Inside the Knicks’ biggest collapse ever

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NEW YORK — Imagine a loss so improbable that one of its kind has never happened before. A loss so jaw-dropping that it somehow silenced the city that never sleeps.

New York Knicks fans have seen it all. They’ve never seen this, though.

That was made evident from the ghastly walk inside Madison Square Garden to the streets of Manhattan as hundreds of fans filed out of the stairway exit like zombies, the only noise coming from the squeak of wet shoes as they touched the steps. Some eyes still wide. Some red. Not a soul with anything to say. New Yorkers were left speechless. New Yorkers.

“Why’s it so quiet?” Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton shouted as he did the victory walk back to the locker room.

Why? The unimaginable had happened.

In Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Wednesday night, New York led by 14 points with 2:51 to play. People were heading for the exits after Jalen Brunson’s 3 went through the net. Some people had already left. Then, things got weird. Not yet concerning, but weird. With 58 seconds remaining in regulation, Brunson put the Knicks up by 9 with a layup. Surely, that was the game. The roars from those remaining inside Madison Square Garden suggested that, at least.

Then, uneasiness began to creep in.

Three-point ball after 3-point ball by the Pacers closed the gap. Indiana’s Aaron Nesmith did what no player before him has ever done and drilled six 3s in the fourth quarter of a playoff game, three within the final minute. In a matter of seconds, the Knicks found themselves on the defensive. Indiana’s ball, New York leading by 3, and Haliburton with yet another chance to be a heel.

The Pacers guard dribbled up the court, crossed over and drove into the paint as if he were fine settling for overtime. Then, in a split second, Haliburton decided to dribble backward to hoist a prayer and go for the win. The ball hit the back of the rim and soared into the heavens. It was almost as if Haliburton was asking the basketball gods to bless the ball with a kiss, because it came back down and dropped through the net with grace. It would have been a 3-pointer if Indiana’s star guard’s shoe size were a half-size smaller. Instead, it was a 2-pointer. Overtime.

WHAT A SHOT BY TYRESE HALIBURTON 🤯🤯🤯 https://t.co/8wEwdkeRwZ pic.twitter.com/s497GwRWi9

— NBA (@NBA) May 22, 2025

From there, the Pacers, just as they’ve done to every team this postseason, went on to outlast New York 138-135. However, most notably, the Knicks went on to lose in a historic fashion.

Per Elias Sports, no team leading by 9 points or more in the final minutes of regulation or overtime has won a playoff game since 1998. The record was 0-1,414. Now, it’s 1-1,414. Furthermore, since 1997, no team has lost a playoff game leading by 14 or more with 2:50 remaining in regulation or overtime. The leading team was 977-0 going into Wednesday. Now, it’s 977-1.

“We didn’t do what we needed to do; otherwise, we’d be in here talking about a whole different ballgame,” New York center Karl-Anthony Towns said. “There’s a lot of things we did good, to put ourselves in the position to win. It’s just about … and I’ve said this multiple times, executing and discipline for 48 minutes.

“We played 46 good minutes. Those last two minutes is where we lost the game. That’s on all of us.”

New York made its bones this postseason by doing what Indiana did in Game 1. All postseason, it was the Knicks who snatched the souls of their opponents with late-game heroics. New York did it multiple times against the Detroit Pistons. It did it over and over against the defending-champion Boston Celtics. It was always New York that would play its best basketball when things got tight.

So, whether it was the odds catching up to the Knicks or just a dose of their own medicine, they lost, and they could have made it go differently.

For 46 minutes, New York was fairly sharp in its defensive coverages. In the final two minutes of regulation and most of overtime, it was not. The Knicks didn’t get up to the level of the screen in their pick-and-roll coverage, which allowed the likes of Nesmith to step into practice shots and ignite the improbable victory for Indiana. In the game’s most critical moments, the Knicks got beaten on cuts. They didn’t control the glass, which helped put them in the position to be up by 14. They didn’t foul when the coach wanted them to, allowing Indiana to get a dunk off an out-of-bounds play.

For 48 minutes, New York did a good job of taking care of the basketball. In overtime, it did not. The Knicks finished the game with 15 turnovers, and three came in the final 150 seconds of overtime, with New York either up by 1 or down by 1. The Knicks offense got stagnant late in the game. It missed free throws. It rushed shots it didn’t need to. It was like it was playing with a similar arrogance that Boston showed when leading big late in games 1 and 2 of the last series, and we all know how those games ended.

The Knicks played with their food. Indiana snatched the plate off the table.

“Our intensity dropped,” Josh Hart said. “We started playing slower. We were playing more into their hands. We let that one slip. Now, we just have to make sure that tomorrow we go in and watch film on where we need to get better. Right back on Friday.”

If you need a silver lining from Game 1, New York was the better basketball team for the bulk of the contest. Indiana’s pace didn’t seem to bother the Knicks too much until the end, when the team’s collective head was spinning. Indiana couldn’t stop Brunson (43 points) and Towns (35 points) from scoring until the game was on the line. New York was going to have to dominate the glass to win this series, and it did that until the Pacers smelled blood in the water.

Oh, and one more thing: When Haliburton hit the shot that sent the game to overtime, which he thought was a 3-pointer to win it, he wrapped his hands around his neck. People around these parts know what that was in reference to. If you don’t, it was an ode to Pacers legend Reggie Miller, who did the same thing toward Spike Lee during Game 5 of the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals. Indiana pulled off a miraculous comeback victory that night, and Miller scored 25 of his 39 points in the fourth quarter.

People forget that New York won that series.

Maybe history will repeat itself and this result will be just a little comedic relief on the Knicks’ journey to the NBA Finals. Or maybe it’s the type of loss that breaks the spirit of a team. We’ve seen New York’s valiant efforts do that to its opponents this postseason.

We’ll find out Friday.

“Obviously, it’s not a good feeling, but there is a lot of basketball left to be played,” Brunson said. “We can’t sulk. We just got to get better.”

(Photo of Josh Hart: Sarah Stier / Getty Images)

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