Down 2-0 in the series and down as many as 10 points in the fourth quarter, the Pacers fought back to lead late in the piece, before a Jalen Brunson triple tied the points with 41.1 seconds to play.
Tyrese Haliburton missed a three and then was closely double-teamed as he regained possession. He passed to Nembhard, who had been ice-cold in shooting all night.
But with the shot clock expiring and under defensive pressure, Nembhard launched a hail mary from 31 feet that somehow went in – with even his teammates and Nembhard himself looking stunned.
It was the longest made three of his career, and just his third of the series.
“I probably held the ball a little too long, I should have been more aggressive,” Haliburton said. “I put (Nembhard) in kind of a bad situation and he just made an unbelievable shot — big, big shot.
“He really stepped up to the moment when we needed him most.”
Brunson failed to find the basket with a desperate three-pointer of his own before the Pacers held on to reduce their series deficit to 2-1 on their return to home court.
“Everybody knows what it looks like when you go down 3-0,” Haliburton said, a nod to the fact that no NBA team has rallied from that deficit to win a playoff series.
“We had to come out play desperate, play hard,” added Haliburton, whose Pacers will now try to level the series at home on Sunday.
Nembhard finished with just five points on two-of-eight shooting – but his three-pointer at the death meant his awful game up to that point was immediately forgotten.
Teammate Tyrese Haliburton led the way with 35 points on 14-of-26 shooting and added seven assists. Myles Turner had 26 points and 10 rebounds, while Pascal Siakam had 26 points and seven boards.
Donte DiVicenzo matched Haliburton with 35 points of his own for the Knicks with a remarkable 7-of-11 from three-point range, while Brunson had 26 points. Josh Hart had 10 points and 18 rebounds.
NEMBHARD CLOSED HIS EYES AND HEAVED ONE AT THE SHOT CLOCK TO WIN IT AFTER HE COULDN'T MAKE AN OPEN SHOT ALL GAME.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) May 11, 2024
Hollywood star and Knicks fanatic Ben Stiller had a hilarious response to the gutting defeat.
First, he tweeted: “We won’t cry.” Then when a fan responded with a picture of him crying – from one of his many films – Stiller replied: “Ok maybe a little”.
"We won't cry" pic.twitter.com/uVbBUcHbwW
— Nets Muse (@NetsMuse) May 11, 2024
The move to Indianapolis — and the determination to avoid falling into an 0-3 hole — clearly energized the Pacers, who kept the banged-up Knicks in check early.
Haliburton had six of the Pacers’ 12 three-pointers.
The Knicks, already missing Julius Randle, Mitchell Robinson and Bojan Bogdanovic, were also without OG Anunoby after he suffered a hamstring strain in their game two victory.
Knicks star Jalen Brunson, who wasn’t confirmed to start until after pre-game warm-ups after hurting his right foot on Wednesday, got off to a slow start, but New York briefly pulled ahead in the second quarter — foreshadowing a third-quarter surge that saw them take a 90-85 lead into the final period.
But the Knicks couldn’t hang on and the Pacers will try to level the series at home.
NUGGETS STAR ANSWERS BACK AFTER $100K FINE
Elsewhere, the NBA champion Denver Nuggets roared back into their Western Conference semi-final series with Minnesota with a 117-90 victory over the Timberwolves.
NBA Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray scored 24 points apiece, with Jokic adding 14 rebounds and nine assists for the Nuggets, who cut the deficit in their best-of-seven series to 2-1.
Denver dispelled any suggestion they would bow out quietly after they were humbled by the young Timberwolves in games one and two in Denver.
Denver will try to pull level in Minneapolis, where Jokic said the Nuggets went into the contest determined to “play like a champion.”
“I think we played much simpler,” Jokic told broadcaster ESPN.
“We were aggressive, more aggressive than them, and I think that’s definitely the thing that changed the game.”
Murray, who scored just 25 points over the first two games and was fined $100,000 for letting his frustration boil over and throwing a heating pad onto the court during game two, connected on 11 of 21 shots and came up with three steals.
That was despite being booed every time he touched the ball by the Minneapolis crowd.
“Our guys answered the bell,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said.
“They showed me that they still believe.”
Michael Porter Jr. added 21 points as all five Nuggets starters scored in double figures against a T’Woves team that coach Chris Finch called “sluggish” and “slow”.
Anthony Edwards led Minnesota with 19 points. Karl-Anthony Towns scored 14, but the Timberwolves didn’t play with the pace that overwhelmed the Nuggets in Denver.
They trailed by as many as 34 points, to the dismay of fans at the Target Center who were eager to see the kind of show the Timberwolves had put on in Denver.
“Not a lot of good things on either end of the floor, really,” Finch said.
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