Basketball, She Wrote

Mission Improbable: Pacers pull off all-time stunner in Game 1 win over Knicks

Added 2025-05-22 19:29:25 +0000 UTC

Indiana "bounced" back in the clutch after trailing by as many as 17 points in the fourth quarter

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

The Indiana Pacers were down 108-92 when Rick Carlisle called a timeout with 7:22 to play in the fourth quarter. After breaking from the huddle, his team went on to outscore the New York Knicks 46-27 while erasing a 14-point lead in the final three minutes of regulation to pull off an all-time stunner in overtime. Their mission, as they chose to accept it, featured not only rapid and timely shot-making, as they quite literally "bounced" back in the clutch, but also rapid and timely adjustments that likewise met the moment to propel them forward to a 1-0 series lead.

Here to help find the plot to an ending that was seemingly both strategic with regard to shape-shifting and stratospheric as far shot-making is Samson Folk, with the two of us zeroing in on what changed to result in the latest improbable win as well as zooming out on what changes could happen moving forward.

Here are the relevant timestamps:

0:00 - Introductions

3:19 - Shot-making heroics of Haliburton & Nesmith

6:16 - Adjustment heroics of the coaching staff

10:10 - Making the right call to play Ben Sheppard + what that meant for the late-game impact of Nesmith & Nembhard

21:05 - Shape-shifting with different alignments against different lineups

27:00 - Nembhard getting a big, late-game stop against the player he was switched off from in the playoffs last season

28:28 - Guarding Jalen Brunson by forcing him to guard (i.e. 23 picks as the screener defender in Game 1, compared to 32 in last season's seven-game series)

35:30 - Mitchell Robinson's impact on the glass + the power/limits of TJ-ball

40:21 - Potential mid-series tweaks against Brunson + KAT

43:48 - Pascal Siakam's importance in the in-between

52:32 - Forcing Samson to pick his favorite clutch bounce shot

1:00:22 - Why the Pacers are like a joy-filled holiday movie

1:02:05 - Send us to cover the Pacers in the Finals!!

1:04:10 - Thank you and goodbye!