NEW YORK — One game after the New York Knicks blew a historic playoff lead with three minutes to go and lost, they had a chance to make some magic of their own Friday.
Down 10 points to the Indiana Pacers with just under three minutes to play, Jalen Brunson and his team chipped away, trimming the deficit to just one in the final 20 seconds.
But ultimately there wasn’t enough magic for the Knicks. Brunson misfired badly on what would have been a long, tying 3 with eight seconds to go and the Knicks slipped 114-109 at Madison Square Garden to fall into a 2-0 hole in the Eastern Conference finals.
The series heads to Indiana for Game 3 on Sunday night.
Even with the comeback, Brunson and the Knicks spent most of their postgame interviews talking about how their lack of focus on defense did them in.
“Obviously they do a really good job of moving the ball and forcing you into mistakes, and we have to be more sound defensively to guard the first action, second action, but also the third action,” Knicks wing Josh Hart said. “We’re down 0-2, and now we’re going to a tough place to play — Indiana — so we’ve got to go and fix it. We can’t have blown coverages, no matter how late it is in the shot clock.”
Hart said the team’s defensive breakdowns late in the game were especially costly because they happened while the Knicks tried to mount their comeback.
“In the playoffs, a lot of games are determined by a possession or two,” he said. “Two games in a row, we [made those mistakes]. We’ve got to figure it out.”
The Knicks had no answer for Indiana’s Pascal Siakam, who exploded for 39 points on just 23 shot attempts, and they also struggled to defend the 3-pointer, with the Pacers making 13 of 30 attempts (43%).
For the second game in a row, the Pacers were particularly effective when Karl-Anthony Towns was defending. They shot 50% from outside (9-for-18) when Towns was on the court compared with 33.3% (4-for-12) when he was off it.
For the series, Indiana is shooting almost 48% (21-of-44) from deep with Towns on and just 30% (7-for-23) with him on the bench. Towns took an extended seat on the bench as New York made up ground without him Friday night.
Seemingly whenever the Knicks turned up the pressure by sending a second defender at Tyrese Haliburton or T.J. McConnell, Indiana made them pay by finding someone open on the backside. And those looks were often 3-pointers, particularly to begin the fourth period. The score was tied after three quarters, but three minutes into the fourth, the Pacers were up by nine.
“The rotations weren’t there [defensively], and we need to be doing more to help each other out,” said Brunson, who had a team-high 36 points.
The Knicks’ starting five also struggled for the second straight game, getting outscored by 13 points after being outscored by 16 in Game 1. Overall in the postseason, the Knicks’ starters have been outscored by 50 points, remarkable for a club just four wins away from an NBA Finals berth.
Asked about the possibility of changing the starting five, coach Tom Thibodeau said he will search every possibility to find a Game 3 win in Indiana.
Backup center Mitchell Robinson, a far more nimble defender than Towns on the perimeter, gave the Knicks great minutes early. After averaging 20 minutes this postseason, Robinson played 16 minutes in the first half alone in Game 2.
But Robinson looked as if he ran out of steam after his massive block of a Haliburton shot attempt with just under eight minutes left. On the play, Robinson landed awkwardly and appeared to tweak his ankle. He finished with 6 points, 9 rebounds and 3 blocks in 29 minutes.
Regardless of what lineup Thibodeau uses in Game 3, the Knicks know they have to bring their best to avoid falling into a 3-0 hole.
When asked about defending the Pacers and whether it requires more mental sharpness from the Knicks, Brunson said it does, but that none of that matters now.
“I guess, yeah. But we’re in the conference finals,” he said. “Nothing else matters right now. We have a game every other day. We’re playing in a high-stakes moment. The mental focus — everything — has to be there. There’s no question about it at this point.”
