INDIANAPOLIS — They have flirted with disaster so often these past six weeks. They have won three games when they trailed by at least 20 points. They have lost five of the eight games they’ve played at Madison Square Garden. Tuesday, with an opportunity to square the Eastern Conference finals at 2-2, they were incorrigibly sloppy, inexplicably soft.

So this is no mere flirtation any longer.

This is the zero hour.

The Pacers throttled the Knicks 130-121, all of them clinging to the shoulders of Tyrese Haliburton, whose father returned from exile just in time to see his son deliver a 32-point, 12-rebound, 15-assist, zero-turnover masterpiece that takes its place on the shelf alongside any playoff tour de force you’d like to mention.