ensuing battle for the rebound.

The resulting inbounds play ends with Knicks’ wing Mikal Bridges foolishly going under a Toppin screen, freeing up Pacers wing Aaron Nesmith for a triple as Towns lurks uselessly in drop coverage. Splash, Nesmith’s second three of the quarter (and a mere taste of what’s to come). NYK 116, IND 105.

Still, that took a long time. The clock is Indiana’s enemy and New York’s bestie.

2:51

Could that Nesmith three be the start of a comeback? Jalen Brunson says no, hitting his own stepback three over a hapless Sheppard. There’s a reason he won Clutch Player of the Year, right? NYK 119, IND 105. The celebrities and banking bros are raucous.

2:39

The whole thing about Indiana is that they move fast. Haliburton grabs the inbounds pass, sprints up the court, and perfectly swishes a deep triple. The crowd “Ohhhs” in disappointment, but not real concern. They have no inkling of the pain to come. NYK 119, IND 108.

2:18

The Knicks don’t have a pretty offensive possession, exactly, but they use up plenty of clock before Brunson misses a contested triple. No big deal; the time is the thing, for now. NYK 119, IND 108.

2:04

The Pacers know that, too. Toppin snags the rebound and quickly gets it to Haliburton, who runs up the court. He hits a rolling Sheppard (playing crunch time minutes over Andrew Nembhard!), who has a nice pass to a wide-open Nesmith. Where is the defense? Brunson tries to close out, but he’s too little to bother Nesmith:

Splash, Nesmith’s third triple of the last few minutes. Hm. Hmmm.

NYK 119, IND 111.

1:41

Again, the Knicks do a good job working the tick-tocks.

Brunson gets into the post on Sheppard, so Toppin doubles off as the Knicks ignore Josh Hart on the perimeter. Pass, pass, Karl-Anthony Towns misses a good look from three.

An acceptable possession. At the end of the play, they’re up eight with barely 100 seconds left; without turning the ball over, they shouldn’t even need to score to win, right?

1:20

The New Yorkers play a tremendous defensive sequence for 20 seconds. Haliburton uncharacteristically overdribbles, but first Bridges and then Towns do a fantastic job staying in front of him. Towns, in particular, deserves some credit. Haliburton gets caught with nowhere to go. He forces a pass to Siakam… who gets fouled on the baseline drive by Hart, who had thrown himself out of position with a very sloppy close-out:

With just seconds on the shot clock, Siakam steps to the line and makes the first free throw before clanking the second. New York collectively breathes a sigh of relief; still a three-possession game, eighty seconds left. NYK 119, IND 112.

0:59

The Knicks continue running the clock. The ball, as always, ends in Brunson’s hands, and he delivers. He shakes Sheppard without much trouble (nobody on Indiana could bother Brunson much) and nets a beautiful off-hand layup over the charging Siakam’s arms. Dagger:

One thing I’ve failed to mention: Myles Turner, the Pacers’ best rim protector and a very good three-point shooter, has not been in the game for this entire stretch. Like Nembhard, he’s surprisingly nailed to the bench for most of crunch time.

NYK 121, IND 112. Nine-point game, less than a minute left. New York is rocking.

0:51

Siakam brings it up and finds Nesmith for a little pseudo dribble hand-off. Nesmith confidently steps past the Siakam screen and — splash — nails another three, his fourth of the quarter.

NYK 121, IND 115, and the Garden crowd goes quiet. Seconds before, they’d been ready to party. Now, tension is rising.

I want to pause here and talk for a second about Anunoby, who had a disastrous last few minutes defensively after a fantastic first three quarters. At some point during Nesmith’s heater, you should perhaps consider looking out for him? Nesmith has been a 42% three-point shooter over his last two seasons and is the sole force keeping Indiana in this game; Anunoby has to have better recognition and step up to contest the shot. He’ll learn from this mistake the next time, I have no doubt.

(Anunoby also had one of the worst missed layups I’ve ever seen in the second quarter. Who knew that would end up being so consequential?)

0:42

The Pacers trap Brunson on the inbounds, so he passes to Hart, who gets it to Towns. KAT and Bridges run a pretty give-and-go on the break to get Towns a layup. The Garden roars.

Maybe in a perfect world, you’d like to have seen the Knicks run more clock here. But it was a 3-on-2 situation, there was immense pressure to extend the lead given the Pacers’ incendiary shooting, and muscle memory makes it almost impossible to turn down an open layup.

NYK 123, IND 115. Eight-point lead, 42 seconds. That’s almost certainly the ballgame.

0:34

Except… the fat lady hasn’t taken the stage just yet.

One important repercussion of the preceding fast break: it leaves Towns matched up with an inferno in transition. That’s not ideal, and the resulting play unfolds predictably.

Siakam, again, flies up the court with the ball. Nesmith, again, splashes an incredible three-pointer off a Siakam scoop-pass-and-pick. Towns gets crushed by the pick, and OG Anunoby, again, is far too low to effectively contest:

Look at how insanely out of position Anunoby is! What is he doing? What are the Knicks doing? How has he or the coaching staff not done something about this?

My blood is boiling watching this absurd display of “defense,” and I’m not even a Knicks fan — but my temperature is nothing compared to whatever molten ichor is surging through Nesmith’s veins right now.

All the credit in the world goes to the Pacer, who has transcended the mortal plane to become something more. Something other.

Timeout, New York. NYK 123, IND 118.

0:30

Uh oh.

The Knicks run a pretty play on the inbounds after the pause, and Brunson discards Sheppard (still in the game despite posing no defensive resistance) like a ketchupy hot dog wrapper. He catches the ball wide-freaking-open in a 2-on-1 situation near the hoop.

Brunson pauses briefly. You can see him deciding if he should try to run some time off before they foul or if he should attack the basket. He chooses the latter.

He drives, draws the lone defender, Siakam, and passes the ball to Anunoby for an easy layup… except Anunoby glitches out for the second time this game and fumbles the ball away. Hearts drop into stomachs.

But wait! A foul is called on Siakam in the scramble for the resulting loose ball! Indy coach Rick Carlisle, who has been holding onto his challenge, finally throws the flag (i.e., twirls his fingers angrily). The resulting replay results in an “incidental contact” ruling, and the Pacers get the ball thanks to imminent possession.

The Knicks are still up five with 30 seconds to go, a good place to be. With all this stoppage, they’ve definitely tweaked the game plan to make certain Nesmith doesn’t beat them. I’m sure of it.

0:23

Are you kidding me, Nesmith? Are you f****** kidding me?

The Knicks make some defensive-minded substitutions, bringing in Deuce McBride (who had a fantastic shot block earlier in the game) for Brunson and Mitchell Robinson for Towns. That’s good.

And they clearly talk about Nesmith. That’s also good.

It doesn’t matter. Haliburton (feels like he hasn’t been involved in a while!) brings the ball up. The Pacers have Nesmith run from the corner off a Toppin pin-down screen. Josh Hart, guarding Nesmith, does a better job of coming up high on Nesmith to contest the shot… except he slips (not for the last time this game!) and nearly falls as Nesmith takes one dribble to his right and drills another three. Splash.

Rather than a clip, I wanted to use this ridiculous screenshot.

The horizontality (totally a word) of Josh Hart tells you all you need to know.

The Garden faithful can’t comprehend the war deity Nesmith has become, and they are unwilling to accept their role in bringing His apocalyptic vision to light:

New York is still winning, but how does one contend with the furious might of a god? His six triples (all in the last five minutes!) set an NBA playoff record for fourth quarters. NYK 123, IND 121.

0:14

The Pacers’ superpower all season (and particularly in these playoffs) has been their incredible ability to deny inbounds passes. No other team so routinely turns opposing NBA players into eight-year-olds struggling to pass the ball into play.

They nearly — nearly! — do it again here. The Pacers perfectly defend New York’s play. Inbounder Brunson has to make a desperation pass to Josh Hart, who is fending off Nembhard with one arm… except Hart slips once more.

Sheer force of will picks Hart up and propels him forward, and he miraculously maintains possession of the ball. I’ve seen this a dozen times and don’t understand how it wasn’t a turnover:

Indiana needs to foul, but Nembhard forgets to do so on Hart, a poor free-throw shooter. Hart gets the ball to Brunson, who dribbles around before passing to Towns. I’m a little surprised Brunson didn’t just hang onto the ball and wait for the foul, but Towns is an 83% free-throw shooter who is 9-for-10 at the free-throw line tonight. He’ll be fine.

He’s not fine. Towns makes the first. Towns bricks the second. Indy secures the rebound and calls timeout. NYK 124, IND 121. One possession game.

0:12

The Pacers line up in their delightful four verticals inbounds formation, but they needn’t bother. The Knicks simply form a defensive shell around the three-point line. The Pacers get the ball to Nesmith, but He is fouled immediately by OG Anunoby in a great move. Fouling up three is contentious, and I’m not always for it, but you simply cannot let Him get a shot off. For once, the Knicks don’t.

In stark contrast to his mortal foes, Nesmith drills both clutch free throws. NYK 124, IND 123.

0:07

Oh, man. I thought the Pacers had blown their last chance here. The Knicks once more struggle to inbound the ball. Brunson finally catches it in the corner with his momentum taking him out of bounds. The guard desperately tries to peg it off Nesmith. An immortal being has no use for some chicanery, however. He dodges the ball.

For an eternity, the basketball bounces across the court, confused and alone. Where are the other players, it wonders? Specifically, where are the Pacers, and why aren’t they taking advantage of this moment to grab me?

Anunoby eventually corrals it and is fouled:

Meanwhile, Brunson hugs local Knicks broadcaster/legend, Walt Frazier, whom he’d crashed into on the sidelines. There are a lot of smiles. Too many smiles.

Anunoby’s nightmare continues. He misses the first free throw before hitting the second. The crowd barely cheers. Dread. NYK 125, IND 123.

0:00

OMN! (Oh my Nesmith!).

An utterly insane final seven seconds. Nesmith inbounds the ball after the made free throw, imbuing it with His holy powers. Haliburton receives it, sprints down the court, blows by Mikal Bridges, runs into the brick wall of menace that is Mitchell Robinson, rethinks his plan, retreats to the three-point line, and launches a prayer. It hits the back iron so hard it bounces out of the telecast and into some pocket dimension.

My wife, reading her romance next to me on the sofa, has time to look up and ask what’s happening. I tell her. The ball is still off camera. She looks down, puts her bookmark in, and places the book to the side. The ball is still missing.

Nesmith blows a slight breath. The ball reappears. It falls in an unusually straight line.

It swishes in:

Pandemonium. Haliburton sprints around, choking himself in his (already-used) ode to Reggie Miller as he talks his smack to the Knicks crowd. He’s swarmed by screaming teammates.

The replay shows it was a two-pointer. The game is tied. NYK 125, IND 125, but if you thought the Knicks had their own prayer of winning this game, you forgot who was answering tonight.

Overtime

I’m exhausted (the adrenaline from this game rode me straight into caring for my kid, who decided to start his day at 3:15am), so let’s just say that overtime is fun and close (for a tussle that was predetermined). It ends with an effective, hilarious troll move, one that broadcaster Stan Van Gundy accurately predicted before it happened: Haliburton handing the ball on an inbounds play to Karl-Anthony Towns with 0.2 seconds left, knowing Towns was powerless to do anything. The play-by-play reads, “Haliburton has a pass stolen by Karl-Anthony Towns.” Never has a fact been so wrong:

Final score: IND 138, NYK 135.

I can’t wait for Game 2.