It’s the matchup Tyrese Haliburton wanted — one-on-one with the Knicks captain — and with just under five minutes left in the third quarter of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals matchup between the Knicks and Pacers, Indiana’s All-Star guard dialed his own number.
Haliburton, bothered by Knicks stopper OG Anunoby’s defensive pressure, got the switch. In front of him, Jalen Brunson. All-Star vs. All-Star. Face of a franchise vs. face of a franchise with a trip to the NBA Finals hanging in the balance.
Haliburton sized Brunson up at the top of the key. He crossed between the legs, drove left, then went behind the back, back to his right. Brunson matched him step for step. Haliburton crossed back between his legs then stepped-back for a mid-range two. Brunson fouled him on the landing. A restless, sellout Madison Square Garden crowd collectively sighed.
The whistle ruined the moment they’d all been waiting for.
Defensive strategies make moments like this few and far between. The Pacers use a combination of Andrew Nembhard and Aaron Nesmith to hound the opposing point of attack, while the Knicks rely on Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, Josh Hart and Miles McBride off the bench to guard dynamic opposing guards.
That’s not how this series between two championship hopefuls has been billed. Team defense doesn’t sell seats and draw views.
Star power, on the other hand, can pack out an arena and set record numbers. This is Brunson vs. Haliburton just as much as it’s Knicks vs. Pacers — and it has the makings of a good ole-fashioned basketball rivalry the likes of which has become rare in the NBA in recent years. Allen Iverson and Jason Kidd went at one another in both the 2002 and 2003 Eastern Conference playoffs. Chris Paul and Stephen Curry, too, went head-to-head two years in a row in wars waged between the Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors.
Now, after Haliburton eliminated Brunson in Game 7 of the second round of last year’s playoff picture — and after the two stared each other down inside of a WWE ring just weeks later, the NBA has its newest point guard rivalry.
And the two stars couldn’t any more different from one another.
Brunson, after all, is the NBA’s new Clutch Player of the Year, a scoring machine who has found a way against the NBA’s top defenders. In the first round, it was Detroit’s Ausar Thompson. In Round 2, Boston’s combination of Jrue Holiday and Derrick White. Now, in the conference finals, it’s Nembhard and Nesmith. But on this possession, it was Haliburton, and the Knicks captain made sure to get his lick back.
Just a few possessions after Haliburton drew a foul on Brunson, New York’s All-Star got a head of steam attacking Haliburton downhill and stepped-back baseline for a mid-range two. Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle knows Brunson’s game all-too well. He coached the star Knicks guard for the first four years of his career before he left the Dallas Mavericks for New York in the summer of 2022.
“He’s a great player, and he’s got an indomitable will to attack, to score, to be great within their system. They’re all very tied together,” Carlisle said ahead of tipoff on Wednesday. “So we certainly have our work cut out for us there. I know he’s one of the most productive guys in the playoffs if not the most. He’s a special player and a very difficult player to deal with.”
The pair of All-Star guards spent the third quarter trading buckets: Brunson ripped by Pacers big man Myles Turner for a quick floater, and Haliburton responded for an easy floater the next possession. Brunson scored on an and-one floater then flexed on Andrew Nembhard, and Haliburton responded with a step-back three over Knicks big man Mitchell Robinson.
Where Brunson is in perpetual attack mode, the Pacers star fluctuates between play-making and shot-seeking.
“I think he reads and attacks the game as it’s presented. Sometimes he’s aggressive to score, sometimes he’s aggressive to make plays,” says Brunson. “Just makes him very difficult to guard. But it’s not a one-on-one matchup or anything like that. It’s just us together. We’re gonna have to figure out how to slow him down.”
“I think it doesn’t matter how many points he scores or how well he shoots, he’s still capable of playing well and getting his teammates involved, the spacing he provides,” added OG Anunoby. “I can’t judge him off the points he scores on a certain night. He’s a great player and capable of making an impact on any play.”
And both were attacking with Game 1 hanging in the balance in the fourth quarter on Wednesday. Brunson hit a step-back three and Haliburton immediately responded with a trey of his own. On the next possession, after Brunson missed a side-step three, Haliburton drew two defenders, got off the ball, and got the hockey assist on Nesmith’s three.
“I think he’s an offense unto himself. Has great size, he can shoot the ball, off the dribble, he’s a terrific passer, he’s got vision,” Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said of Haliburton. “So we have to make sure that we’re guarding him with our team. When he gets into space, That’s when he’s problematic. So we’ve got to make sure he’s seeing bodies.”
Fittingly, this one went to overtime, courtesy of Haliburton’s late-game heroics. The Pacers trailed, 116-102, with 3:17 left in regulation, and Aaron Nesmith went nuclear, making five threes in a row to make it a one-possession game with under a minute on the clock.
The Pacers intentionally fouled Anunoby, who split a pair of free throws to leave the Pacers within two. Haliburton dribbled frantically. A lesser playmaker would have given the ball to an open teammate. Not Haliburton. Not on this possession. Not with a shot to steal Game 1 on the road.
With seven seconds left on the clock, Haliburton took the ball the full length of the floor, crossed-over Mikal Bridges, then met Mitchell Robinson in the paint before retreating back out to the top of the key and heaving a shot from downtown. The ball ricocheted off the back of the rim high into the air, then fell into the net. Haliburton did the signature Reggie Miller chokehold around his own neck — as if the Knicks had just choked away their home-court advantage.
And then, the cameras caught him in 4K: Haliburton’s foot was on the line — a la Kevin Durant‘s Brooklyn Nets Game 7 vs. the Milwaukee Bucks.
There would be more basketball. The duel between two of the NBA’s premier point guards would rage on. Brunson knifed through the lane for a layup at the rim to put the Knicks up one with under a minute left, and Haliburton responded with a crossover on Brunson, then a dime to Andrew Nembhard to put the Pacers back up one.
The Pacers would go on to win by three, and Brunson’s attempt to tie in overtime sailed wide right. The Knicks captain finished with a game-high 43 points on 15-of-25 shooting from the field, but in true villain fashion, Haliburton had the last laugh: 31 points, 11 assists, and another victory on The Garden’s hardwood floors to add another chapter to the league’s newest point guard rivalry.
