Isaiah Hartenstein’s Heave of Hope Fuels Knicks Victory

Brunson, DiVincenzo, Ionescu, Starks … Hartenstein? The New York Knicks found the next metropolitan hope from deep on Monday night, if only for a few fleeting, fateful seconds.

Isaiah Hartenstein’s late three-pointer was perhaps one of the first highlights of the Knicks’ Eastern Conference Semifinal opener against the Indiana Pacers, as a 46-foot launch from beyond midcourt while the first half clock expired allowed New York to end the opening 24 minutes on a high note.

Hartenstein’s heave of hope played both immediate and subtle dividends: New York trailed by six rather than nine at halftime and it perhaps lingered in the back of Indiana minds when they looked at the final margin of 121-117. The Pacers had been poised to take their largest lead of the game into the intermission before Hartensten took desperate matters into his own hands.

“I feel like they went on a little run at the end of the half,” Hartenstein remarked in the aftermath, per Peter Botte of the New York Post. “Getting that down, I think we were down nine before the shot, and getting it to six, it’s still a big difference, but maybe a little bit (of a boost).”

Three-point shooting is far and away the biggest difference between this New York title run and the last: the Knicks were the only team among 2023 postseason participants to shoot less than 30 percent with an extra point on the line. This time around, they currently rank third in percentage (38.1) behind only top seeds Oklahoma City and Boston.

Even so, it’s not like Hartenstein has partaken in the three-point boom: after trying a career-high 37 during his maiden New York voyage, Hartenstein launched only a trio of triples this season, hitting one. Though far from planned, the impact of the tide-changing triple was not lost on head coach Tom Thibodeau.

“These players, it doesn’t surprise, but it surprises you, wherever they shoot it from they can make it,” Thibodeau said in Botte’s report. “You see it all the time, whether it’s half-court, three-quarter court, oftentimes it misses on the back rim. But we had nothing going for us, and that sort of gave us a little hope and we had a chance to regroup at the half and started the third quarter pretty good.”

Though the Knicks had to launch one last comeback effort in the fourth, they had the game tied less than four minutes into the third after Hartenstein’s heroics. The Knicks’ starting center ended the game with 13 points, six rebounds, and four assists.

Hartenstein and the Knicks will look for a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven set come Wednesday when the series resumes at Madison Square Garden (8 p.m. ET, TNT).

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