The Pacers blew a late lead after the officials blew at least one late call, and perhaps another.
Indiana trudged out of the Garden with a series-opening loss to the Knicks, stewing after a couple of last-minute calls, one at least questionable and the other downright wrong.
Aaron Nesmith incorrectly got whistled for a kicked ball that actually went off his hand with 52 seconds left.
Then seconds later Myles Turner got called for an illegal screen, which the Pacers challenged.
Those two plays helped send the Pacers to a 121-117 Game 1 loss at the sold-out Garden.
“You can clearly see [I didn’t kick it],” Nesmith said afterward. “It is what it is.”
What it is was a blown call.
In the pool report interview with crew chief Zach Zarba conducted by The Athletic’s Fred Katz, the official acknowledged, “On the floor we felt that would be a kicked ball violation.
Postgame review did show that it hit the defender’s hand, which would be legal.”
Then with 12.1 seconds to play, Donte DiVincenzo drew a questionable moving screen call on Turner.
“We’re not expecting to get calls in here,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “It’d be nice if they laid off that one but they didn’t. So that’s just the way it goes. I mean, we challenged it, they reviewed it, they got a bunch of people in New Jersey that agreed with them.”
“Just in my experience in this league, I think it’s best when the players decide the outcome of the game. I think it’s unfortunate what happened,” said Turner. “We were given a so-called illegal screen, but it’s the playoffs. I feel like DiVinenzo did a good job of selling it. And for the most part, you can’t leave the game to be decided by the refs. So we have to take accountability as well.
“It’s right after the game. I’m a little fresh and open with my emotions about it. But we know at the end of the day that we can’t get into that position. So I think the Last 2 Minute Report, we’re all looking forward to that coming out. There was two controversial calls. … So like I said, it’s unfortunate, but we can’t put ourselves in that position.”
