Rick Carlisle Drops Aaron Nesmith Injury Update as New York Knicks Mount 20-Point Comeback vs Pacers

Just when you think you’ve seen it all, a game like Game 3 between the New York Knicks and the Indiana Pacers happens, and it just completely flips the script. We’re talking a desperate Knicks team, staring down a 0-2 hole, somehow pulling off another one of their insane 20-point comebacks to steal a 106-100 win in Indiana. But right in the middle of that Knicks surge, there was this heart-stopping moment when Pacers’ key wing, Aaron Nesmith, went down with a nasty-looking ankle injury. The whole arena held its breath. And after the game, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle shed some light on what happened.

According to Tony East, who covers the Pacers, Carlisle said Nesmith’s “ankle got re-taped. Did his best to keep moving while he was in the back.” Okay, so picture this: third quarter, Pacers are looking to put the Knicks away, and Nesmith, who’s been a beast for them all playoffs (remember that Game 1 explosion?), drives baseline. He goes up to pass, lands awkwardly on Jalen Brunson’s foot, and just crumples to the floor. It looked bad. He was clearly in a ton of pain, grabbing his right ankle, and had to be helped to the locker room.

For Pacers fans, that had to feel like a punch to the gut. Nesmith is so important for them – he’s their lockdown defender, and he can stroke it from deep. Losing him, especially since he missed a ton of time earlier this season with an ankle issue (different ankle, thankfully, but still!), felt like it could be the moment the series totally flipped.

But then, in the fourth quarter, to the surprise of many, Nesmith actually checked back into the game. After the dust settled on the Knicks’ wild comeback, Rick Carlisle explained what went down. And here’s the key part of Coach C’s thinking: “Rather than wait, decided the best thing to do was get him back in there so he didn’t stiffen up.” He also said Nesmith’s movement looked okay and they’d “know more tomorrow” about how bad it really is.

Now, about the Pacers letting that huge lead slip away while Nesmith was out, and even after he came back, Carlisle was pretty blunt. He wasn’t blaming it all on the injury. He said: “You lose a guy like that, it affects your ability to close a quarter, you know. Regardless of who’s out there, we got to be able to attack better and do the things to maintain it and finish the game. We just—we just simply did not execute as well as we needed to.” You can hear the frustration there, right? That’s a coach who knows his team blew it, injury or no injury.

So, while Nesmith was getting taped up and then gutting it out, the Knicks, once down 20, smelled blood. For the Pacers, it was a home-court nightmare: a big lead, a shot at 3-0, then their key defender hobbles off. You could almost see Indiana tighten. The Pacers’ offense stalled, shots clanked, and the game slipped from their hands.

Is Aaron Nesmith the Jenga piece keeping this whole Pacers thing upright?

Aaron Nesmith might not be the flashiest name on the roster, but after his Game 1 heroics and his all-around hustle, everyone’s starting to see it: Nesmith is a core piece. Just think about what this dude does for them. Night after night, he’s drawing the toughest defensive assignment. Giannis? Mitchell? And now, in this series, he’s been the main guy trying to slow down the Knicks’ engine, Jalen Brunson.

And it’s not just defense. Nesmith has turned himself into a legit 3-and-D threat. The Celtics basically gave up on him, and now look at him. His shot has gotten so much better since he landed in Indiana, and he’s shown he’s not afraid to take – and make – huge, game-changing threes.

We all saw it in Game 1 of this series, right? Thirty points, a career-high eight treys, and six of those in the fourth quarter alone to drag the Pacers back from 17 down. After that insane performance, Nesmith said, “I just knew what the game needed, what my teammates needed me to do. And you know, I know I’m a phenomenal shooter, so I just trusted the process and let it fly.” That’s not a guy lacking confidence; that’s a player who knows his job and steps up.

Coach Carlisle clearly trusts him, giving him big minutes and putting him in critical spots. Carlisle loves to talk about the Pacers’ depth and how “it doesn’t matter who scores,” and yeah, that’s true for this team. But Nesmith’s particular package – that bulldog defense plus the clutch shooting – is something special on their roster. You could see it when he was out for 35 games earlier this season with that other ankle injury, they missed him. The Pacers are just a tougher, more complete team when Nesmith is out there, healthy and doing his thing.

That’s why him going down in Game 3 was such a big deal, and why him gutting it out to come back, even if he wasn’t moving at 100%, meant so much. It says a ton about his toughness and how much he means to this Pacers team. They absolutely need his energy, his defense on Brunson, and his shooting to open things up. As this series gets even tighter, how well Aaron Nesmith can play through this latest ankle tweak is going to be a massive factor if the Pacers want to get to the NBA Finals.