Oh, come on!

 So now we have the official tagline for this Indiana Pacers basketball team, which apparently has cats beat all hollow in the lives game. Cats only have nine, after all. These Pacers have ...

Wait. Hold that thought. We're still counting.

Because didja see what happened in New York last night?

Yes, the Pacers won another road game, taking a 1-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals with a 138-135 overtime W in Madison Square Garden. That ain't the half of it, however.

The Pacers, see, were deader than Jacob Marley in this one, down 14 to the homestanding Knicks with 2:51 to play in regulation. And they were still down a bucket when Tyrese Haliburton launched one from just inside the 3-point arc with the clock down to slivers.

The ball hit the back rim and kicked high in the air. Think Alan Shepard rising from the launch pad at Cape Canaveral in '61.

Then, instead of spinning away into orbit like its namesake, it fell straight back down through the nylon to send the game into overtime.

And here comes the official tagline for these Pacers: Oh, Come ON!

Oh, Come ON!, as the ball falls true and Haliburton, who initially thought it was a three to end the game, reached back to Reggie Miller and Hicks vs. Knicks and reprised Miller's throat grab. Oh, Come ON! as the Pacers, who twice clawed back from 20-point deficits to steal wins in these playoffs, stole another one from the shadow of death's door.

Oh, Come ON! as Haliburton finished with 31 points and 11 assists, and Aaron Nesmith, who averaged 12.5 points per during the regular season, dropped 30 -- including six threes in the fourth quarter to help the Pacers once again kick off the graveyard dirt.

Oh. Come. ON!

Because, listen, it's not like the Knicks failed to do what they do. Jalen Brunson had a 43-point night. Karl Anthony-Towns abused the Pacers with a 35-point, 12-rebound double-double. Myles Bridges and OG Anunoby added 16 points apiece as the Knicks starters combined for 118 points, 35 boards and 19 assists.

And yet. 

And yet, they lost.

Which now makes Game 2 a virtual must-win for New York. Judging by the strange eddies that seem to dictate the flow of the NBA playoffs, the Knicks likely not only win Game 2, but blow the Pacers right out of the building.

Then again, these are the Pacers, who these days seem to possess their own strange eddies. Or at least command of whatever dark physics caused a basketball to rise and fall exactly right as the seconds ran away on a Wednesday night in the Garden.