ESPN Heartfelt AAU-Style Announce: How the Indiana Pacers Stole Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals from the New York Knicks

ESPN Heartfelt AAU-Style Announce: How the Indiana Pacers Stole Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals from the New York Knicks

 

NEW YORK — It felt like an AAU championship final under the bright lights, where heart beats out hype and the team that plays for each other walks out with the dub. On Tuesday night, inside a packed Madison Square Garden, the Indiana Pacers — the team no one penciled in for greatness — turned the Eastern Conference Finals into a backyard battle and stole Game 2 from the New York Knicks, 111–106.

 

From the jump, the Pacers came in with energy that screamed we’re not afraid. Tyrese Haliburton, playing like the lead guard on a top-seeded AAU squad, orchestrated everything. He dropped 35 points, dished out seven assists, and made it look like he was back in a Las Vegas summer tournament — just hooping, reading the game, and pulling from the parking lot when it mattered most. No moment felt too big. No crowd too loud.

 

But it wasn’t just Haliburton. This was about the full squad showing up. Obi Toppin ran the floor like it was Peach Jam, leaking out for transition dunks and keeping the pressure on. Myles Turner was the big in the middle, erasing shots and owning the glass. Every player on the Pacers bench came in ready, like the seventh man waiting to prove his worth in front of college scouts.

 

Still, the Knicks were right there. Jalen Brunson — tough, composed, and the definition of a floor general — kept New York fighting. Every time the Pacers threatened to run away with it, Brunson answered. But then, heartbreak: early in the fourth quarter, Brunson left the game with a fractured left hand. It was like watching the star player on an AAU team go down — the floor general, the soul of the squad, suddenly gone.

 

As if that wasn’t enough, OG Anunoby, who had been playing both ends with ferocity, went out with a hamstring injury. Suddenly, the Knicks were searching for identity, trying to finish the fight without their leaders.

 

And that’s when it happened.

 

Andrew Nembhard, who hadn’t scored a bucket all game, stepped up like it was the final minute of an AAU bracket game. Shot clock winding down, pressure peaking, he pulled up from 31 feet and bang — net. Cold. Calm. Clutch. That three gave the Pacers a lead they wouldn’t give back.

 

The Knicks made mental mistakes down the stretch — two inbounds turnovers in the final minute — the kind of breakdowns that lose championships. And just like that, Indiana walked out with the win, the momentum, and the swagger of a team that knows how to finish.

 

This wasn’t about contracts, markets, or legacies — it was about basketball. Pure, passionate, team-first basketball. And the Pacers played it like an AAU unit with nothing to lose and everything to prove. Now they head back to Indiana, series tied 1–1, but make no mistake — they believe. And after Game

2, we all do too.