The New York Knicks pulled off one of the most improbable comebacks in the history of the NBA Playoffs in their Game 1 victory of the Eastern Conference Finals over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Knicks trailed by 22 points with just eight minutes left in the game. However, New York was able to take advantage of defensive matchups with James Harden over and over again as Jalen Brunson and company couldn’t stop scoring in the fourth quarter. The Knicks tied the game at 101-101 to force overtime. They outscored Cleveland 14-3 in the extra frame for a 115-104 victory.
But the comeback was almost all for naught.
On Cleveland’s final possession of regulation, Sam Merril missed what would have been a game-winning three-pointer that went agonizingly in and out. And it led to one of the most unique calls in his illustrious career as he was able to improbably do the broadcast equivalent of putting the toothpaste back in the tube.
ESPN’s legendary NBA voice Mike Breen started his signature “BANG!” call before backing out of it as the ball somehow spun out from being halfway down the rim.
In talking with Jimmy Traina at Sports Illustrated, Breen said it wasn’t the first time he got slightly ahead of himself when going with his signature call.
“There’s been a few,” Breen said. “Often you have the perfect sightline of the ball going in, and you wanna jump on the call. There’s been three or four of them that have happened. I’m a big Sam Merrill fan. And that’s a possible game winner. The ‘B’ came out and maybe a little part of the ‘A’ before the ball quickly bounced out.”
And in case you were wondering, Mike Breen complimented Mike Tirico for his call of Spurs-Thunder Game 1 in another thriller in the Western Conference Finals. But he did say also he would have given Victor Wembanyama’s overtime logo three a double bang just as he did for Steph Curry all those years ago.
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