Horrifying Game 1 Knicks loss to Pacers evokes surprising moment in Yankees history

During the Knicks' five-day break between defeating the Celtics in a rollicking Game 6 and opening their series with the Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals, fans were left wondering whether they'd operate like the 2004 Red Sox or 2003 Yankees.

Would defeating Boston as dramatically as they did be the cathartic bump they needed to erase history and defeat all comers, like the Cardinals who followed that 3-0 comeback nobody wants to speak of? Or did the Knicks expend all their energy slaying the dragon, only to be overwhelmed by an overlooked opponent, like Aaron Boone's Yankees getting run down by the Marlins for the championship?

The full story of the series has yet to be written, but Game 1 certainly ended with a harrowing 2:43 and an exclamation point from enemy of the state Tyrese Haliburton. When the dust settled on an exhausting overtime, it became clear the Knicks had alternate Yankees history plans. For now, they're the 2003 Red Sox in that fabled Game 7, looking at Aaron Boone running the bases and Mariano Rivera collapsed on the mound, wondering what the hell happened and why Pedro Martinez/Jalen Brunson looked so gassed all of a sudden.

Knicks-Pacers Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals turned New York fans into pained Red Sox fans at the hands of the 2003 Yankees

That moment back in '03 was purely distilled New York euphoria. Down 5-2 in the eighth inning and facing the embodiment of an ace — the "clutch player of the year," if you will — every Yankee fan had a shred of hope left because of 86 years of matchup history, but was likely resigned to the reality that this might just be Boston's year. Thirteen successive elements had to go wrong for the Yankees to steal the game, but it only took one wonky blip to seed doubt in the minds of a franchise that had been to the brink too many times to count.

The energy was the same in Madison Square Garden, even as the Knicks whooped and drained treys with three minutes left in a near-blowout win. The Pacers had snatched the souls of both the Cavaliers (Game 2) and Bucks (Game 5) in frenzied final-minute flurries. 10+ seemed safe, but didn't this franchise once score eight points in nine seconds against the Knicks? Out of sight, out of mind ... until it became very much front of mind as the ball bounded off OG Anunoby's hands with 29.9 seconds remaining. Even before the game was tied, that was the true moment of doubt. The "Grady Little in the Dugout Doing Nothing" of the NBA world.

Eventually, Red Sox fans had that heart-snatching moment erased from their personal history the very next year with a comeback for the ages that all New Yorkers would rather forget. Similarly, the University of North Carolina basketball team that succumbed to Villanova's Kris Jenkins and his deep, buzzer-beating three earned redemption the very next season with a title-game win over Gonzaga.

If salvation comes for these Knicks next season — or even later in the series — this moment will disappear and the pain will be temporary; mere color that improves the story that's eventually told. But right now, without assurance that will ever happen, the interim period in New York feels like the 2003 Sox, felled by the Yankees and sitting shellshocked in the pinstriped blue dugout in their cutoff gray sweatshirts, wondering how they hell they can possibly move forward.