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Among the many mistakes the Knicks made late in the fourth quarter and overtime, one was their inability to foul Obi Toppin late in the extra session.
The Pacers had possession and a one-point lead with 20.0 seconds left when the Knicks allowed Toppin to go in for a dunk that pushed the lead to three.
“I think we should have fouled,” Jalen Brunson said. “We just didn’t.”
Coach Tom Thibodeau and Josh Hart both said the plan was to foul Toppin, but the Knicks didn’t get a hold of him.
On the ensuing possession, Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns missed potential game-tying 3-pointers as the Knicks blew a 17-point, fourth-quarter lead to drop Game 1 of the Eastern Conference
finals, 138-135, at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday.
Toppin, the former Knick, scored four of his eight points in overtime and finished with 10 rebounds along with a plus-nine rating in 20 minutes.
Warriors forward Draymond Green is part of TNT’s pregame and postgame coverage and was in attendance Wednesday night.
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Green ripped Towns in March for missing a game against the Warriors, claiming he was scared of Jimmy Butler, not knowing that Towns was mourning the loss of a family friend.
Asked if he has cleared the air with Towns, Green told The Post’s Peter Botte: “We’re not going back to that. This is his moment, not mine.”
The two coaches in this series, Indiana’s Rick Carlisle and Thibodeau, are friends.