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Donte DiVincenzo sinks game-winner to lift Knicks to 121-117 victory over Pacers in Game 1

Kristian Winfield, New York Daily News on

Published in Basketball

NEW YORK — Donte DiVincenzo has been here before.

The ball found DiVincenzo behind the three-point line with the game and series on the line in Game 6 of the Knicks’ first-round playoff series against the Philadelphia 76ers when he uncorked a bomb from downtown to put the Sixers away and punch New York’s ticket to the second round

The ball found DiVincenzo again late in regulation of Game 1 of the Knicks’ second-round series against the Indiana Pacers on Monday.

Once again, DiVincenzo delivered.

With less than a minute left in the fourth quarter and the game tied at 115, Jalen Brunson had the ball in his hands, and DiVincenzo’s defender, Aaron Nesmith cheated over to help Andrew Nembhard defend the Knicks’ All-Star, who drove toward the rim with the game on the line. Brunson got off the ball and trusted his teammate, dishing to DiVincenzo, who hoisted a go-ahead trey from the left wing.

The shot fell to give the Knicks a three-point lead with just seconds left in the fourth quarter — and on the next possession, DiVincenzo — the savior on offense — drew a moving screen call on Pacers center Myles Turner.

 

Game, Knicks, a 121-117 victory over the Pacers courtesy of two big plays from big-play DiVincenzo.

Jalen Brunson scored 43 points on 14-of-26 shooting from the field, and DiVincenzo added 25 points on five-of-nine shooting from three-point range, no triple more important than the one he used as the nail in the coffin to bury the Pacers on Monday night.

His bucket helped the Knicks what was setting up to become an upset Pacers victory at Madison Square Garden before the Knicks — in what’s become typical Knicks fashion — came roaring back in the final period.

The Knicks trailed by as many as nine in the fourth period in large part due to the depth of an Indiana Pacers team that deployed a full-court press the large majority of the game.

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