The Pacers held on to the series, if they lost today it was over. Nembhard took some bad shots, but he scored on the most important one.
The Knicks are plagued by injuries. It's affecting Brunson, too. He shot poorly but McBride and Burks contributed at emergency times, DiVincenzo was very good in this game. But on the other side there's a reality called Haliburton. Siakam and Turner's rebound dominance in the last minutes was important. Game 4 could be similar, Pacers still need to protect the home court.
Very important one from Andrew Nembhard. That's the only three-pointer he made in the whole regulation and it's to put his team in front and put some pressure on the Knicks. It's nice to see Haliburton being in the zone again and not afraid to shoot, but Donte DiVincenzo is crazy, 7/11 in the three-point line answering back whatever the Pacers throw at him.
But the highlight of the game is the biggest news of all. Josh Hart's first bench in the series.
I was kind of laughing and amazed when I heard the news. That dude was not resting at all in 2 games until now.
The only one I've heard doing this is Lebron James in his younger days where he is forced to play the whole game because there's no one he can rely on. I think it was the time Mike Brown was handling him in the Cavaliers.
Both series who badly needed a win won their games to avoid a 3-0 no-return.
And come to think of it, the Knicks has like 7-8 players in this game, and Josh Hart has to go to the bench first time. And it's maybe because Alex Burks is also feeling it and so is Donte DiVincenzo, and most likely he learn a lot from playing with Steph Curry.
And same with the Nuggets and Wolves series, the Pacers was able to get back in this game with that huge win and avoid a 3-0 hole. Great game by Haliburton as well, first time in this series that he had a good first half that carries over, and that Miles playing solid defense with a good block on Josh Hart.