The Madison Square Garden has been home to some of the most exhilarating games of the 2024 NBA playoffs to this point, and on Monday night, the Indiana Pacers gave the New York Knicks one hell of a fight to open up their second-round matchup and rekindle the two franchise's old rivalry. In the end, it was the Knicks that pulled out the victory, 123-119, after outscoring the Pacers by nine in the fourth quarter.

For the Pacers, there's nothing to hang their heads about after that performance. They kept in stride with the Knicks, even leading for much of the second half, and against a raucous Garden crowd, the team put up a performance worthy of a victory. It would have helped Indiana set the tone for the series, but losing Game 1 isn't the end of the world.

Nonetheless, one couldn't help but feel as though the Pacers blew a major chance. The last time the Pacers faced the Knicks in the playoffs (2013), they won Game 1, which paved the way for them to finish off New York in six games. Indiana proved it can hang with New York in front of a hostile environment, but these players must step up on Wednesday so they could actually steal homecourt advantage.

Tyrese Haliburton has to be more aggressive

The 2023-24 season became the official coming-out party of Tyrese Haliburton. Haliburton, with the way he led the Pacers to the NBA In-Season Tournament Final, captured the hearts of many. He was lauded as the man who would succeed Chris Paul for the Point God moniker, and it was clear why. He was a nightly 20-10 threat who elevated his teammates with his near-unparalleled court vision which was accentuated by his scoring threat off the bounce.

Haliburton was never an explosive perimeter-to-rim threat; he doesn't have the quickest of steps, and when he got to the paint, he didn't power through contact often. He preferred to finish with finesse, going to his dangerous float game and preferring to set up his teammates.

But with the Pacers heading deeper and deeper into the playoffs, he has to be more aggressive in hunting his shot. Tyrese Haliburton cannot be a passenger of the bus he's supposed to be driving; he absolutely cannot take just six shots on the night to finish with six points in a game where his point guard matchup, Jalen Brunson, scored 43 points on 26 shots.

Now, some of Haliburton's passiveness can be attributed to the Knicks' defense. Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo were on his jersey for most of the game, and they diligently fought over screens to force the Pacers guard to go downhill. They eliminated his three-point pull-up threat, and Haliburton didn't seem comfortable with his in-between game, causing him to pass up on a few scoring opportunities.

The difference when TJ McConnell was on the court was palpable. McConnell, in addition to pushing the pace at every stop, was actually comfortable in taking what the Knicks defense was giving. As a result, McConnell scored 18 points off the bench on 9-16 shooting from the field. In fact, McConnell tied Pascal Siakam and Myles Turner for a team-high in shot attempts, and the Pacers were a +9 during his minutes.

It did the Pacers a world of difference when their point guard actually looked to shoot the basketball. Haliburton may not be a shot-chucker by nature, but he has to tap into a greater level of scoring aggression for the Pacers to actually win his minutes.

Pacers lost on the margins

It's important to note that the illegal screen call at the end of the game essentially sealed the Pacers' defeat. They took a risk in challenging the call on the floor, but the ruling stood and the Knicks had a golden chance to put the game away with two free throws. Andrew Nembhard then compounded matters by fouling Jalen Brunson before the ball was inbounded, and the Pacers faced an insurmountable four-point deficit shortly thereafter.

But the Pacers lost the game on the margins before that; they allowed Brunson to get more and more comfortable as the game went on, and he had little trouble carving up Indiana's defense, especially in the fourth quarter. In the final frame, Brunson scored 21 points, exposing the Pacers' difficulties in containing the point of attack.

Nembhard and Aaron Nesmith have to be better from here on out; Nesmith, who has had his fair share of struggles in shooting the basketball this postseason, must bring his A-game if the Pacers were to survive the Knicks' perimeter-based attack.