(Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
With just 12 seconds left in the first game between the New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers, Myles Turner was called for an illegal screen.
At that moment, the Pacers were down by a single point and they would ultimately lose by four.
The referees’ call on the screen has been debated a lot since the game and Chris Russo said on “First Take” that he didn’t agree with it at all.
“That is an atrocious, atrocious call,” Russo said on Wednesday’s show.
“That is an atrocious, atrocious call.”
—@MadDogUnleashed on Myles Turner’s illegal screen in Game 1 pic.twitter.com/6kjjET25OU
— First Take (@FirstTake) May 8, 2024
Turner set a screen on Donte DiVincenzo of the Knicks, who definitely leaned into the contact that he received.
After the game, multiple Pacers members, including head coach Rick Carlisle and Turner himself, showed their dissatisfaction with the call but were looking to move on.
Russo isn’t the only person who was unhappy with Turner’s foul.
During the playoffs, many fans expect and embrace a higher level of intensity during games.
To see such a close game receive this sort of foul in the closing seconds was disappointing to them.
Some have argued that it cost the Pacers the game because it led to a bigger lead for New York.
Regardless of what happened, the Pacers have to live with the decisions of the game officials and not let it get them down.
They can take solace in the fact that they played a great game and actually led for much of it, even at Madison Square Garden.
Therefore, they should put this ugly incident behind them and set their sights on stealing a road win in Game 2.
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