How else would you explain this call?

You can’t make that call with 12 seconds left in a one point playoff game. You just can’t.

Rick Carlisle was diplomatic, but he knows the fix is in:

“I don’t want to talk about the officiating. We’re not expecting to get calls in here. It would be nice if they laid off that one but they didn’t. So, you know, that’s just the way it goes. We challenged it, they reviewed it, they got a bunch of people in New Jersey that agreed with ’em, so that’s just the way it goes. We gotta learn from that, it’s a timing play, both guys are involved. We’ll have to execute that better next time.”

There was a bunch of nonsense from Game 1. Donte DiVincenzo, who embellished the contact on the moving screen, set one of his own earlier:

And that was ruled a kicked ball, but it turned out it actually went off Aaron Nesmith’s hand instead and should have gone down as a steal. Instead, DiVincenzo hit a three to make it 118-115 with 40 seconds left.

It was bad all around. The Pacers are gonna have to beat the Knicks and the refs this series. Don’t think for a minute that the NBA wants mid market Indy in the Conference Finals. They want New York. They want Madison Square Garden and Jalen Brunson. They want all of the dumb celebrities, like Ben Stiller, Spike Lee, and Turtle. It’s reprehensible that they are favoring people like this: