Knicks 111, Pacers 94: Don’t wake up
A wire-to-wire win keeps the season alive
If, before last night’s Game 5 of the Knicks/Pacers conference finals, someone asked you, “Which of the following is most likely to occur?”, which would you have chosen?
Tyrese Haliburton will score as many buckets as Landry Shamet
MSG will break out a “LAN-DRY SHA-MET” chant in the second half
No Knick will play more than 36 minutes
“All of the above” wasn’t an option; why would it be? And yet all occurred in New York’s 111-94 win, keeping the series and season alive at least until Saturday’s Game 6. The Knicks are in feral mode, fighting to survive; this is home to them, the darkness that molded them. The Pacers are strangers in a foreign land, trying to kill off a desperate and really quite good team, for once one that isn’t injury-plagued (knock on wood). Fourth win’s always the hardest. Even harder when the opponent features someone you have no answer for.
Haliburton has hit the highest heights this round with his Game 4 effort, but Jalen Brunson has been more consistently high-level. A lot of the talk going into last night was Brunson being a net negative over the course of the series. Aaron Nesmith seems on the verge of getting a statue for his defense. All Brunson did was come out smoking, shoot a perfect 5-of-5 when defended by Nesmith and finish the night with one fewer bucket than Indiana’s starting five. For those too young to have seen the 1999 ECF, he even threw in a memorable 4-point play for them to call their own.
Dealing with Brunson is hard enough, but as it turns out the Knicks feature a second someone the Pacers have no answer for. Karl-Anthony Towns went into the night questionable with knee pain and ended it unquestionably elevated in the hearts of Gothamites. Julius Randle’s injuries the past few seasons meant the Knicks never had a consistent playoff complement to Brunson. They do now, and then some: KAT’s 17 and 10 in the first half got the Pacers woozy, setting them up for Brunson’s 18-point second-half TKO.
One reason the Knicks’ leading scorers were both so impactful was because of how often they were separated. Indiana can’t stop Brunson or Towns, not defensively, but if ever a team subscribed to “The best defense is a good offense” it’s this one. The Pacers “stop” the dynamic duo with their sinister, seductive siren song – Hey, you like shooting? Scoring? Same! Come run with us! Before you know it, they’ve dropped a hundred threes on a defense that’s huffing and puffing, suffocating as the withering tempo squeezes the life outta them.
But the Knicks, contrary to what you hear down by the docks, sometimes actually do make adjustments. Don’t believe me?
You’d have thought that coming into an elimination game, Tom Thibodeau would play his two leading scorers at least 96 combined minutes. Try 70, only a handful more than Haliburton and Pascal Siakam did in a game they trailed wire-to-wire. The Knicks bench proved the wisdom in the ancient words of Meat Loaf: “two out of three ain’t bad.” After a heroic Game 3 effort and one less so in Game 4, Shamet, Deuce McBride, Delon Wright and Precious Achiuwa reminded the world the Knicks aren’t just pretty; there’s depth there, too. Shamet was especially spicy, especially on the defensive end. I have never been more surprised or pleased by any sentence I’ve ever written.
I didn’t include Josh Hart with the bench kudos not because he doesn’t deserve any, but because Hart deserves a special mention here. For this entire series, whenever he’s gotten the ball and pushed up the floor, he’s voluntarily stopped. I don’t think he went end-to-end once the first four games. Hart’s bouts of reticence to shoot are a feature, not a bug, though in the past those always seemed to be halfcourt issues, where he’d suddenly quit taking threes, or looking for looks at all. But his 90-foot pushes are a critical part of the Knicks’ game and one of the defining aspects of his. ¿Que paso?
I’ve figured this had to be philosophical, a team decision, e.g. the Pacers are lethal at higher speeds, and if you miss on a break they’ve got numbers and momentum; even if you score on the break, Indiana’s faster after giving up a make than most teams that run are after forcing a miss. Maybe the Knicks and Hart felt unless he 100% knows he’s good for a lay-up, he’s better off pulling it back. Spoiler: he’s not. Last night Hart finally looked like Hart again, pressuring the Pacers by pressuring the rim, and it paid off. I hope whatever’s been bugging him got the bug out, and that he continues to feature that aggression. Bennedict Mathurin has suddenly gone nuclear as a bench scorer for Indiana. The Knicks could use a rising sun of their own.
The stars are lined up right in place for the Knicks to comeback, win the series, reach the Finals and even avenge the three prior Thibs teams that came up short. In 2021 the Knicks lost Game 5 at home to Atlanta, a series so surprisingly one-sided it stained what had otherwise been a lowercase-d dream season. The 2025 Knicks may have faced a similar fate had they fallen last night. Imagine the chatter today. Will Thibs be fired? Do they have to give up on Brunson/Towns already? Is Haliburton the new Trae Young? Blecch. Sickening, all. Fortunately, not our fate.
Two years ago the Knicks went on the road for Game 6, trailing Miami 3-2. They never gave up but never really threatened to win that night. Tomorrow in Indianapolis they face another Game 6, once again down 3-2. I wished with all my heart two years ago for a miracle; I didn’t think they’d beat the Heat, maybe more I didn’t think the Heat would lose. The Pacers could 100% win Saturday. They’ll be favored. Their non-stars should play better. But they could also 100% lose. The Knicks have already won twice in their building this year, including in this series. These Knicks are built for this. When you back them up against the wall, you end up fighting the wall, too.
History says the hardest win is the closeout win. Haliburton seems to live for linking himself to Reggie Miller, but those who selectively interpret history are doomed to repeat it: the first time Miller’s Pacers were this close to the Finals, up 3-2 in 1994, they came up short. And in 1995. And 1998. And 1999. It wasn’t till their fifth stab at it that they finally made it. The Knicks are going to get the Pacers’ best punch tomorrow night. If they can take it and throw their best, we’ll be back at the Garden for Game 7, a win away from the impossible dream. Just a little longer, don’t wake up.
