The first game between the New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers is in the books. The Knicks emerged victorious banking on Jalen Brunson’s 43-point outburst, making him the first player since Michael Jordan in 1993, to mark four consecutive 40-point games in the playoffs. However, despite Brunson’s surge, the game was with the Indy roster for the majority of the match. It was only in the last 1:30 minutes that the Knicks outscored Tyrese Haliburton’s crew with an 8-2 run.

Talking about the same, the crew at TNT put Charles Barkley on the spot. They played his playoff series against Michael Jordan, where MJ completely dominated his Suns. As the group chuckled and joked about the instance, Barkley immediately resorted to advising Tyrese Haliburton. After giving the Knicks and Pacers their credits for the tough game, he said, “Haliburton’s got to be more careful with the ball,” hinting at the importance of turnovers in the game. The Pacers only had 7 such bad plays (half of what the Knicks had). However, “He had like 2 bad turnovers [at the end of regulation],” Barkley added to highlight the late-game impact Haliburton’s turnover had.

“If they take care of the ball man, they’re right there,” Chuck expressed at the potential in the Pacers’ squad and the late-game flip the game 1 saw.

Tyrese Haliburton, the engine of the Pacers’ squad, went 2 of 6 from the field to score just 6 points in the game. Regardless, the Pacers led by 6 at halftime and by 5 points entering the fourth; the team held their own during Haliburton’s off-night. With that, Barkley urges Hali to be slightly more careful at the ending stretches, as it has the potential of sending his team’s efforts down the drain. However, given how the Pacers composed themselves after the game, it looks like it won’t take them long to come back stronger.

Tyrese Haliburton and the Pacers are poised to bounce back 

Sure, Tyrese Haliburton’s squad put on an array of careless mistakes to hand over the game to the Knicks. However, there were plenty of questionable calls that added to their frustration. There was a kick-ball violation halting the flow of the game, forcing the Pacers to give up the ball. On top of that, there was an offensive foul resulting in a similar result, right before a foul by Andrew Nembhard.

After the game, referee Zach Zarba claimed misjudgment in one of the calls, which could have easily put the Pacers in reach of the game. However, even though they addressed the impact of controversial calls, the Pacers decided to stay away from blaming the referees. Instead, the crew accepted the flaws in their game and inspected the other possible ways they could have cultivated a winning night.

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The mental clarity resonated by the Pacers indicates that the team believes in having what the second-round matchups ask of them. With a motivated Tyrese Haliburton and tweaked approaches by head coach Rick Carlisle, the Pacers will meet the Knicks again on May 8 at the MSG.