Andrew Nembhard’s go-ahead 30-footer with 16 seconds remaining pushes Indiana past New York in a flurry of an ending in Game 3.
INDIANAPOLIS — A new location brought a very different game and, in the end, a new hero.
This time it was the Indiana Pacers who grabbed the big offensive rebounds down the stretch. And this time, it was Andrew Nembhard that hit the big shot, a stepback, 30-foot 3-pointer at the shot-clock buzzer that gave the Pacers a three-point lead with 18 seconds left.
Down 2-0 in the Eastern Conference semifinals, Indiana held on for a 111-106 victory over the New York Knicks. All three games have been close, and all three have been won by the home team.
There were several key trends and plays that led to Nembhard’s shot. Here’s a breakdown…
1. This series finally got ugly
After two games, this was the most efficient offensive playoff series in NBA history, with the two teams having combined to score 128.7 points per 100 possessions. And things weren’t any different through the first three quarters of Game 3.
Then, it finally got ugly.
Leading 98-89 with less than 10 minutes left, the Knicks scored just eight points on their final 18 possessions of the game. And after tying it at 99 with 6:58 on the clock, the Pacers scored just five points on their next 10 trips down the floor.
Both teams were desperate.
Jalen Brunson was able to penetrate the Pacers’ defense but didn’t finish as well as he had in the first two games, shooting just 5-for-13 in the paint, seemingly feeling the effects of the right foot injury he suffered in the first half of Game 2.
“I wish I would’ve played a little better,” he said afterward. “But … if I can walk, I’m gonna play.”
Open shots were missed on both ends of the floor. Donte DiVincenzo had a terrific game, scoring 35 points. But he was 1-for-5 in the fourth quarter, missing everything on a corner 3 with a little more than six minutes left. Nembhard, the eventual hero, missed two great looks on the same possession with less than two minutes to go.
The Pacers had not been very good defensively in this series, but they made some terrific defensive plays, with Pascal Siakam, Tyrese Haliburton and Myles Turner all blocking Knicks layups in the final period.
2. Haliburton passes ahead
The Pacers ranked second in pace this season, and Haliburton certainly likes to get up and down the floor. But he doesn’t need to do all the work himself. He’s always looking for a teammate ahead on the break, and he led the league with 8.2 pass-ahead passes per game, according to Second Spectrum tracking.
After Brunson missed a tough, right-handed layup with a minute left, Turner got the rebound and got the ball to Haliburton, who saw Siakam ahead and unaccounted for. The Knicks’ Josh Hart motioned for someone else to take the Pacers forward, but nobody was in position to do so.
Haliburton’s long pass led to a Siakam layup that may not have gone in … but Donte DiVincenzo knocked it away after it hit the glass, earning an obvious goaltending violation and giving the Pacers two points.
Pacers 106, Knicks 103 with 54.1 seconds to go.
Brunson somehow came up with another huge shot, draining a step-back 3 to tie the game with 41.1 seconds left.
3. Haliburton vs. Hartenstein pays off for the Pacers
The Pacers set 37 ball screens for Haliburton on Friday, according to Second Spectrum. Isaiah Hartenstein was the screener’s defender for 24 of those 37. Indiana didn’t score very efficiently (0.70 points per chance) in that scenario, but Hartenstein never looked comfortable trying to contain the opposing point guard.
Sometimes, he was forced to switch and got beat in isolation …
Sometimes Haliburton put him on his heels and drained a step-back 3 …
Sometimes, he didn’t contain Haliburton, allowing for a drive-and-kick assist …
Haliburton finished with 35 points on 14-for-26 shooting, including 8-for-10 in the paint.
After Brunson’s game-tying 3, the Pacers again got the ball up the floor quickly. As he crossed the midcourt line, Haliburton got DiVincenzo leaning with a hesitation move, so Siakam (being defended by Hartenstein) didn’t have to set a screen.
Hartenstein was forced to switch but was again on his heels. With 35 seconds left, Haliburton saw the opportunity for a two-for-one shot, so he let it fly.
More important than the time on the clock was that the Knicks’ biggest player was 25 feet from the basket as Haliburton’s shot hit off the back of the rim.
4. Knicks start big, play (mostly) small
With OG Anunoby (hamstring strain) out, the Knicks started Precious Achiuwa alongside Hartenstein on the frontline, with Jericho Sims (who had never appeared in a playoff game) also getting some first-quarter minutes.
But Sims’ minutes (all as the lone big) were limited to the opening period, and the Knicks were outscored by six points in the 16.6 minutes that Achiuwa and Hartenstein played together.
They played almost twice as much (and were a plus-1) with just one big on the floor. But, without Anunoby, that meant playing with four guys no bigger than 6-foot-5 Alec Burks, who surprisingly played 21 minutes and hit some big shots before going 0-for-2 in the fourth.
When Haliburton’s shot for the lead hit off the back of the rim, there were four Knicks in the paint, but all were 6-foot-4 or shorter. The Pacers had three guys in there, all 6-foot-6 or taller.
The rebound bounced between 6-foot-6 Aaron Nesmith and 6-foot-1 Miles McBride. Nesmith’s reach allowed him to tap the loose ball out to Nembhard.
After retaining just 43.7% of available rebounds through the first two games, Indiana was over 50% on Friday.
They had five offensive rebounds and seven second-chance points (to the Knicks’ zero) in the fourth quarter.
The last of those seven was Nembhard’s 30-foot 3-pointer. After Nesmith’s tap-out, he got the ball to Haliburton, who was still matched up with Hartenstein. The Knicks didn’t like that and sent a second defender.
“I put Drew in kind of a bad situation,” Haliburton said afterward. “He made an unbelievable shot. Big, big shot. He really stepped up to the moment when we needed it the most.”
Desperate times. A desperate shot. Bang.
5. Pacers answer Carlisle’s challenge
Pacers coach Rick Carlisle had spoken pre-game about how tough it is to win games at this stage of the season, lauding the Knicks’ toughness and challenging his team to match it.
“They’re 48-minute games and you can’t be up 10 at halftime or four or five at halftime,” he said, “and feel you’ve done anything in a series against those guys.
“They’re very strong-willed and it’s a long battle. Each game, every possession is a monumental fight. We’ve got to fight better.”
The Pacers again led (by five) at halftime on Friday. And they blew that lead too.
But this time, they had the last word.
“We talked about that all series,” Haliburton said. “How can we match that energy, because we’re gonna have to if we want a chance to win. Honestly, we really didn’t do that in the first two games. I feel like we did in the first half of the two games. In the second half of both games, we got outworked.”
In the two games in New York, Josh Hart played all 96 minutes and made big plays down the stretch. On Friday, Nesmith chased Brunson around all night and still had the energy to get to that rebound.
And while it almost sounded like Carlisle wished he was coaching the other team before Game 3, he was quick to praise his own squad after the win.
“I’m really proud of our guys,” he said. “They’re going against a highly-experienced, very tough-minded team that is very motivated. They put us in a big bind in the second half. I’m really proud of the way our guys hung in, kept fighting, stayed the course, kept their emotions in check.”
If the Pacers can do it again in Game 4 on Sunday (3:30 ET, ABC), this series will be even.
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John Schuhmann is a senior stats analyst for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
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