Madison Square Garden was absolutely electric as the New York Knicks’ second-round series got underway with a tight win over the Indiana Pacers on Monday night. Meanwhile, in Denver, the Nuggets are currently playing to even their series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, who are without defensive centerpiece Rudy Gobert.
Series: Knicks lead 1-0
Game 2: 8 p.m. ET Wednesday in New York (TNT)
Game of inches, er, feet
The feet changed the game.
With under a minute to go in a tie game, Jalen Brunson whipped a pass from the left side of the court. It went off Aaron Nesmith’s foot — or so it seemed. Referees called a kick ball, but upon replay, it didn’t seem to go off Nesmith’s foot.
The Knicks retained the ball, even though they shouldn’t have, and took the lead moments later, when Brunson posted up Nesmith, waited for help to come, then flung a one-handed dish to Donte DiVincenzo, who drained a go-ahead 3-pointer from the wing.
Only a couple of plays later, the Knicks won by a foot. Pascal Siakam tossed up a go-ahead floater. Brunson fielded ensuing the inbounds, Knicks up one, and tried to swerve around Andrew Nembhard. The ball trickled out of bounds. Pacers ball.
Until the Knicks challenged.
definitely off of Nembhard pic.twitter.com/Yr2MwuSzjF
— Alaa Alarashi (@AlaaAlarashi) May 7, 2024
It turned out, it deflected off Nembhard’s shoe. The Knicks won the challenge, got the ball back and milked more clock, eventually closing out a win to go up 1-0 in their first-round series with the Pacers.
They say basketball is a game of inches. Well, this was a game of feet. — Fred Katz
ANOTHER JALEN BRUNSON 40-PIECE 🪣
DONTE WITH A CLUTCH THREE FOR NEW YORK 🎯 pic.twitter.com/ajRKB9YhoS
— NBA TV (@NBATV) May 7, 2024
