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Tim Hardaway Jr. was headed toward hero status. Then the final two minutes happened, resulting in another close loss against a quality opponent.
The Knicks’ one-game winning streak ended in a 107-101 Garden loss to the Pacers as Victor Oladipo got the better of Hardaway down the stretch.
The Knicks’ downfall started right inside midcourt when Hardaway got stripped by Oladipo near the top of the key and the defensive wizard broke in for runaway stuff to give the Pacers the lead at 98-97 with 2:40 left.
That was all part of a 9-0 run that put the Pacers up six with 1:23 left and wasted Hardaway’s game-high 37 points, including a career-high seven 3-pointers on 11 attempts.
Oladipo showed what a real All-Star looks like. When the Knicks (2-6) rallied within two points with 30 seconds left, Oladipo ended the madness by draining a left-corner 3 with 17 seconds left for the final dagger.
That was set up when the Pacers shot an airball, but Thaddeus Young saved it and whipped it to Oladipo, who finished with 24 points, 10 in the fourth quarter.
Young, too, was key in the final two minutes. After Oladipo’s driving dunk, he scored on a turnaround for a 100-97 advantage with 1:55 to go. Hardaway followed with a rim-out on a long 3-pointer. Oladipo finished the 9-0 run with a 3-pointer over Hardaway with 1:23 left and a six-point lead before the punchout.
“We froze up there in the final minutes,’’ Knicks coach David Fizdale said.
Damyean Dotson (13 points) buried a right wing 3-pointer to put the Knicks up four with 4:24 left before they fell apart to a playoff-savvy Pacers team. The Knicks have taken Boston, Milwaukee, Golden State and now Indiana deep into the fourth quarter before losing.
With their 3-point shooting grace, the Knicks appeared they would survive a career night by Domantas Sabonis, who dominated for 30 points and 10 rebounds in 20 minutes but fouled out late.
The Knicks led 79-74 with 43 seconds left in the third when Dotson stole an inbounds pass in the backcourt from a Sabonis entry, laid it in and was fouled.
The Knicks used the same youthful starting lineup for the third straight game — Mitchell Robinson and Noah Vonleh (14 points, 10 rebounds) up front with three guards, Dotson, Hardaway and Frank Ntilikina.
The Knicks fell behind the Pacers 26-17 late in the first quarter before a second-quarter rally. The surged from nine points down to take a 52-50 halftime lead.
Hardaway, the Knicks’ leading scorer, again lit it up with 17 first-half points. He scored in all ways and drained three 3-pointers while going 6-of-6 from the free-throw line.
Robinson, making his third start, blocked two shots in the half but played sparingly in the second half. He rejected Myles Turner at the perimeter then blocked Young inside.
Robinson didn’t score in the first half as he was 0-for-3, including a rushed layup attempt on an alley-oop pass. But his activeness on defense was key.
In making his return to the Garden, former Knick Kyle O’Quinn checked with 2:59 left in the half and received a nice ovation.
Meanwhile, Ron Baker’s cult status is growing at the Garden. During the waning minutes of Monday’s rout of the Nets, the fans chanted for Baker to check into the contest and Fizdale obliged. On Halloween, five fans dressed up as “the Baker boys’’ — decked out in shaggy blond wigs. Baker posted with them at halftime.
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