Isaiah Hartenstein matched his total for 3-pointers from the entire regular season with a buzzer-beating heave to pull the Knicks within six points just before halftime of their 121-117 Game 1 victory against the Pacers on Monday night at the Garden.
The 7-foot center was 1-for-3 from beyond the arc during 75 regular-season appearances before splashing a 46-foot half-court shot from the far side of the Knicks’ logo at the end of the second quarter of the second-round opener.
Hartenstein said he’s dropped in buzzer-beaters in the NBA, but “not from half-court, that was my first.”
“These players, it doesn’t surprise, but it surprises you, wherever they shoot it from they can make it,” Tom Thibodeau said after the game. “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.”
Hartenstein, who finished with 13 points and six rebounds in 36 minutes, has converted 31.0 percent (27-for-81) from long distance in his six-year NBA career, but he had made just nine of 40 (.225) in two seasons with the Knicks.
But with the Knicks trailing 55-46 after Tyrese Haliburton’s 3-pointer with three seconds left in the half, Hartenstein took an inbounds feed from Jalen Brunson and buried his first triple of the postseason from beyond the center line to give the Knicks some life heading into intermission.
“Maybe it was a little bit of [a boost],” Hartenstein said. “I feel like they went on a little run at the end of the half, and that one, 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].”