Jalen Brunson has the award voted to the NBA’s best clutch player and landed the endorsement of Reggie Miller, one of basketball’s famed finishers. He had earned the reputation as the league’s top closer in this postseason.

Tyrese Haliburton might be seizing that the same way the Indiana Pacers seized Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals away from the New York Knicks.

With three memorable shots in nearly impossible-to-imagine comeback victories, Haliburton has become the heir apparent to Miller as the Pacers’ man of the (last) moment and has them three wins from the NBA Finals.

“He’s a special talent, he’s a special person and he continues to amaze me every time,” Pacers teammate Aaron Nesmith said.

Game 2 is tonight, when Brunson and the host Knicks will have to show they can come back from the type of devastating defeat that Milwaukee and Cleveland couldn’t in the previous two rounds.

New York led by 14 points with 2:45 remaining in regulation Wednesday. The Pacers rallied to tie it on Haliburton’s long 2-pointer that bounced high off the back off the rim and fell in as time expired, a shot he initially thought was a winning 3-pointer when he ran toward the crowd and emulated the choke signal Miller flashed to Spike Lee three decades earlier during an Indiana playoff victory.

Teams leading by at least 14 points in the final 2:45 of the fourth quarter had been 994-0 in the postseason since detailed play-by-play began being kept in 1997-98. But no lead seems safe against these Pacers, no matter what history says.

They trailed Milwaukee 118-111 with 40 seconds left in Game 5 in the first round, only to pull out a 119-118 series-ending victory on Haliburton’s layup with 1.4 seconds remaining. They fell behind Cleveland 119-112 with 48 seconds to play, but stunned the top seeds 120-119 in Game 2 of that series when Haliburton grabbed the rebound of his own missed free throw, dribbled back behind the arc and nailed a 3-pointer.

Teams trailing by seven or more in the final 50 seconds of the fourth quarter or overtime in the playoffs are 4-1,702 in the play-by-play era. Haliburton has led the Pacers to three of those wins in the last month.

“I think for me the biggest thing is I already have the confidence to take the shot in that moment, but I have the confidence from my group,” Haliburton said. “My group wants me to take those shots, my coaching staff wants me to take those shots, I think our organization wants me to take those shots. I think now we’re at the point where our fans want me to take that shot.”

That’s the way the Knicks and their fans feel about Brunson. He led the NBA during the regular season in baskets during clutch situations — defined as when the score differential is within five or fewer points, and the game is in either the final five minutes of the fourth quarter or in overtime — and has scored a league-high 96 points in the fourth quarter during the playoffs.

NUGGETS REMOVE INTERIM TAG FROM ADELMAN

The Denver Nuggets have taken the interim tag off David Adelman, making him their head coach after he took over on the eve of the playoffs and led them into the second round.

Nuggets boss Josh Kroenke said Thursday that he was proud of the work Adelman did and the way the team rallied around his leadership.

Adelman replaced Michael Malone last month. Under Adelman, the Nuggets won their last three regular-season games to avoid the NBA’s play-in, dispatched the Clippers in seven games and took the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder to the brink in the semifinals only to get beaten 125-93 Sunday.

Kroenke said he’s going to take more time to decide about a general manager to replace Calvin Booth, who was fired the same time Malone was let go. Ben Tenzer has served as interim GM.