Still, because Haliburton's foot was on the line, the Knicks could avoid making history if they could recover in overtime. Instead, it was much of the same as the Pacers kept rolling, with Andrew Nembhard doing most of the damage with seven points in the extra period.

The Knicks took one of their hardest hits off the floor following Wednesday’s crushing collapse against the Pacers.

The first question — the one that dominated brainwaves and airwaves, tabloid back pages and possibly therapists’ billable hours all across the Tri-State area on Thursday — is obvious: How the hell did the Pacers just do that?

Jalen Brunson had just tied Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing's franchise record by reaching 30 points in the playoffs for the 18th time with the New York Knicks. Then the Knicks hit the Indiana Pacers with a 14-0 run after Brunson had to go to the bench early in the fourth quarter Wednesday night after picking up his fifth foul,

Knicks fans have seen it all. They've never seen this, though: a loss so jaw-dropping that it somehow silenced the city that never sleeps.

As the Pacers crept back into the game, the Knicks were confronted with a burden few franchises carry: 50 years of history.

"He got too much air space," Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said of Nesmith after the game.

The New York Knicks were less than one minute away from taking a 1-0 lead over the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals at a frenzied Madison Square Garden before suffering a crushing defeat, that one analyst is calling the “biggest choke job” of all time.