NEW YORK — Throughout this postseason, the Knicks have struggled mightily to set the tone to begin games.
That was the case in the early stages of their three 20-point comeback victories in these playoffs, with New York falling behind before digging out of deep holes. And it has generally been the case in this conference finals matchup with the Indiana Pacers, who carried a 3-1 lead into Madison Square Garden for Thursday’s Game 5.
But with the team facing elimination, the Knicks finally got the start they wanted.
Led by All-NBA guard Jalen Brunson, who scored the game’s first three baskets and had 14 first-quarter points, New York held down the rival Pacers for a wire-to-wire victory, 111-94, to force Game 6 in Indianapolis on Saturday night.
Brunson was dominant from the jump, hitting six of his first seven shot attempts in the opening period en route to a game-high 32 points. But it was his willingness to compete harder on defense and slow down Tyrese Haliburton that stood out the most for many of his teammates.
Haliburton was coming off a Game 4 showing in which he became the first player in NBA postseason history to notch 30 points, 15 assists, 10 rebounds and zero turnovers. Afterward, Brunson, who’d been targeted by Indiana all series, acknowledged that he needed to be more impactful on defense in order for the Knicks to stand a chance in the series.
On Thursday, he was. Haliburton, finding fewer gaps in the Knicks’ defense, finished with just eight points and six assists. And without their offensive motor finding his typical rhythm, the Pacers were out of sorts, too, committing 20 turnovers, their highest total this postseason.
“We don’t need him to be a lockdown defender or anything like that,” Knicks forward Josh Hart said. “We just need him to go out there and play physical, with intensity and not foul. It’s really just a competitive thing, an ego thing, of, like, ‘OK, I’m gonna guard my yard.’ It’s having pride. I think he did that [tonight]. And we need him to do it in Indiana.”
Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said stopping Haliburton was a collective effort.
“I thought our guys were tied together in making [Haliburton] work for everything,” Thibodeau said. “That’s what you have to do.”
It wasn’t a coincidence that New York’s second win of the series came with them holding the up-tempo Pacers below 100 points.
The Knicks were never truly in danger on Thursday night, but there was one brief hurdle they had to show they could overcome.
Center Karl-Anthony Towns, who finished with 24 points and 13 rebounds despite dealing with a left-knee injury he suffered toward the end of Game 4, had foul trouble in the second half. As such, Thibodeau plugged in center Mitchell Robinson to replace him.
But Pacers coach Rick Carlisle, needing to give his team some momentum, ordered his players to intentionally foul Robinson to send him to the free throw line, where he is a career 52.2% shooter. During that stretch, the Pacers trimmed what had been a 20-point deficit to 10 in the third period.
Yet Brunson and his teammates responded quickly with a 12-0 run of their own to take a game-high 22-point edge. For once, it left the Knicks with something of a normal finish in a playoff victory.
For Brunson and many of his teammates, that stemmed from their good start to the game.
“I’m just happy with the way we responded, honestly. We came out and had some energy to the way we played,” Brunson said. “I’m very proud of what we did, and we have to try to replicate it in the first quarter of the next game.”
#Brunson #Towns #Knicks #alive #force #Game #Pacers
