By Eddie Castro
In what was quite the hostile environment Sunday night in Indiana, the New York Knicks needed to have a Game 7-like performance to keep their championship hopes alive after dropping the first two games at Madison Square Garden. Going into Sunday’s contest, the Knicks had a win-loss record of 0-9 in playoff games at Indiana.
After Game 2, Coach Tom Thibodeau needed to figure out a way to contain this Pacers team who are one of the best teams when it comes to fast break points. Coach Thibs elected to start Mitchell Robinson over Josh Hart to create more of a defensive balance and add more size in their front court.
In the first half, the Pacers were in the driver’s seat to deliver a knock out blow to the Knicks as New York found themselves trailing a game by 20 points. However, as Knick fans know all too well this postseason, being down by 20 isn’t such a big mountain to climb from is it? Yet again in the second half of the game, the Knicks were able to make the adjustments to overcome another double-digit comeback led by the heroics of Karl Anthony-Towns.
The Knicks outscored the Pacers 36-20 in the fourth quarter in which Towns scored 20 of them in the fourth matching Indiana’s entire output in the quarter. The Knicks became just the third team since 1998 to overcome three 20-point comebacks in a single postseason run.
The difference in the first and second halves was New York’s ability to turn it up on defense. In the first half, the Pacers shot 51 percent from the field. In the second half, the Pacers shot just 36.8 percent.
The Knicks ability to step up defensively ultimately led to them tapping in offensively shooting 50 percent from the field in the final 24 minutes of the game. This all occurred with Jalen Brunson being in foul trouble most of the second half and having one of his worst postseason games going 6-for-18 from the field.
As we go to press, there will be two outcomes to this playoff series by next week’s column. One is the Pacers were able to counter and adjust from their second half meltdown and take a commanding 3-1 series lead, or we would see both teams winning two games each on the road as the series heads back to Madison Square Garden for what will be an instant classic Game 5.
Do the Knicks have enough fight in them to crawl back and tie the series? Will Tom Thibodeau stay with Mitchell Robinson alongside Towns? We will see it all unfold in the coming days!
Sports Notes: (Baseball) The New York Mets welcome the Colorado Rockies to Citi Field to begin a three-time set tonight.
The Yankees have an off day today. The team will head to Los Angeles in hopes of getting revenge as the team begins a three-game set against the Dodgers, a rematch of last year’s World Series match up.
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