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Ramona Shelburne
There may be nothing just like the sound of 19,812 folks saying completely nothing, however pondering precisely the identical factor.
Shhhhhhhhhhh!
They yelled as Karl-Anthony Cities went to the free throw line with 14 seconds left within the fourth quarter with a quickly dwindling lead.
Shhhhhhhhhhh!
They yelled as OG Anunoby stepped to the road with seven seconds left, hoping that quiet would someway assist him focus and preserve the rising collective dread at bay.
However the quiet did little to cease what had develop into shockingly, immediately obvious: The New York Knicks have been as soon as once more face-to-face with the ghosts of their playoff previous.
And albeit, it was a little bit on the nostril. Reggie Miller, the Knick killer from these playoff battles 30 years in the past, was courtside once more, this time on the decision for TNT because the Indiana Pacers reenacted a few of his best moments Wednesday evening in Sport 1 of the Japanese Convention finals at Madison Sq. Backyard.
He was there postgame, pointing at Tyrese Haliburton after the brash younger guard paid tribute to him by reenacting Miller’s well-known choke gesture from the tip of Sport 5 of the 1994 Japanese Convention finals, when he scored 25 of his game-high 39 factors within the fourth quarter and engaged within the legendary back-and-forth with Spike Lee that spawned a 30 for 30, “Winning Time,” in 2010.
Haliburton mentioned he’s watched that documentary “probably 50 times” rising up and had been ready — over the course of two separate playoff sequence — for the best second to reenact Miller’s “choke” gesture in entrance of the MSG crowd.
“That’s just a historic moment,” Haliburton mentioned after the sport. “Obviously him versus Spike, kind of the one-on-one. I felt like [my gesture] was kind of to everybody. But to [Miller], too. I wanted him to see it more than anything.”
Miller noticed all of it proper. So did all of the Knicks legends who attended Wednesday evening’s sport and spent 46 minutes pondering they have been going to witness the exorcising of a few of these playoff demons, solely to depart shaking their heads on the latest heartbreak they’ll must digest.
Only a few minutes earlier than Haliburton hit one of many cruelest bounce-off-the-rim pictures in NBA playoff historical past to tie the sport on the finish of regulation, the Knicks had proven all their franchise legends up on the jumbotron.
First Amar’e Stoudemire, then Carmelo Anthony. Then John Starks, Latrell Sprewell, Larry Johnson, Bernard King, Patrick Ewing, Stephon Marbury, Walt Clyde Frazier, and Baron Davis.
There have been others, too. And celebrities like Timothee Chalamet, Larry David and Ben Stiller. All of them knew the historical past of this rivalry.
And for the time being it appeared the Knicks had lastly constructed a big sufficient result in present them on the large display screen and let everybody applaud with a transparent conscience.
The Knicks led by 14 factors with 2:51 to go in regulation. That, by most any measure, is a protected lead. That’s when followers flip to one another and determine whether or not to depart early to beat the crowds.
That’s when ideas of playoff ghosts lastly settle down.
However the seeds of the Pacers’ comeback had simply began germinating.
With 4:45 to go, Brunson stumbled attempting to struggle by a Thomas Bryant display screen on the high of the important thing, leaving Aaron Nesmith open for a 3-pointer.
No person thought a lot of it on the time. However afterward, Brunson mentioned he felt that’s when the sport began to show.
“Once he hits one, you’ve got to be on high alert,” Brunson mentioned. “I’ve got to do a better job of finding him. I think he had like one or two with me in the vicinity.”
Nesmith went on to hit six 3-pointers within the ultimate 4:45 of regulation.
On the published, Miller coolly rubbed salt in these wounds.
“Another 3 by Nesmith,” Miller mentioned after Nesmith hit his second 3 of the fourth quarter. “That’s the great equalizer in our game.”
Few gamers in historical past know that higher than him.
“Oh my goodness,” he yelled after Nesmith’s sixth 3-pointer minimize the result in two factors.
By then the gang was silent all by itself. Nobody wanted to shush anybody. Nobody had something left to say.
Haliburton’s game-tying 2-pointer landed like an anvil within the pits of everybody’s abdomen. Time beyond regulation was only a entire bunch of indigestion.
“In the playoffs, when you win, it’s the best thing ever,” Brunson mentioned after the sport. “When you lose, it’s the worst thing ever.”
There was one historic echo that could possibly be a vivid spot for Knicks followers, nonetheless. Haliburton even pointed it out after the sport.
“I know that [the Pacers] didn’t win the series,” Haliburton recounted. The Knicks would come again to win that 1994 Japanese Convention finals in seven video games. “So I would not like to repeat that.”
