NEW YORK — Rick Carlisle couldn’t keep his composure any longer. The frustration became too much. With 33.9 seconds left in Game 2 of the Indiana Pacers’ second-round series playoff game against the New York Knicks on Wednesday night, he walked over to crew chief Marc Davis and started clapping at him. It might have been over one seemingly bad call — one more, at least, from his perspective — or it might have been about nearly 96 minutes of them.

Carlisle has kept a running tally. He counted 29 calls in Game 1 that he, and the Pacers, deemed incorrect. The NBA has a process where teams can file their complaints with the league, but Carlisle resisted. He didn’t want to bring down a trickle-down effect on Game 2. The opener of this Knicks-Pacers series had been so close and so tight that the handful of decisions from referees in the final minute played an oversized role.

Instead, he hoped, by keeping his silence, he might get a better outcome Wednesday.

Carlisle began his postgame news conference with a 2 1/2-minute monologue about inequality in officiating in these Eastern Conference semis. The Knicks beat the Pacers 130-121 in Game 2, weathering another run of injuries, another key player lost and nearly the early exit of Jalen Brunson, their star. And still, they won.

That has put New York two wins away from the conference finals and left the Pacers on tilt. Carlisle devolved into conspiracy and complaints. The manifold issues that submarined the Pacers on this night fell by the wayside to conniptions about the referees. Monday, Carlisle said the officiating had not cost them the opener; it was 48 minutes worth of problems, not just a few calls down the stretch. That mask came off after Game 2.

“Small-market teams deserve an equal shot,” Carlisle said. “They deserve a fair shot. No matter where they’re playing.”

If this was a way of working the referees — a coach’s staple since whistles were wooden and any replay review was only available by word of mouth — it was full-throated. Carlisle’s grievances were long and loud.

He maligned the push in the back his star point guard, Tyrese Haliburton, received midway through the third quarter — at the 5:08 mark to be exact, as Carlisle rattled off the timestamp — and claimed it was already “all over Twitter.” He praised the Knicks’ physicality and wondered why his Pacers weren’t afforded the same leeway. He promised to file the missed calls he felt the referees made in Game 2 with the league office, knowing the Knicks would see his remonstrance.

Rick Carlisle:

“Hart comes up and shoves him in the back. It’s all over Twitter right now because a few people have shown it to me. JB DeRosa is looking right at it… He shoves Ty right into the corner and there’s no whistle… That was shocking and there were many others.” pic.twitter.com/HueKW4wqef

— Mike Vorkunov (@MikeVorkunov) May 9, 2024

Carlisle had already announced one protest during the defeat’s final minutes that had gotten him ejected after two technicals within nine seconds of one another. Instead, it was the slow burn before the jeremiad to come.

“I’m always talking to our guys about not making it about the officials, but we deserve a fair shot,” he said. “There’s not a consistent balance and that’s disappointing. So give New York credit for the physicality that they’re playing with. But their physicality is rewarded and ours is penalized time after time. I’m just really disappointed. Just really disappointed. The two technicals, you gotta make a stand for your guys.”

The qualms about officiating, however fierce, were just a shroud for the issues that actually impaled the Pacers at Madison Square Garden. They saw another chance to steal a game in New York slip away. Haliburton had 34 points and nine assists and it wasn’t enough. Obi Toppin dropped 20 and outscored the Knicks bench all by himself, and it was in a loss. T.J. McConnell pestered the Knicks for 10 points and 12 assists and it was in vain.

The Knicks played the final 15:32 of the first half without Brunson, who went to the locker room with a sore right foot. They played the last 15:27 of the game without OG Anunoby as he tended to a sore left hamstring after scoring 28 points. They haven’t had Julius Randle since January. Mitchell Robinson is out for the playoffs. Bojan Bogdanović had surgery after Game 4 in the first round.

Yet, the Knicks kept reanimating; a whole team built of spunk and an adamantium skeleton. Brunson scored 29 points, with 24 coming in the second half. Josh Hart played 48 minutes again and dropped 19 points, 15 rebounds and seven assists. Donte DiVincenzo had 28. The Knicks shot 57 percent from the floor and outhustled the Pacers for loose balls and rebounds on repeat.

“It’s frustrating to see a six-man rotation and guys are playing 40-plus minutes,” McConnell said. “We just, like I said, have to try to continue to make things tough on them and get them to exert as much energy as possible. But New York’s a really good basketball team, really well coached and obviously in great shape.”

Indiana, the NBA’s second-best offense this season, was outworked and outgunned. Its 10-point halftime lead disappeared quickly in the third, after being outscored by 10 in the second half of Game 1. The Knicks scored 130 points on 91 possessions – the 142.9 offensive rating was their third-highest all season — and ran roughshod over MSG. The Pacers had played faster all season, had more depth, and better health, but were the ones who wilted again in the second half.

Afterward, McConnell was the one lamenting the lack of energy for his team. It seemed almost inconceivable. The Knicks have kept losing rotation players and gaining strength. The long minutes have been empowering instead of draining. The Pacers have not been able to keep up. Not in transition and not on the boards.

“If we don’t turn things up a bit, they can keep going,” McConnell said. “We’ve just got to be better as a collective, you know, energy-wise, protecting leads, and especially rebounding. You think you’ve got them boxed out, and they just keep going and going and going. We just have to flat-out be better.”

Now, the Pacers will try to solve their problems at home. Madison Square Garden had been uninviting — even Reggie Miller, in the arena and on the TNT broadcast for Game 2, caught some strays — but it wasn’t the building that drove them mad, it was the energy-rich Knicks.

Indiana was down 112-110 with 4:35 left but ran out of answers. Carlisle may have lashed out at the referees after the loss, but the Knicks’ four offensive rebounds in that stretch played a larger role in his misery.

It has left Indiana searching. The Pacers nearly beat the Knicks in Game 1, winning a half by beating New York at its own game. They stayed close in Game 2 until the fourth quarter, but the Knicks ran them out of New York on their terms.

Haliburton, unlike his head coach, had little acrimony for the officials. He pointed the fingers inward instead. He hoped for consistency from the referees, but, even more, he hoped the Pacers could have played better.

“We felt like we should have won this game,” Haliburton said. “Felt like we should have won last game. But I feel like the way playoffs work — obviously it’s only my second series — but I feel like once you start to sit on ‘Damn, we should have won that game,’ it’s gonna mess you up moving forward. Everything happens for a reason. I’m not really trippin’. We gotta be better in Gam3  and we will be better in Game 3. They always say series don’t start until the road team wins; we’re going back to Indy and obviously we love our chances there.”

(Photo of Rick Carlisle: Elsa / Getty Images)