The Knicks’ Game 7 home history is mostly successful… mostly.
The Knicks were blown out by the Pacers in Game 6 in Indiana, forcing a Game 7 and prolonging a clincher that would book them a date with the top-seeded Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals.
In their Game 7 history on home court, the Knicks are 5-2, which is encouraging for the No. 2 seed heading back to Madison Square Garden for Sunday’s game.
But only three of the Knicks’ Game 7s in New York have come after 1974.
And in the Knicks’ most recent home Game 7, which was in 1995 against the Pacers in the Eastern Conference semifinal round, they lost, 97-95.
That entire 1995 series played out differently leading up to the final game, too.
The Knicks memorably lost Game 1 at the Garden, the infamous day where Reggie Miller scored eight points in 8.9 seconds.
The Pacers subsequently went up 3-1 in the series after protecting homecourt, giving themselves an opportunity to close things out at MSG in Game 5.
A Patrick Ewing game-winner staved off elimination, and a 92-82 win in Indy tied up the series.
And that’s where, in the series’ final seconds, Ewing missed the infamous “finger roll” and the Knicks were bounced, losing the series 4-3.
It marked the Knicks’ only other Game 7 home loss after they dropped a final contest against the Baltimore Bullets in 1971.
The year before that drama, the Knicks and Pacers also faced off in a Game 7 at MSG in the Eastern Conference Finals, which New York won to reach the NBA Finals.
That win over the Pacers in 1994 came after the Knicks also outlasted the Bulls in a home Game 7 in the second round.
